Wow, once again I managed to get this out a bit earlier than expected. Granted, a few things did keep me occupied for a time, but still, wow.

Well, I won't bore you guys with anything in this AN other than that I will, as always, be trying to get the next chapter out within a reasonable timeframe, regardless of my classes.

… Wait, actually there is one thing of note; I'm already trying to think of my next major fic, once I get this one done first, of course. While I plan to eventually make a poll of this on my profile (probably once I'm about halfway done with The God Slaying Wolf here), I'd like to first get some opinions on this first:

Once I'm done with this fic, what would you guys like for me to do next? Would you prefer I do the 2nd season to my Tenjho Tenge/Kenichi the Mightiest Disciple fic, To Fight a God? Would you like me to make a sequel (and by that, I mean a full-blown fic, NOT a simple one-shot) to my Devil May Cry/Triage X one-shot, Labeling a Devil? Or would you like for me to do something else (note: in all likelihood, it'd be another Naruto crossover and a god-like Naruto at that too. Just to warn you guys in advance)?

Here it is, guys. Hope you enjoy!

Chapter 9

Nobuo walked slowly as he carefully pushed forward his young charge in her wheelchair. Although the wheelchair had been built specifically for the wheels of it to hold up against the toughness of the dirt road it was now on, the young man felt it best to avoid damaging as much as possible.

Seated in the wheelchair, his young charge, Tomoko, was smiling happily. "Ah, Nobuo-san, the sun feels so good," she commented, enjoying the sunlight and the nice breeze.

"Indeed," Nobuo replied, a wiry smile of his own.

The two of them had just set out a little over an hour ago from the inn and were now making slow, but steady progress towards the fire daimyo's palace for the banquet. Nobuo would've preferred to move a bit faster than this, but right now there were people traversing the same path as the two of them were, some heading in the same general direction as them while others went in the opposite direction. As was the norm for him, many of the people were seemingly unaware of his presence while a select few took notice and flinched, moving away from the young man.

He suppressed a sigh; he couldn't very well do as he pleased with people around, even if it was now only a few stragglers. The last thing he wanted was for people to see what he can do, even if only marginally. No choice but to wait a while.

"Nobuo-san," Tomoko said.

"Yes, ojou-sama?" His gaze never left the path before them.

"Do you think there will be anyone there at the banquet that will be around my age?" the young girl asked, a bit excited. Being rather sickly, she cherished the brief times she interacted with others around her age. However, whenever she attended any formal events such as the banquet she was about to attend, there were rarely any kids around, mainly just people over the age of 25 or so.

"Most likely," the young and darkly dressed man answered. "If I recall correctly, the fire daimyo has a daughter, roughly around the age of 19. I'm certain that she would be an ideal person to talk to."

Tomoko nodded. "I see. I do hope she's nice," she said, now looking forward to the banquet a bit more.

"I'm sure she is, ojou-sama." Nobuo assured her as best and briefly as he could. The thinnest of smiles appeared on his face as the minutes passed on by and little by little, the few people that had been on the road made their own detours, off to destinations that weren't his concern.

This was something that wasn't lost on Tomoko either. "Nobuo-san, do you plan to…?" she started.

Her guardian nodded. "Yes." It was time for him to finally use his Shadow Walker.

"Gate open," he whispered.

As soon as the words left his mouth, a shadowy aura suddenly appeared, blanketing him and by extension, Tomoko as well. Just as he turned the wheelchair to his right, towards a tree, Nobuo suddenly paused and whirled around.

"Hmmm…" The shadowy aura still remained as he proceeded to look around.

"Nobuo-san?" Tomoko appeared confused by the sudden stop. "Is something wrong?"

"…No," he said several seconds later. "It's nothing, I suppose."

From a few miles away, Takehiko watched from amidst several trees as Nobuo redirected his attention back to what he was doing before. The young boy watched, somewhat fascinated, as Nobuo and Tomoko literally melted into the shadow of the tree as they approached it.

"Well, that was a bit close," the boy said aloud with a smirk. He honestly hadn't expected Nobuo to be able to sense him from so far away. Truly, the young man was much sharper than he appeared to be.

But close call aside, Takehiko was rather pleased. He hadn't really bothered to keep track of the participants yesterday, but today when he bothered to, he had been most surprised and happy to see that a number of them were almost in the exact same place. It would seem that his idea to wait a few days before activating Ai Space again was going to pay off.

"A shame that Katsu is still out on a mission, but no matter; he's not actually needed right now," the young and arrogant magus thought. And while he didn't say anything aloud about it, he hoped that during the next magi battle, that blond son of the hokage would be taken out. He had the feeling that if something wasn't done soon about that guy, things may take a turn for the worst.

"Only time will tell about that, I suppose…" he eventually conceded. Then, in the blink of an eye, Takehiko was gone.

Back at the fire daimyo's palace, there was a rather interesting development going on, one that a number of the servants and guards there were talking about not-so-subtly: Masami, the sole daughter of the fire daimyo himself, was showing someone around the palace. And not just anyone, but a teenaged boy… that happened to be the son of the hokage.

"Errrr…." Naruto felt very uncomfortable as he walked alongside his team's charge. He could almost literally feel the stares of passing by servants and it was getting very unnerving. Such was the intensity of their gazes.

"Is something wrong, Naruto-kun?" Masami asked him.

"Not really…" he started, scratching the back of his head. "Just kind of odd how everyone here is so focused on us…"

Masami smiled, making his heart skip a beat due to its radiance. "Ah, I see. I suppose that is to be expected; I rarely show anyone around the palace, you see."

"Right." Naruto looked around as the two of them walked. "I guess that makes sense," he remarked casually. He had been rather surprised at how easily Masami warmed up to him and the others yesterday and was even further surprised when earlier this morning, she had approached him specifically, with the request that he allow himself to be personally shown about by her. He knew that it was important to know every inch of the place in case of an attack, but still, being led around by the fire daimyo's daughter herself had been unexpected. Especially at how relaxed she appeared to be around him.

"Maybe because of how casually I speak?" he thought. That was the only thing that made sense to him. After all, it must be tiring having to put up with the formal speech of all the nobles, so speaking so casually might be a nice change of pace for her. Though he supposed he could be wrong.

"Moving on, here is…" Masami began, showing him yet another room.

They went throughout the palace, looking it over from one end to the other. Every now and then as he was shown about, Naruto would make a comment or two, sometime eliciting a brief laugh out of Masami, much to the surprise of both Naruto himself and the servants and guards. The former was surprised by how refined the laugh sounded, having not known such a thing was possible, while the servants and guards were being continually surprised by how relaxed the fire daimyo's daughter appeared to be.

It was roughly a little more than half an hour later that they finished. "So may I ask for your opinion on the palace?" Masami finally asked.

"It's pretty big," Naruto said wirily. "But seriously, it seems like a lot of ground to cover…" He sighed. If someone did try to attack anyone at the banquet, there were a few good places that a potential assassin could slip in from. Thankfully, it seemed like the guards were trained well enough to be watching over the riskier areas. So ultimately, it came down to him, Ryuichi, Miki, and Hanako having to keep a look out for only three or so other areas.

"Hmm." Masami nodded. "I expected as much myself. Still, I have confidence in your skills and in your companions as well."

The blond magus grinned. "Thanks. I'll be sure to pass that along to them too." Then he paused, looking sheepish. "And sorry too, about Hanako earlier. She can be kind of… overly energetic."

Earlier when Masami had come to fetch him, Hanako had been there and almost ran over the two of them as she moved towards them, eager to come along and explore the rest of the palace. Thankfully, the humanoid magical weapon, while certainly bursting with energy, was still able to restrain herself enough to not accidentally touch something and break it. And just halfway through the tour, she took off towards the kitchen to get something to eat apparently.

Naruto bristled a bit. "Now that I think of it, does she remember the way to the kitchen?" He thought this with a small amount of worry. There was just no telling what his magical weapon would get up to if left alone.

"Oh, don't worry." Masami chuckled a bit. "If you think I take offense to your friend, you're wrong, Naruto-kun. In fact, I find Hanako-san's attitude to be quite refreshing."

"Oh… okay." Naruto sighed in relief.

"I could also say the same about you," Masami then said, looking directly into his eyes.

"O-Oh? That so?" Naruto nearly flinched back; Masami's gaze was surprisingly intense and he was getting a strange vibe right now. Also didn't help that a nearby guard – off-duty, judging by how lax he looked along with the small loaf of bread in his hand – was now watching the two of them with widened eyes, having apparently heard Masami's words.

"Yes." Masami's gaze softened. "You're the first person I've met to ever speak to me so casually. It's… nice."

"So I was right…" Naruto thought. Still, he was a bit embarrassed now by how… grateful, he supposed, the fire daimyo's daughter looked right now.

"Would you care for something to eat?" Masami then said half a minute later. "If I recall correctly, your teammates have decided to cook for themselves and several of my father's staff."

"Huh? Yes, sure." Naruto was a bit taken aback by the sudden change in topic, but agreed nonetheless.

"Then please, come." Masami then did something that never would've been expected of her by anyone and intertwined her left arm with Naruto's right. This earned a sputter of surprise out of the blond while also making the eating guard nearly drop his bread. A few other servants that had been passing by at that exact moment nearly tripped and now all eyes were on the two teens again. "I believe that it's common manners for a man to escort a lady at times. Can I rely on you to know your way back to kitchen and lead us there?" She smiled brilliantly.

Naruto didn't bother with an actual verbal reply and instead just nodded and proceeded to start walking back to the kitchen with Masami at his side and all eyes of the passing by servants still on him. Oh yes, this was definitely going to be an interesting mission.

Speaking of the kitchen, Ryuichi and Miki were currently there, making themselves and a handful of others breakfast. Miki was in charge of preparing the ingredients while Ryuichi was the cook. The reason why was that he was the best cook out of the team, due to living on his own for years. Naruto was the 2nd best cook of team and was a close 2nd to Ryuichi. Miki was the worst cook out of the three of them, but that was relative only to them; she was far from what many would deem a 'lethal chef.'

"I wonder how Yuko-chan is doing…" Miki thought absently as she handed Ryuichi the prepared ingredients, humming as she did so. Though she had only met the red eyed girl and interacted with her for less than a day, the two of them had gotten along well enough and promised to try and hang out some more whenever she and her team returned from this mission.

She had yet to tell Ryuichi and Naruto about Yuko.

"Alright, that's cooking now, so we just have to wait," Ryuichi commented a minute later.

"Okay," Miki replied. Then she changed the subject. "Kind of surprising how Masami-san asked Naruto-kun to accompany her earlier though…"

Ryuichi chuckled and then grinned at his friend. The smallest of a teasing gleam in his eyes could be spotted. "Miki… would you happen to be jealous or something?"

The reaction was immediate. "W-What?! No! N-Not at all!" she sputtered out with a red face.

The black haired magus just laughed. So did a few of the servants that moved through the kitchen. This only served to make Miki blush even more.

It was at that moment that the doors to the kitchen swung open. "Ryuichi-san, Miki-chan!" Hanako called out as she walked in. She then smiled as she spotted the two. "Ah, there you are!"

"Ah, Hanako-chan," Miki said, eager to change the topic. Ryuichi noticed this, but decided not to comment. He just smiled victoriously. "Is something wrong?"

Hanako pouted. "I'm hungry.~" She whined childishly.

"A-Ah." Both Ryuichi and Miki smiled a little awkwardly at how Hanako looked. The humanoid magical weapon acted so much like a child outside of serious situations.

"Well, I just started cooking, so you'll have to wait a bit…" Ryuichi explained.

"Eh? Really?" Hanako asked. At Ryuichi's nod, she smiled a bit. "Oh, okay.~ For a second, I had been thinking you guys haven't done anything yet…" Then her eyes lit up. "Say, what about Master? Does he plan to eat with us too?"

"Naruto-kun? I think so," Miki answered, albeit unsurely. She could only imagine what Naruto and Masami were doing.

Hanako fell silent. Immediately, Ryuichi and Miki began to worry. If they have learned one thing during their brief time knowing Hanako so far, it was that something bad was bound to happen to one of them – in all likelihood, happen to Naruto – whenever she was silent and thinking.

Sure enough, they were right. "Say, guys!" Hanako said in a very upbeat voice. "I have a great idea! How about I cook something for Master?"

The two of the magi exchanged a look. This didn't seem that bad an idea…

"Well…" Ryuichi began.

"If you really want to…" Miki continued. "But do you know how to cook, Hanako-chan?"

"Nope!" Hanako said with a smile. "Can you teach me, Miki-chan?"

Another look was shared between Ryuichi and Miki. Then they both looked back at Hanako and Miki smiled tentatively. "Sure. How about we go over to this stove… and just what do you want to cook for him?" she said as she led Hanako to the stove.

Hanako thought about that. "How about curry?"

Miki sighed in relief. That sounded easy enough. If Hanako turned out to be a bad cook, Miki doubted she could mess up curry that badly. "Curry. That's wonderful. Now let's start getting it prepared…"

Elsewhere in the palace, Naruto shivered.

Back in Konoha, Kushina was sitting on the couch in the Namikaze household's living room, all by herself. Minato was still at the hokage's office and Reiko along with the rest of Team 7 was off on a mission in Wave as of yesterday.

The redheaded mother, having just gotten back home from her own job as an Anbu instructor, could only sigh in melancholy as she looked at several of the pictures that had been framed and placed around the living room.

In all of the pictures, Naruto wasn't in them.

Kushina nearly started crying. "Just how could we have done this?" she thought aloud.

Much like her husband and daughter, Kushina had spent the days since Naruto's outburst at them in relative silence, thinking on her son's words. And the more she thought about it, the more she realized just how badly she and the rest of her family screwed up in regards to Naruto.

She sobbed. "Oh, Naruto, we're sorry…" It was now no wonder to her why Naruto had been so angry at her that day she saw Reiko all sad; having been pushed aside by her and Minato, he must have assumed that she had been angry at him and accusing him of making his sister upset.

Oh if only she could just go back in time and undo it all. She'd sell her soul if she thought it'd be able to try and mend the relationship – assuming they even had one in the first place – between Naruto and the family.

But alas, there was just no such thing as reversing time in her eyes. "… We have to try and make it up to him," Kushina thought, trying to pull herself out of her own funk.

Yes. That was exactly it. She, Minato, and Reiko couldn't simply wallow around in self-pity. If they wanted to be a whole family, then they were going to have to do something about it.

And if their efforts prove to be futile in the end, then so be it; at least they would be able to say that they tried.

Back at the fire daimyo's palace, Naruto and Masami had just entered the kitchen after a dozen or so minutes of walking.

They were greeted with a rather interesting sight: here and there throughout the kitchen, servants could be seen, looking rather disturbed by… something. And what's more is that, as the two of them walked further into the kitchen, they saw Ryuichi, Miki, and Hanako, each with a different expression on their face. The first two looked a little scared. Hanako looked proud.

"Oh my…" Masami commented ever so calmly. It appeared that Hanako had been using the stove and it was now a bit of a mess.

"Oh boy…" Naruto thought. Already, he had a bad feeling, but he couldn't quite place his finger on what.

Then his friends and magical weapon spotted him and Masami.

"Y-Yo, Naruto. Masami-san," Ryuichi weakly called out. He had just finished cooking, if the turned off stove before him with the sizzling pans of food atop it were anything to judge by.

"Hi, N-Naruto-kun. Masami-san," Miki greeted.

"Ah, Master!" Hanako called out happily enough. "I cooked a meal for you!" she said, seemingly ignoring Masami.

The blond magus blinked. "That so?" He saw his friends flinch at what Hanako said. A few of the servants still around appeared rather pale as well right now.

"Yeah, come here and try it.~" Hanako said. She reached for a plate and proceeded to place some of the curry she made on it. "Here you go, Master.~"

Naruto and Masami eyed the food. Both of them also saw the servants take a step away from the humanoid magical weapon, as if she were toxic or something. Neither of them could understand why; the curry looked okay.

"Naruto-kun?" Masami whispered to him. "Do you really plan to try it?" she asked of him, as she noticed that several seconds later, Naruto had yet to move.

"Huh?" Naruto looked at her. "O-Oh. Yeah."

He started to step forward and reach out for the plate of curry, but stopped when his best friends suddenly moved forward. "No, wait!" both of them cried out in perfect unison.

Startled into taking a step back, Naruto regarded the two with a questioning look. "…What?"

"Eh, what you two doing?" Hanako asked, curious and confused over their sudden action.

Ryuichi smiled tentatively. "O-Oh, you see, Naruto, it's just that since Hanako-chan is new to cooking, she forgot to test the taste just now…" he began.

Miki nodded along vehemently. "T-That's right!"

"Oh, I'm supposed to taste it myself first?" Hanako asked, tilting her head to the right as she spoke. She still held the plate of curry with her right hand. "But it's for Master though, so why should I taste it first? It's for him, after all."

"Urk." Both Ryuichi and Miki couldn't help but actually twitch at that. Amazingly, it would seem that Hanako had a bit of a point.

Hanako proceeded to try and hand the plate to Naruto… only for Miki to suddenly grab the plate. "H-How about I take a quick bite first? Just to test it and make sure it's okay?" she said.

Her hands trembled a bit though and with reason; when she had first started showing Hanako the process of cooking curry, the humanoid magical weapon had started out well enough. But once she got really into the process of cooking it…. Miki shivered.

Naruto remained silent. So did Masami and everyone else. They all just watched in confusion (well, Naruto and Masami did) as Miki proceeded to use a fork to scoop up some curry and bring it up to her mouth… only to stop mere inches away.

Miki literally started shaking where she stood and her eyes widened and teared up comically.

"H-Here…" She said nearly a minute later, handing the plate and fork to Naruto, still shaking.

"…Thanks…?" Naruto said unsurely as he accepted the plate and fork. Neither he nor Masami missed the way Miki looked so sad and ashamed. Nor did they miss the wince Ryuichi suddenly had along with the servants around them now watching Naruto with bated breath.

"Just what the hell is this? Some kind of soap opera?" Naruto thought in growing confusion at the scene. He then looked down at the curry. "Looks normal to me. Smells decent too…" he thought.

Shrugging, Naruto took a bite of the curry.

His reaction was immediate.

Eyes widening, Naruto nearly dropped the plate. "HOT, HOT, HOT!" he started exclaiming. By the biju! Just what the hell did Hanako put in that curry?! It felt like someone lit his tongue on fire with an S ranked fire jutsu! And that's not even including the actual spices and other weird tastes he was getting right now!

Ryuichi immediately grabbed hold of a jug of water and quickly handed it to his best friend, who accepted it without a second thought and proceeded to chug the whole thing.

It didn't work.

"Shit!" Naruto nearly hunched over, causing for all of the girls – Miki, Hanako, and Masami – to greatly worry, the former two being completely unsure of what to do.

"Naruto-kun/Master!" both Miki and Hanako cried out.

Naruto ignored their cries. "Damn it, why won't it stop burning?!" he thought. He was feeling unbelievably tempted to use Da Capo on himself to see if it'd work.

However, it proved to be unneeded as it was at that exact moment, Masami headed to the nearest storage room and returned very quickly with what appeared to be tea.

"Naruto-kun, please drink this," she said as she handed him the tea.

Doing as she told, the blond magus hastily grabbed it and drank it. His eyes, which had been wide and filled with shock and slight pain, visibly relaxed as the tea proceeded to sooth his tongue. "Ahhhh…." He felt the tea, relatively strong in its own taste, lower greatly the temperature in his mouth while also washing down the dreaded tastes and spices of Hanako's curry.

As soon as he finished the tea, Naruto could literally feel his healing kick in, his damaged tongue restoring itself to its previous, completely unburned state. "T-Thank you, Masami-chan," he said gratefully. Then he all but glared at Hanako. "Just what the hell was that?!" he demanded.

All of the servants there watched with rapt attention as this all occurred. Naruto, Hanako, and the others didn't seem to notice nor care.

"Eh, I just wanted to cook for you, Master!" Hanako said, shrugging helplessly. "I don't know what went wrong!"

"She…" Miki began. "She started off fine at first, but then she got really excited and…" She trailed off, not looking at Naruto.

"What…?" Naruto began, but trailed off himself when Ryuichi moved towards the stove that Hanako had been using and opened up the cabinet that was beside it. Naruto looked inside and saw that there were more than 50 different kinds of spices in there and none of them would mix very well. He also saw that a number of the spice jars had been opened. "Ah…"

Silence.

Then Naruto looked at Hanako again. He sighed. "Thanks… I guess… for the meal…" he said. Hanako smiled happily. Ryuichi and Miki looked shocked that he would say that after having his tongue nearly scorched off. Then he continued. "But, from now on, I'm teaching you how to cook properly!"

"E-Ehhh?" Hanako lost her smile. "You'll teach me how to cook?"

"Damn right! And until I say so, you're not cooking by yourself!" he exclaimed, stomping his foot a bit.

"Ehhhh?! Why?!" Hanako cried out.

"Did you not just see what happened to me?! My tongue felt like it'd burn itself to a crisp!" Naruto shot back. He shivered. God, if Hanako had served food like that to anyone else… he shivered at such a thought. He wouldn't even wish that upon his family!

Hanako proceeded to start arguing with Naruto over cooking, with her master arguing back. The servants around them could only stare in equal parts amusement and surprise. Ryuichi and Miki just shared a sheepish glance with one another before the former started to get ready to eat. Masami simply chuckled at it all and watched as the blond magus and his magical weapon continued to argue.

"Truly, they are an interesting bunch," Masami thought. She definitely enjoyed their presence. Especially, Naruto's.

Elsewhere, in Konoha, Yuko was currently walking around the large village, enjoying the sights. However, there was quite a bit on her mind. "I'm fully healed and I've regained all of my mana," she thought.

Yes, as of sometime yesterday, the pain that she felt from Hanako's attack had fully subsided. All of the mana she had used up battling Naruto and his magical weapon has now returned. She was back to full strength.

"A good thing too; not sure if I would've survived in Ai Space if I wasn't at the top of my game…" She sighed as she continued to walk. It was quite a blessing that Ai Space hasn't shown up since then. To battle at anything less than full strength could be a very bad thing, after all.

However, she doubted she'll be this lucky in the future. "I'm going to have to fight smarter…" she muttered aloud, only loud enough for herself to hear and no one else.

Yes, during her battle with Naruto, while it had been rather one-sided at first in her favor, it had become apparent that Naruto held the definite edge in battle skill and experience. And now that he has awakened as a magus, he had the power advantage too, what with that unique magical weapon of his. And the mana he unleashed…

Yuko couldn't help but shudder. The amount of mana Naruto unleashed upon awakening had been unreal, far greater than anything she's ever felt before. Now it was without a doubt that the blond magus was going to potentially be her worst foe yet. And this saddened her.

"Naruto-kun…" Yuko was overcome with sadness. Why did the world seem to hate her? First, it had taken away her family and left her all alone. Then it tossed her into this demented – yet potentially beneficial, she had to grudgingly admit – ritual. And now, it turns out that after having made a new friend, and a boy at that too, she and he would eventually have to fight one day. And one of them would end up erased from existence. Assuming, of course, both of them survived to fight one another again.

A pained sigh escaped her pale lips. But Yuko's eyes were filled with a very grim determination. She'll soldier on through this twisted ritual, Ragnarok. She'll win if it's the last thing she does. And come hell or high water, she was going to fulfill her wish.

With that determined, Yuko continued to walk on. It was high time she learned some tricks to use in battle.

Back at the fire daimyo's palace, the fire daimyo sat in his main office, trying not to sigh as he went through many letters. All of the letters were from the people invited to the banquet, each one confirming for sure whether or not they would come and at what time they could be expected.

"Ah, the formalities never cease to bore me…" the man thought as he finished reading up on one of them.

"Daimyo-sama," a messenger then said, suddenly entering the room. "My apologies from intruding, but this just came in. It's from the wind daimyo."

"Ah." The daimyo put down the next letter he had been about to read and motioned for the messenger to hand him the wind daimyo's letter. "Thank you," he said before dismissing the man, who bowed before leaving.

Opening up the letter and reading it, the fire daimyo actually did sigh this time after finishing it. It would seem that the wind daimyo's path here had been obstructed just a tad bit, but he would be getting here just in time for the banquet; it was estimated in the letter that he'd arrive at the palace roughly an hour before it would officially start.

"That's certainly one good thing…" If there was one thing that the fire and wind daimyos had in common, it was that both of them, having ruled for so long, had both become quite tired of dealing with such formalities and politics. So when the two of them meet, it would end up being a time of relative peace as the two finally end up having a chance to relax a bit.

"Although, it certainly has become quite lively as of yesterday…" The fire daimyo, tired as he was, couldn't help but smile a bit.

It hadn't even been a full 24 hours, but already there was a noticeable change in the atmosphere of the palace thanks to his four new guests.

Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze, who brought with him to the palace a certain level of maturity and overall level-headedness that amazingly didn't seem at odds with his refreshingly relaxed and casual way of speaking. Though this was in all likelihood due to his close companion.

Thinking of her, Hanako was the main contributor to the shift in palace, her bubbly and energetic personality being truly a breath of fresh air for everyone here, her child-like wonder and glee being a most amusing sight to behold. And her interactions with Naruto, her master (the fire daimyo snickered a little at that), were just golden, even if it did appear to be at the expense of the blond.

Then there was Ryuichi Sumeragi, who, much like Naruto, was equal parts mature, respectful, yet casual all the same, albeit not as much as Naruto. The way he would get a little flustered during his very brief interactions with Masami made for a good laugh.

And then, Miki Tachibana. Ah yes, it was obvious even to the fire daimyo in his old age just how the girl felt about the young Namikaze. And he's only known her for barely an hour or so! The way she would be serious one moment and then oh so flustered the next was also a sight to see.

The fire daimyo chuckled. "I really lucked out in getting them to guard my daughter." Then the smile that had formed at that thought disappeared.

Masami.

Ah, how he loved his daughter. And on the one hand, he was quite happy to see that she appeared to be getting along quite well with their four guest, especially Naruto… but on the other hand, he was now worried for her; in one of the letters he had received earlier today, one that wasn't from any of his invited guests, but instead from someone that worked for him as a sort of spy, revealed to him that there may be a chance of several people trying to infiltrate the banquet and kill some of the guests.

It was all very hush-hush and the man hadn't known much anyway, but he had reported in the letter that there would at least be five or six people and almost twice that number at the most. He also reported that there was a decent chance that they may target his daughter and himself, along with another guest or two.

There was no clue as to who these potential and enigmatic attackers were nor to how they would pull off such a feat in the first place.

"My daughter's safety and the safety of the others… I place them in your hands, you four…" the fire daimyo muttered softly.

He leaned back in his seat for a moment. Then, composing himself, he slowly but surely got back to work.

Elsewhere, on a road to the fire daimyo's palace, Nobuo and Tomoko emerged from a shadow, undetected at all by anyone that may have been nearby.

Dismissing the shadowy aura that surrounded him, Nobuo proceeded to calmly push forth Tomoko in her wheelchair onto the dirt road that was directly to their left and walked down it as if what he had just done was nothing of note.

"We're almost there, ojou-sama," the young man said.

Tomoko nodded happily. "It's so wonderful how your Shadow Walker can travel such far distances so fast," she complimented.

"Yes." Nobuo allowed the smallest of smiles to flit across his face. He honestly hadn't been expecting to make this much progress in a brief timeframe. Normally, he would have had to wait longer for the area to be clear enough to use Shadow Walker without anyone watching. "We're almost there. If we take it easy, we can be at the fire daimyo's palace by sunset."

"Nn." Tomoko nodded. "That's great. And knowing tou-san, he'll probably be there sometime tonight or tomorrow. So let's surprise him with how fast we got there before him."

"Of course, ojou-sama," Nobuo replied. And with that, the two continued their trek towards the fire daimyo's palace.

And that's a wrap for this chapter!

Yeah, in a sense, this was sort of a filler chapter and I apologize if it bored you guys, but not to worry, action will definitely be coming up in the next few chapters.

Oh yeah, as usual, with this done, I'll be working on my side-project in addition to assignments and such for my classes, so it may be a few weeks or so before the next chapter is up. Possibly even more than a few weeks since very recently I bought the Guided Fate Paradox for my PS3 and I intend to take my time playing it… so I can't be sure if it'll also affect how often I write. But just like I mentioned last chapter, if something comes up that I know will cause me to take longer than usual to get my chapter up by a considerable amount of time, I'll definitely put something up on my profile/bio page to let you guys know.

As always, thanks so much for reading. And until next time!