AAAAAAANDD guess who boys and girls and any other life form that is reading this! Yes its me, the dragon is back!
Alright, alright, so thank you
SOOOOOO much to those that reviewed. I got to say it was a weird chapter in terms of feed back. I got 4 more favorite subscriptions and 3 subscriptions for alerts to the story after I posted it, but I only got 3 reviews which kinda had me confused considering that's about half of what I usually get.
PLEASE do leave a review. It helps me get inspiration to make more of the story going. More reviews make me want to write the story more. Any ideas or suggestions for the story are welcome too.
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Chapter 12: Recruiting time!
"... And remember, stay out of trouble." Kakashi finished telling Naruto and 2D as he started walking towards the door of their hotel room, "We'll be back as soon as we as the Elder has concluded his conference for the day."
"We get it Kakashi-sensei," Naruto said as he rolled his eyes at the copy-cat ninja. Seriously, what was he expecting him to do? Start a fire?
Kakashi briefly paused while he closed the door behind him and looked at Naruto and 2D meaningfully, and promptly proceeded to finish closing the door of the hotel room. Once he closed the door, Kakashi frowned as he felt a briefly lived chill run down his spine. Somehow, he had the feeling that something was going to happen. It was as if the soft smacking sound of closing that simple hotel door had acted as the hammer of a judge, finalizing some decree.
As far as Kakashi was concerned though, whether that was a good thing or a bad thing, that was up for debate. Not that he could do anything right now anyways, considering that the mission he and the non-vessel members of his team had at the moment allowed no deviation from punctuality (much to his disappointment), and therefore there wasn't anything else he could do.
So all that Kakashi could do was sigh as he joined the rest of the team just down the hall.
"Are you okay Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked, noting her sensei's out of place sigh.
"Don't worry about it," Kakashi replied as he reached and passed them, causing them to formed up behind him, following his lead, "It's probably nothing"
-I hope...- Kakashi added mentally to himself.
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Naruto and 2D had barely been five minutes alone before Naruto started to itch for something to do, passing back and forth across the room with a frown on his face, apparently in deep thought, while 2D sat on his bed cross legged and watched him walk back and forth across the hotel room.
"Sooo..." 2D began, "what are you thinking about?"
"I'm thinking what to do." Naruto replied without breaking stride, "we can't stay here ALL day! That would totally suck... You don't suppose we could use the training grounds, do you?"
2D scratches his cheek and squinted his eyes in thought, "Mmmm... I dunno... Couldn't that be dangerous? Like I mean, Kakashi said that some of these Kumo folk are really paranoid and some don't really like Konoha."
"Yeah, but so what?" Naruto asked with a snort, "It's not like we are going in looking for a fight, right?"
"But um..." 2D said uncertainly. Despite the fact that what his blonde friend said did in a way make sense, he still had his doubts. Couldn't their training and sparring be considered an display of power to intimidate Kumo...? Well... He supposed that that was a bit far fetched... Plus there would need to be someone watching them for that to happen anyways... "Well... I suppose we could."
"Great!" Naruto replied with a toothy smile, "Let's go then!"
Naruto turned around quickly and grabbed the keys to the apartment room that Kakashi left for them and tossed one to 2D, who caught it in mid air and put it in his pocket as he stood up to follow the whiskered blond ninja.
"Any idea where we are going?" 2D asked as they walked down the bridge that led towards the east side of the village, noticing the variety of glances their mere presence attracted. There were a fair few indifferent glances, other people casted the duo glances of reserved respect, and yet a few others more or less glared at them in a quite unfriendly manner. Fortunately, the people glaring at them were a considerable minority when compared to the rest.
"...Not in the slightest." Naruto replied with a sheepish grin, confirming 2D's suspicions that they were just wandering around.
The duo walked around the village with out any worries for a while, pointing out mildly interesting things to each other, and commenting on things they found odd for whatever reason.
Speaking of interesting findings, something that Naruto found particularly interesting was how the eyes of the female population seemed to gravitate towards them, and stay fixed on them, much more frequently than the male part of the population. More than once he felt a small chill run down his spine as he felt the eyes of a few girls around his age staring at him, which frequently caused him to turn to look at said group and thus pull some sort of invisible trigger that would make the group of girls to start whispering and giggling. It was... Odd. It reminded him a bit of how the girls back in Konoha treated Sasuke... He shook his head disbelievingly to rid his head of such thoughts. After all, there was no way right?
Wrong. A female voice soon proved that.
"He seems kinda cute though..."
Naruto gawked and tripped over his own foot, and would have face-planted onto the ground, had it not been for 2D who managed to snatch the back of his jacket and pull him upright. Mumbling his thanks to 2D, he found his face warming up as he acquired a light rosy blush due to the words had just heard, a blush that only deepened when his ears picked up the sound of girly giggling voices behind him.
Naruto managed to gather up the courage to throw a glance over his shoulder, which rewarded him with the sight of three girls looking at him, one of which was apparently particularly interested in him and gave him wink and smile combination, making Naruto's dying blush to come back as if it hadn't ever began to fade in the first place.
Offering her shy smile that sent the girls into an other round of giggles, Naruto quickly ducked his head back and turned around once more to face the direction he and 2D had been walking before he nearly fell. Thankfully, it didn't take too long for him to calm down his speeding heart rate and rid himself of the blush that had adorned his face moments ago.
It was... Odd. He wasn't used to any female openly calling him attractive. Hell, he wasn't even used to receiving ANY compliments from any females his age! The closest he had come to that was when Noodle praised his progress in his training when they sparred, and she was a good three years older than he was. This realization changed the look of stunned surprise in his face to a frown.
"Well this sucks." Naruto grumbled to himself with a frown as he shoved his hands in the pockets of his jacket.
"What does?" 2D asked curiously, his enhanced hearing picking up Naruto's words.
"That I have near no experience with girls." he said with a disgruntled voice, "I mean seriously, the closest I ever came to a romantic relationship was chasing Sakura around for years, only to always be rejected. I can't get a single girl to look at me in Konoha, but we've barely walked around Kumo for an hour or two in total and suddenly girls are giving me winks and smiles."
2D blinked at him and wrinkled his nose for a moment as he thought up a reply.
"Well... Why don't you practice?"
Naruto looked at to the with a half-hearted irritated glare. "D, didn't you hear hat I just say? I can't even get taken seriously enough to be considered dating material."
2D nodded and looked at him with a smile, which actually irked Naruto more than he would like to admit.
"Yes," 2D replied, "But that's in Konoha, not here."
Naruto started to open his mouth to say something that would contradict the blue haired ninja, but closed it as the implications of what 2D had said started to sink in, making him stop dead in his tracks and snap his mouth shut as he mulled over the words of the black-eyed singer. He had a point, now that he thought about it. No one knew him here aside of his team. As far as the people of Kumo knew, and more importantly, as far as the female population of Kumo knew, he was just an other available foreign shinobi.
A smirk started to expand across his face as he thought about it. They didn't know about him, or his pranks, or his 'Furry Problem' , or his reputation. Here, he was a clean slate. And as far as anyone in Kumo was concerned, he was free game. By the time he realized all this, his grin had turned into a gleeful fox-like smile.
"Um, Naruto?"2D asked as he waved a hand in front of the shorter blonde ninja, a curious raised eyebrow signifying his concern at the whiskered-ninja's sudden stop.
Naruto refocused his eyes on his friend with a wondrous gaze, as if he ha been suddenly enlightened and tackle-hugged 2D, driving air out I his lungs with the impact.
"2D, you are a genius!" Naruto said gleefully as he let go of the tall man.
"Uh... Thanks?" 2D replied with some confusion.
"How do I do it?" Naruto suddenly asked seriously.
"Do what?" 2D asked blankly.
"Practice. How do I talk to girls? How do I even get them to like me?"
"Ah, well..." 2D quipped in understanding, once again squinting as he thought about it, "well there are some general rules that can help, and I suppose I can give you some advice..."
He turned to look at Naruto, and he was surprised to find him giving him his undivided attention, which didn't occur with frequency. Naruto's gaze was do intense he almost expected Naruto to pull out a notepad and a pencil and start taking notes... Weird. Nonetheless, strangely satisfying. With a confident smile, 2D started giving Naruto a quick introductory crash course on the art of talking to women.
"Well, there are three main ways guys attract girls: action, quality, and speech. Action is catching their attention by doing something physically, like being the best at basketball, or being athletic and showing off. Quality refers to a quality a person has, like being intelligent, looking good, or having an attitude that the girl likes, so it's often a passive thing. Speech refers to actually engaging them verbally. Talking is a very powerful tool that can make up for a lot."
"Of course," 2D continued, "there are many other ways to attract attention, like being famous, or rich, but the main thing is to make the girl notice you, and NOT in a negative way. Basically, you have to set yourself apart from others, don't be just some other guy. Now, you can go about chasing a girl in many ways, aggressively, or passively. For example, going out of your way and talking to them, directly engaging them in conversation, and showing interest in them is a good way to start. One thing to keep in mind though, don't be scared or nervous. Be friendly and confident, don't be afraid of teasing them a bit and cracking a joke or two if you want, don't be afraid to give them a compliment or two, but remember, moderation is key. Don't wash them in jokes or drown them in compliments, otherwise your words don't mean as much. Last point of note, and probably the most important one... Be yourself."
Naruto blinked at that last point 2D made. "Be myself? No offense D, but that has to be the most cliché thing you've ever said."
"Ah! But it's true." 2D said with a smirk, "Just do what you want to and have fun. No need to pretend you are someone else."
"Just be me huh?" Naruto asked thoughtfully as they rounded an other corner, "Alright, I can handle that. Anything else?"
2D frowned as he thought things over. There were many things he could suggest, but in reality, that was the basics of it. "Well... That's mostly it. You'll learn on your own as you practice. And if not... Well... I'll give you a hand if you need it."
Naruto grinned at him, "Thanks! It's nice to know I can ask someone for dating advice that isn't like Kakashi or Jiraiya." A shiver went down Naruto's spine at the thought. If he asked them about it, he'd likely end up labeled a pervert on his first date. As it was, he had already been partially contaminated by their influence, and he wasn't looking forward to becoming more like them in that regard.
2D gave Naruto his patented smile and ruffled the blonde's hair. When the duo finally looked around to orient themselves, they realized that somehow they had wandered pretty far from the center of the village, far enough that the houses that were around the area were few and scattered over the mountainous landscape.
They rounded a corner and found themselves in a small valley in between the mountains, about the same size as the training ground Naruto had used during Kakashi's first test back when Sasuke was on his team. However, the clearing wasn't empty, at its center, two tan skinned ninja were sparring with each other with their swords. The duo looked on for only a moment before 2D nudged Naruto with his elbow, signaling to him that they should turn around. Naruto nodded at him and they both turned on their heels, barely starting to walk away before a calm female voice rang out from behind them.
"You there, halt."
Looking at each other briefly with something akin to surprise, the two males in question turned around to face the source of the voice. Barely thirty feet away from them stood a busty female ninja that looked only a couple years older than Naruto, with blue eyes and blond hair that was nearly shoulder length. Outfitted in a low-cut short skirt and wearing an undershirt of mesh armor, the girl was a chunin rank, if the Kumo flack jacket wrapped around her waist was anything to go by (on a side note, Naruto suspected she only wore the vest around her waist because her breasts were too big for it to close properly, if it would close at all). Naruto also took notice of the sword hanging horizontally from her back.
The girl looked them over, noticing the metallic Konoha head bands around Naruto's forehead an 2D's neck.
"So, spying on us, are you?" The girl stated.
"Spying? Look, we weren't spying alright?" Naruto replied, his tone betraying that he took offense at the girl's statement, "We were just looking for a place to train, we didn't even know you guys were sparring until we saw your other two team mates going at it."
"He is right Miss...?" 2D added.
"Samui."The girl said readily when she felt 2D reaching for her name, her tone carefully neutral, "No need for the 'Miss'. However, now you have me at a disadvantage, you know my name and I do not know yours."
"Ah, right," 2D said amiably. Always the advocate for a diplomatic (or at least the most non-violent) approach whenever it could be helped, 2D offered her a disarming smile and offered his own name, "A pleasure. I'm 2D."
"And I'm Naruto Uzumaki." Naruto added, following the lead of the taller man. The last thing they needed was being considered spying in the middle of a diplomatic mission.
Nodding in acknowledgement of the names, Samui managed to keep her neutral facial expression, even though she had to admit that the blue-haired singer had quite a charming smile, and continued, " What are you two even doing in Kumo?"
"We were charged with being part of a team," Naruto started, "to safely bring a VIP for a diplomatic mission. We were given free time and we were just wandering around. Can we go now? We don't want to make huge fuzz about this."
2D's ear twitched slightly as he heard movement behind him, and saw Naruto's jaw tighten from te corner of his eye, signifying he had heard the sound too. Most wouldn't have, but thanks to their enhanced senses, they were able to pick up the sound of light footed foot-steps trying to make their way behind them.
"So tell your team that there is no need to try to cut off our exits...please." Naruto stated loudly, nearly missing the slight rise of Samui's brow, which was the only sign that demonstrated her surprise at Naruto's ability to detect her teammates.
Apparently Samui's team had heard Naruto, because they stopped sneaking and jumped out of their hiding spots and began walking towards them cautiously. Turning their heads to look at the two other members of Samui's team, the Konoha ninjas saw that both remaining members of Samui's team were tanned skinned and both older than Naruto by a few years. The male had white hair and wore a pair of grey pants, and a grey hoodie with the white Kumo flak jacket over it, while the female had had a long mane of red hair and ember colored eyes, her hitai-ate in a bandanna, a grey short sleeved long dress, and like the male next to her, the Kumo flak jacket. To top it all off, both of the new faces had a katana strapped to their backs, labeling them as competent sword users.
Releasing an exasperated sigh, Naruto turned back to face Samui, "Can we go now?" he repeated as he tried to mask the tone of irritation that was leaking into his speech, with some success.
The white haired boy looked him over with a frown, "He looks suspicious. Look at his face; those six lines. They could be scars. Maybe he got them after several dangerous missions, which means he could be very dangerous since he is still alive. And the tall one, look at his eyes. They are completely black. It could totally be a bloodline. Maybe he is an eye user like the Hyuga. What if they saw everything and they are going to report it?"
Naruto had to actively refrain from rolling his eyes and giving an aggravated sigh. -Great,- Naruto thought with increasing irritation, -the kid is more paranoid than Ibisu. That's just fantastic. What next? The redhead is going to turn out to be a hot head?-
"So have you figured out what these two were doing?" the redhead asked Samui.
"They say that they were looking for a place to train."
The redhead snorted, "Yeah right, like anyone is stupid enough to try to train in a foreign nation."
That comment made Naruto's eye twitch ever so slightly, and it was yet another sign that his patience was wearing thin. At this point 2D was growing concerned as to what he might do if this continued for much longer. While Naruto wasn't as impatient as he had been three years ago, he still wasn't exactly the most patient person alive.
"I'm not stupid, damn it!" Naruto growled out, "I just wanted to train. What the hell is wrong with that?"
The red head whipped her was around to face Naruto, bristling at Naruto's tone of voice. "Many things! First of all, why would anyone risk having their techniques copied or analyzed by training inside any other village other than their home village? And why would any village let foreign ninja train in their village without any paperwork? Anyone that stumbles Into the training grounds that the foreign ninja are using can be accused of spying or trying to steal their techniques and that could be used for political leverage." The red head snapped back at him, "So why in blue blazes would anyone do that?"
Naruto grumbled but took a deep breath to steady himself and replied. "Look, I didn't think about it like that. We just wanted to train. That's it. Can we go now?"
"I don't think so." The redhead said as she glared at the blonde, "We haven't cleared up anything yet."
Naruto growled again and this time turned to look at Samui and crossed his arms, "Look we are being nice about this, so please move and let us go back to the hotel, or we will move you all for you."
2D looked at Naruto with a startled look on his face, "Hey Naruto-"
"Oh is that so?" Samui replied, cutting off 2D before he finished talking as she started to leak killing intent, her face still perfectly neutral, "Think you two can take three chunnins all at once?"
"Naruto-" 2D started again.
"Oh I don't think we can," Naruto said cutting off 2D, "I know we can!"
"Naruto!" 2D said loudly, ignoring the double interruption, "Don't provoke them anymore."
Naruto turned to look at his teammate full on, "But look at them! They are accusing us of crap we haven't done without even bothering to find proof, and it's like they are just looking for an excuse to pick a fight. Let's just kick their asses and go back to the hotel."
"Remember what sensei said about keeping out of trouble." 2D reminded him.
"Well, we did try to stay out of trouble, it's not my fault these guys are trying to cause trouble." Naruto grumbled, ignoring the glare of the red-hair girl, which was growing more venomous by the second.
"Hey! Don't ignore us!" the girl finally snapped, her hand reaching towards her sword.
"Oh you want to go?" Naruto growled back at her as he reached for his kunai, "Bring it on then! I'll kick your ass and international incident be damned! I've had it with trying to explain myself to you!"
"Karui! Stand down!" Samui ordered to the redhead girl. At the same time, 2D reached out and put a hand on Naruto's shoulder, and shook his head at him. This wasn't the time OR the place for a fight.
Samui noted the blue-haired man's actions and eyed him appraisingly; "At least someone seems to have a good head on their shoulders."
2D only gave her a small smile in return before Samui spoke up again. "We'll take you in anyways. The Raikage will know what to do."
Had it not being for the singer's hand that was keeping a vice grip on his shoulder, Naruto might have just tried to give the foreign shinobi a piece of his mind. This was definitely not what he needed right now! But before he could even voice his complain, a new female voice rang out as clear as a bell.
"What's going on here?"
All eyes turned to the newcomer, a blonde girl perhaps five or seven years older than Naruto, her blond hair tied in a ponytail, and her figure was slim but curvaceous and defined, giving an air of subtle grace to her movements. The girl came down from one of the mountainsides that bordered the clearing, leaping accurately and quickly down the natural small holds and platforms that the slope offered. At about three quarters of the way down the slope, she crouched like a cat and leaped of the steep slope of the mountain and landed softly in a four legged crouch near Samui nonchalantly, as if leaping thirty feet through the air and landing with barely a sound was an every day occurrence.
As the new girl stood up, Samui turned to her and gave the older girl a respectful bow. "We found these two Konoha ninja poking the noses around, Yugito-sama."
"For the last time," Naruto growled out as he crossed hi arms and narrowed his eyes at Samui, as if challenging her to contradict him, "we were NOT snooping around. We just wanted to train."
-Cool it kit.- Kurama'a voice rang out in Naruto's mind, -You could have taken the three stooges easily, but now that the cat is here this could get messy.-
Before Naruto could ask the fox what he was talking about, Yugito's words distracted him. "I see. Let's take him to Raikage then."
"Goddamit..." Naruto growled out in an obviously exasperated voice, "Fine, lets go and clear up all this crap."
Samui nodded and signaled to Omoi towards them. Nodding, the male Kumo ninja pulled out a rope and started towards them before Naruto threw his hands up in front of him in a halting manner. "Woah, hold it there! I'm not about to be paraded around town like a criminal. Besides, there are four of you and only two of us. I'm sure you can handle us even if you tried to get away, right?"
His last remark held a note of doubt, which obviously grated a bit on the Kumo ninja, because Samui gave Omoi a look, and he put away the rope.
"Fine, we won't tie you up," Samui said evenly, "but if you try anything we won't be gentle about how we take you down."
Shrugging, Naruto nodded. "Works for me. Come on D. Let's get this over with."
The group began their trek towards the heart of the city, with the Kumo ninja forming a threefold point diamond formation around the Konoha duo, with Yugito on the lead and the three Kumo chunin placed at the left and right flanks of the Konoha ninja, with one taking the rear position.
-So... The Nibi got a girl, huh? Fitting.- Ventus commented in the mind of 2D, it's rumbling voice bringing 2D down from his reverie, causing him to focus on the voice of the Dragon Lord while his les worked in automatic mode.
-Hmm? Nibi? Who's that?-
-The Nibi is the two tailed cat.- Vetus replied, -She is a fiery one, both literally and figuratively. She's always liked to present herself as made of fire, and she can have a temper too. On the other hand, she could be quite the passionate cat.-
2D's eyes widened as he caught grasp of what his scaly friend was telling him.
-Yugito is also a container!?-
-Precisely. And her Bijuu is the two tailed cat to be exact.-
2D glanced over at Naruto from the corner of his eyes, and given the change in facial expressions, which settled into one of resignation, he assumed that the demon fox had informed the whiskered blond about Yugito's furry tenant.
Thinking it over for a moment, he wondered if Yugito had been able to tell that both, Naruto and himself, were like her. If the Kyuubi and Ventus had even able to detect the Nibi, then maybe she could do it too? If she could, and if she had let Yugito know, then she was very good at hiding her surprise... Of course, it also helped that she wasn't facing them, making it harder to detect any surprise her face might betray by default.
Now that he focused on the girl though, she did have a catlike grace about her. He idly wondered if it was because of the Nibi, or if it was something she had developed herself...
"We are here to see the Raikage." Yugito announced, bringing 2D back from his reverie, making him realize for just had long he had been walking on automatic, considering he was now inside the Raikage's tower, in front of the Top floor's doorway, with Yugito talking to chunin secretary that was working behind a desk.
Surprisingly, the woman just nodded and allowed the group to pass, and to their surprise, sitting along a couple of benches in the hallway, Sakura and Noodle were engaged in a conversation while they let the adults talk inside their meeting room.
But when the girls saw their two teammates being scored right in front of them, their blood ran cold and their jaws dropped in surprise. The chances that their teammates were here because of something good were slim... VERY slim.
The two boys barely had time to smile at the girls before they were marched right into Raikage's office, the large oak doors slamming shut behind them, leaving their female teammates to stare after them with bug-eyed expressions until the large doorway swallowed their two teammates and their escorts.
"... Kakashi-sensei is going to have a heart attack." Sakura finally mumbled in shock.
All Noodle could do was nod dumbly once and try her hardest to not have a heart attack herself.
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Inside the Railages office, a large darks lined man sat behind a fine hardwood desk, dealing with the Kage's worst enemy: Paper work! He hated the chore of doing the irritating necessity known as paper work. It was the most irritating activity he could think off, and more than once he had been tempted to set the stack of papers on fire.
Thankfully, his doors slid open giving the powerfully muscled an excuse to turn his attention away from the thrice damnable stack of papers he was working on. Giving a nearly inaudible sigh of relief, he looked at his doorway to inspect his unscheduled guests, only to be surprised to watch Yugito escorting two foreign ninja with the help of three Kumo chunin.
"Good morning Raikage -sama." Yugito said with a polite bow, which was copied by all the new arrivals to the Kage's room, even Naruto.
"Morning Yugito, to what do I owe the pleasure of a visit?" The Raikage asked as he stood up from behind his desk and put his Raikage hat on the table.
"I found these two Konoha ninja in a sort of conflict against Samui's team. I believe Samui should elaborate."
Nodding, the Raikage turned his eyes over to look at Samui, who bowed and step forward to speak. "Raikage-sama, we were in the training grounds doing our routine trying session, when we spotted these two Konoha ninjas observing our training. Considering we are Kirabi-sensei's students, we believe that they might have been trying to spy on us. Thus we approached them, and promptly escorted them here as soon as we were able to."
Naruto snorted and rolled his eyes at her. "If by 'approaching'," Naruo made air quotes when he mentioned the word, "you mean cornered, harassed, and gave us a choice between a fight and triggering a scandal or been dragged trough town to meet the Raikage, then yes, yes you did approach us."
The Raikage's eyes shifted towards Naruto, doing a double take of the blonde ninja. Likewise, Naruto got a good look at the Raikage. The tall dark skinned man looked every bit as intimidating as some rumors said, his huge muscular body reminding Naruto more of a bear than a normal human. Despite this, Naruto, as per usual, held his ground and looked right into the Kage's eyes, which surprised said Kage mildly, but didn't particularly upset him
"I am the Raikage of Kumo, my name is 'A'. What's your name boy?"
Grinning his patented vulpine grin, Naruto replied with out hesitation.
"Naruto Uzumaki!"
"And you, tall one?" The Raikage asked as he turned to look at 2D.
"I'm 2D." 2D said with perfect smile, one that he had mastered after years of practice as a professional musician.
"I see." A said with a shallow nod, "And what is the business you both have in my village? Are you two on a spying mission?"
Naruto barely contained himself from smacking his forehead with the palm of his hand and sighed while 2D tried his hand at explaining.
"Well no," 2D began, "we were just looking around, maybe finding a place to train and um..."
Without really thinking, Naruto added his own bit of explanation, giving an audible sigh before saying the first thing that came to mind. "I suppose you could say that... We kinda got lost in the road of life."
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Meantime, Kakashi suddenly felt an odd sense of accomplishment that was completely unrelated to the political talking that was going on between the representative VIP of Konoha and the advisor of Kumo.
Smiling behind his mask, and inwardly cheered, -Got one of them!-
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Naruto felt a chill go down his spine and he had the distinct feeling he had just made someone very happy...
The Raikage ha to rise an eyebrow at Naruto's statement, but if he thought about it, it did have a double meaning and profound thought behind it... Perhaps the child wasn't a complete hot head.
Meanwhile, it was taking all of 2D's self-control to NOT tease Naruto about his excuse.
"Yo, the B is here back bro!"
A groaned and slapped his forehead as he heard the voice of his younger brother. If he hadn't known better, he could have sworn that Kirabi sometimes interrupted him on purpose at the worst times just to mess with him.
No sooner than the Raikage had thought this, the door to his office burst open and a younger (and louder) version of the Raikage, minus the goatee, barged into the room with confidence. The man walked past everyone until he was standing in front of the Kage with a smirk.
"Mission complete! It was nothing to this elite." Kirabi sang out in bad rap, which while annoying to just about
everyone in general, it made 2D want to cringe.
A's eyebrow twitched at his little brother's entrance. "You couldn't wait until I was finished with this issue here, could you?"
Kirabi scoffed at that. "Well duh my brother, waiting is for others!"
Turning around, Kirabi looked at the other people in the room, smirking when he spotted Yugito and his team. "Oh, hey there team, how have all my students been?"
Yugito rolled her eyes, "They've been fine, but they found two uninvited ninja watching their training."
Kirabi turned his gaze towards the two Konoha ninja, and his eyebrows visibly rose from behind his dark sunglasses, "Wow, that one is tall, no wonder you saw him at all."
Everyone sweat-dropped at that comment. Potential spies right in front of him and he said that...
Kirabi, however was unconcerned, and after looking at the two Konoha ninjas for a few seconds he extend both of his fists towards them, "Yo, what's up Mr. Nine? And ..."
For once in their lives, A saw his brother struggling to find a rhyme. While he found that shocking, it also amused him to no end to see the frustration in his face.
"Er... 2D," the blue haired ninja supplied, as he and Naruto bumped fists with Kirabi, "That's my name."
Kirabi nodded and smiled at him "I'll keep that in mind, scaly man."
"B, would you stop giving them weird names?" A asked in an exasperated tone, "their names are Naruto Uzumaki and 2D. Not Scaly Man and Mr. Nine!"
Yugito shook her head, "Raikage-sama, B was referring to what they have inside rather than what their names are. The blonde is the holder of the Kyuubi and the tall one has a beast of equal power but different origin."
"Hey no fair, cat!" Kirabi stated as he stamped his foot like an upset two-hundred pound child, " why did you tell them right off the bat? I wanted them to guess what I meant by that!"
What followed was an argument between Kirabi, Yugito, and the Raikage, and by the halfway point of the three-way argument, 2D's mind started to drift away and Naruto had tuned out Kirabi's ranting, his mind wandering towards his teammates and, wouldn't you imagine, ramen.
Samui and the other chunnins, however, were staring at the Konoha ninjas with a bewildered expression. Those two foreigners were like star jounin Yugito and Kirabi-sensei and they had challenged them head on. If her team had goaded those two into actually fighting them... Samui shivered slightly at the the thought. She was very certain that it wouldn't have been pretty.
After a few minutes of non-stop ranting, Naruto finally grew tiered of their ranting and spoke up.
"Um, excuse me but can we get this sorted out? We need to go back to our team."
The three arguing adults turned their glares towards Naruto who just crossed his arms and scowled at them. He wanted to go eat ramen AND he needed to meet up with his team, damn it! Why could they just sort this out already?
The Raikage was the first to snap out of it and refocus in his two surprise Konoha guests. He looked them over again, and took into account what just had occurred. First of all, they didn't really have the attitude that a captured spy would usually have, rather, they seemed bored and even exasperated by the proceedings. Secondly, they had readily offered information about themselves that had not sounded false. Thirdly, the boy had just brought their attention BACK towards them and their predicament. Lastly, judging from the story, they were trying to avoid an international issue but had not refused to meet the Raikage. Combined, these facts pointed at innocence rather than guilt of their accused charge of espionage.
Closing his eyes, the Raikage crossed his arms and stroked his goatee and mustache with one hand, trying to tease out additional hints to the problem presented to him. However, there was one thing that bothered him...
"Why do you seek to train on a foreign Nation?" A asked as he opened his eyes, his tone even and serious, regaining the seriousness proper of a Kage.
That brought 2D back to present, and sobered up Naruto, both of them looking at each other before an unspoken agreement was reached and they turned back to the foreign Kage.
"Raikage, have you heard of the Akatsuki?" Naruto asked seriously.
The Raikage looked at the blue-eyes youth inquisitively, but responded. "Not really. At least, nothing concrete. I recall the name coming up in a few reports briefly though. Why?"
2D looked at the Raikage with an uncharacteristic serious expression. "They are basically Demon-container hunters. They hunt down jinchuriki. And they are after every single one of the tailed beasts."
Naruto had always thought the expression "you could have heard a pin drop" was an exaggeration, but after 2D's words were spoken, the silence was so absolute in the Raikage's office that he was quite sure that everyone would have been quite capable of hearing a pin dropping to the ground.
However, the shocked silence only lasted seconds before A spoke up.
"Jinchuriki hunters? That's madness! Any of the demons is nigh impossible to face by any man alone unless they were to be the fabled Sage of the Six paths. Even a Kage would be hard pressed to distract a single one of the beasts!"
2D nodded, conceding the large man's point. "That would be true usually, wouldn't it? But what if they didn't fight alone? What of I told you they fight in duos that compliment each other's skills? What if I told you every single one of the members in the group was labeled as an S-rank ninja?"
Everyone stared at the two Konoha nins, a stunned silence following 2D's words. Even Kirabi was shocked into silence, his eyebrows rising above his sunglasses.
Naruto nodded in agreement with 2D's words and continued, "The thing is, every tailed-beast is a powerhouse on its own, everyone knows that, but there is a little catch: The can't use the full power of their beast unless they have mastered it. So as long as they don't have full control of their beast, their power isn't even close to the same level as the power of the released beast."
2D followed up Naruto's comment with his own. "And the higher the Tailed beast is in the hierarchy of the tailed-beasts, the more power it has, and the harder it is to control. Which means that higher level Juinchiriki can loose control more easily than a lower tier Juinchiriki if he or she doesn't have full control of it."
By now the Raikage had recovered from his initial shock and was absorbing the information that the two Konoha nins were rolling out from their mouths. However, Kirabi's team of chunnins were still staring at the conversation with mouths agape, their minds trying to come to grasp the situation unfolding before them.
"Then we are lucky," the Raikage said confidently as he puffed up his chest and looked at his little brother, "Kirabi has already gained full control over the Hachibi's power."
Naruto's eyes flicked over to Yugito, "But she hasn't."
Yugito bristled immediately, snapping her head around to glare at Naruto.
"I'll have you know," the girl replied with a hint of ice to her calm tone, "that I can summon the Nibi in full form."
"Oh yeah? For how long?" Naruto asked pointedly.
Yugito didn't reply for a moment. While it was true that she could only manage about five minutes in full beast mode, she wasn't about to give Naruto the satisfaction of knowing that.
"Thought so." Naruto said simply, "I bet Kirabee can do it for at least half an hour, hell, maybe even hours on end. That's full mastery. A couple of minutes won't make much of a difference with these people unless you are on their level."
The Raikage stood silently in thought while the Naruto and Yugito glared at it each other half-heartedly. After the brief pause in the conversation, A addressed the Konoha nins.
"I see Naruto-san. However, what you are claiming is hard to accept at face value. I will have to consider this matter with time and with care. You are all dismissed, but before you all go," A said before anyone could turn to leave, "I dot want any word of this to be spread around the village as of yet. This is a delicate and confidential matter. Understood?"
All Kumo ninja in the room replied with a "Hai! (yes!)" and the chunin bowed respectfully at the Kage.
"Good," A said with a nod, "Now, Yugito, Team B, please escort 2D-san and Naruto-san to their hotel. They are here by cleared from suspicion of espionage."
Nodding dumbly, the still shocked chunin team followed Yugito's lead and bowed to their Kage before exiting the room with Naruto and 2D.
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The mixt group of Kumo and Konoha ninjas left the Raikage's building without uttering a word until they doors closed behind them, each immersed in their own thoughts, contemplating their resent talk with the Raikage. At which point, 2D, true to his somewhat distracted but cheery attitude, was the first to break the silence. "Ever wondered why how come the word 'naruto' went from being an other name to describe a famous maelstrom to being the name of a ramen topping?"
Everyone stared blankly at him for a moment.
"Cause you know," He continued absentmindedly, "Uzumaki means like, vortex or spiral or whirlpool, right? So like, if we thought about it in the old meaning, your name," He pointed at Naruto, "would be something really cool like 'Spiraling Maelstrom' or 'Maelstrom Vortex' but if you take it in a more common day meaning it means something like, 'Fishcake Whirlpool' or 'Fishcake Vortex' which is kinda detracts from the awesome value of your name…"
Naruto gave his friend a deadpan look before replying, "D, from where in Kami's name did that come from?"
Like a damn bursting open, Naruto's last comment gave way to giggling fit to Kumo ninja, even Samui let out a very brief stifled snort of amusement before she regained control of her out ward appearance, inwardly mortified that she had let her face slip around foreign ninja. Her dad would have been mortified too! Her family was considered one of the most calm and level headed clans in Kumo, their analytical abilities and personalities comparable to Konoha's Aburame clan.
In fact, the only really noticeable differences between them and the Aburame where the obvious different taste in attires and the fact that the Aburame worked with bugs, her clan was more or less similarly structured in regards to their way of thinking to that of the Aburame, in which they valued levelheadedness and the ability to analyze situations with as little bias and as much reason as possible. Notably though, Samui's clan did have two more subtle differences when compared to the Aburames' way of life: Firstly, Samui's clan members, while stoic as a general rule, where more likely to open up to other and give brief displays of emotions from time to time than the Aburame, and secondly, their personalities could be somewhat more aggressive in perusing mates.
But of course, our to Konoha heroes didn't know that, and hence, it barely registered for them that Samui had found their unexpected brief conversation amusing.
"Well I dunno…" 2D replied to Naruto's remark, "It just kinda popped up in my head that Fishcakes were a whole lot less intimidating than a Maelstrom."
Karui no openly laughed, holding her belly for a moment. "Oh Kami! Can you imagine that Omoi?" She said in between small fits of laughter, "The fearsome nine-tailed fox sealed inside fishcake! Oh lawd, hahahahaha!"
Karui strated up again on second fit of laughter as Naruto's eye twitched at her comment. "
"Yeah well, Your name means 'light' or 'non-serious' right?" Naruto replied with an irritated tone, "I guess it suits you, cause I can't take you seriously as girl with a chest that flat!"
Karui stopped laughing instantly as soon as Naruto said that, pinning him with a venomous glare, while Samui started to turn pink as she struggled not to laugh.
"Oohh…. Zing!" Omai exclaimed under his breath as he looked at Naruto with a mixture of pitty and newfound respect, "You shouldn't have said that…"
"Oh really?" Naruto replied offhandedly, "And what's she going to do about it? Its not like there is anything there anyways. Kami knows that I'm right."
-Ooohh boy…- Omoi thought to himself as he heard Naruto talk. This would definitely not end with a simple "I'm sorry" at this point, not with Karui.
" . …!" Karui Growled at him. Karui had instantly began to leaking killing intent at Naruto's words, feeling rage well up inside her, a rage that only increased when Naruto gave her with a crazy smirk and laughed.
"You want some? Come get some!" Naruto screamed behind him as he laughed like a happy lunatic and took off at high speed, running through Kumo with Karui hot on his trail.
2D blinked at the scene and turned to look at the remaining Kumo ninja. "I think we should go after them."
Omoi nodded, Yugito briefly agreed, and Samui… well… she nodded eagerly, not trusting her voice at the moment. She refused to laugh at such a childish display in front of a total stranger such as 2D. She was supposed to be the squad leader after all, and she wanted to act the part impeccably in front of such high profile ninja such as 2D and Naruto… or at least 2D, considering Naruto wasn't here at the moment.
The search party took off after the two hotheaded ninja, with 2Dand Yugito slightly in the lead as the Kumo ninja tried to make conversation with 2D. Admittedly, it was the two remaining females of the team that seemed to want to talk more to the tall man.
Naruto, on the other hand, was still laughing his ass of while he ran all over town while Karui swore like a sailor after him, much to the amusement of the locals, particularly when he decided to pick things up a notch and start shamelessly flirting with the irritated girl. Ironically, this had a double effect: It irritated her that even going at her top speed Naruto was not only fast enough to outrun her, but also fast enough that he would backtrack, come up beside her and drop compliments and winks at her while dodging her angry fist. On the flip side, she had barely ever received any flirty comments in her life, and that was in part due to her hot-headed personality and at times violent reactions, and it was for that reason that she became flustered whenever Naruto would close the gap between them and start his flirting assault on her.
She wouldn't admit it, but it was kinda…. Nice, in a way, to receive that kind of attention.
Eventually Naruto and Karui ended up in the clearing where they had first met. Landing on the center of the clearing, Naruto summersaulted away from his landing spot just as Karui drove her heel down on the space where Naruto's head had been only a second ago.
"Aggressive, aren't you?" Naruto said with a foxy smile, obviously taking2D's advice of doing whatever he felt like doing to heart, "I like it!"
"Stay still so I can get you!" Karui shot back at him with an ever so slight rosy tinge of color creeping into her cheeks even as she jumped after him and swung at him with her left fist.
Dodging the fist with practiced ease, Naruto, ducked under her fist and slid around to her left side as her arm stretched out in a fluid motion, coming up again right beside her and whispering in her ear suggestively, "If you want me you just have to ask nicely."
Her blush deepening, Karui used the rotatory momentum from her failed punch and used it to spin around on her foot, bringing up her right elbow at eye level in an attempt to nail Naruto on his face with her elbow. The tactic, unfortunately for her, failed when her elbow hit empty air. Surprised by the blond ninja's sudden disappearance act, she swung wildly her head around in search for him, only to freeze when her nose came literally within an inch of Naruto's own nose, his eyes staring right into her own, looking past her even.
"You know, you have really bright eyes." Naruto pointed out casually, his eyes holding their stare into her own eyes, completely oblivious to the fact that she was growing more flustered by the second.
"You too." Karui responded without thinking, her eyes widening in disbelief as she realized her own words before clamping her mouth shut and refocusing her gaze on Naruto's eyes. Now that she thought about it, he had really warm looking eyes… Karui slapped her self mentally and started trying to whack Naruto with her fists again, restarting the attack-and-dodge cycle.
It was then that 2D and the others found Karui and Naruto in the clearing, with Naruto dodging the attacks that Karui was throwing at him left, right, and center.
"I could use some help here!" Karui called out to her team mates irritably as she kept missing Naruto's always by a small distance, her fist only managing to hit empty space.
"I don't know Karui!" Omoi called back at her from the edge of the clearing, "It seems like a pretty personal match to me! I don't think it would be fair to interfere!"
"Are you goddamn kidding me?!" Karui roared back at him.
"Well…" 2D called out, "Why not have a spar? It should be okay then, right?"
"Works for me!" Naruto called out as he side stepped away from a roundhouse kick from Karui, before leaping backwards and putting some distance between him and the hotheaded girl, "Then I don't have to hold back as much!"
"Yugito, can you referee?" 2D asked
"Only if you stay out of it too," Yugito replied with a bit of a smile, "It wouldn't be fair if only I had to stay out."
2D frowned a bit before Naruto's voice interrupted his thoughts, "I can handle them D, no worries."
"Well aren't you the confident?" Karui growled at him.
"Lets just say I'm well equipped… And I don't just mean for fighting." Naruto said giving her a playful wink, which left the girl blinking for a moment as she tried to connect the dots to what he meant. It only took her second, but it seemed that she made the connection, if the returning blush was any sign to go by.
2D nodded at Naruto, ignoring his last remark, and went to sit on a boulder by the edge of the clearing while Samui and Omoi went towards their third teammate and Naruto. "Just don't use the Kyuuby's power Naruto!"
Naruto nodded back at him and turned his attention back to his challengers. "So how are we going to do this?" Naruto asked Samui's team, "Are you coming at me one by one, or are you coming all at once?"
Omoi looked at Naruto doubtfully, "Three on one? Are you serious?"
"Yeah get real," Karui added,"I kept missing you only by a bit just now. With a kunai in hand or our swords you would have gotten minced. Do you actually believe you can take us all at once?"
Naruto gave Karui a deadpan look before responding sarcastically, "No, I just said that cause I thought I would get cut and beat within an inch of my life and I just thought that would be fantastic." The sarcasm was so thick that Karui had the decency to look a little bit bit abashed about her question, "Of course I believe can kick your butts all at the same time."
"Are you sure?" Samui added with a bit of hesitancy, after all, the kid didn't wear a vest, so he was probably still a genin, and without using any help from his inner friend, a genin versus three chunin was equivalent to putting a Chihuahua to fight three English Bulldogs.
"Samui, what did I just say?" Naruto replied, "Actually, you know what, since you all don't believe me, I wont give you a choice anymore, I'm taking you three down at the same time."
Grinning at the three Kumo chunins, Naruto crouched down slightly an got in his ready position. He had been hoping to put his skills to the test, and now that he had an opportunity, he was going to enjoy it.
He was taking them down Naruto Style.
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AND CUT! There you have it boys and girls. Oh Lawd, that took a decent chunk of time to write this chapter. 22 pages. Not bad eh? Anyways, that's all for today. NOW I HAVE TO GO CAUSE I HAVE TO SLEEP! Its midnight, and I have a midterm in 10 hours on the dot. Which means I only get 6 hours of sleep. (I haven't really studied for it, completely so I kinda have to get up early to finish reading what's left).
Good night my friends, and remember to drop me a review and let me know what you thought of the chapter.
This is Freedragon, logging out.