Second Chances

Chapter 12

Morning came bright and early, with the group more than happily making their way into the center of town. Naruto, in all of her worldly knowledge, had informed them that the most likely place to uncover Tsunade would be some form of gambling district, hence why they were heading over to the west side of town.
Slinking beside her, with his hands tucked neatly into his pockets, Obito frowned as the fair haired girl. Brushing the bangs back from his face -someday, he would get his hair cut into something similar to Minato-sensei's style, just minus the bangs- the Uchiha let his eyes instantly trail through the crowd, scanning for not only any threats, but the Slug sanin herself. According to Naruto, the woman was busty, blonde and about Kushina's age in looks. Some women clearly didn't get the concept of ageing. As Naruto dashed over and purchased three ice creams, Obito once again grimaced, lips turned down and disapproving of her behaviour. Even if he put up the same mask everyday. He'd been biting his lip all day, because when he'd woken up Kushina had already been fully dressed and in deep conversation with Naruto over icha-icha. There had then been a three way fight over who got to read the only copy at breakfast, with Naruto coming out on top. He couldn't say anything with Kushina being right next to them, the red-head obviously had no idea what'd happened and it would appear Naruto wanted to keep it that way. Every so often he'd give the girl a meaningful look, try to capture her eyes in a silent message of 'we need to talk'. And every-time, she'd turn around and keep skipping forwards, like she didn't know just what he was getting at. He felt like ripping his too long hair. Really, it was infuriating that she was purposefully ignoring him, and it was getting so annoying that he was almost at the point of calling her out in front of Kushina regardless of privacy. The only thing that was stopping him was the obvious fact Naruto knew a lot about him, and could just as easily out him for all his problems.
So for now, Obito bit his tongue and sat back, determined not to take his own mask off, not yet.

It was getting harder and harder to look at Obito now. The boy would continually send her annoyed, suspicious glances and he would only become more irritated as time went on.

"Can we stop for a bit? I need to talk to Kurama..." Kushina nodded sternly; even if she had been talking to the fox, there was still a clear dislike from the beasts side. The group quickly located a park, the sun warm on the back of their necks and Naruto settled into the shade of one of the oak trees. Legs folded into a typical arrangement often associated with meditation, she let her eyes flutter close, whiskers slowly becoming more defined as she gently tapped into the foxes power.
Opening her eyes, Naruto took a look around the forest of her mine before silently calling out the Kyubi. With no disturbance in the presence around her, the nine-tails appeared with little more than a poof of smoke, looking down at her tiny frame. Ever since he'd recovered the entirety of his chakra, Kurama had become much much taller than she remembered. However, he also had much much more chakra for them to play around with. In fact, whilst they were out here, they might be able to start training her body to use it.

"Kurama. What should I tell Obito? I can't come out and say I'm having dreams about everyone dying and hating me. I can't tell him that I've almost turned my back on my friends! Even if they don't exist yet..." Naruto trailed off as a finger almost as big as her was pressed against her head gently, pushing her down into a sitting position.

"Don't tell him anything kit. Even if you lie through the skin of your teeth, you have no obligation to those damn Uchiha. No matter what you felt for one of them," Kurama smirked as the blonde's cheeks turned an interesting shade of red, her lips moulding into the traditional pout.

"I didn't like Sasuke in that was Kurama. Nuh-uh, no way."

"Well then that's a good thing, because he is as good as dead here. You can at least make his future better, you owe him that much... However, you will let me play around with a few of those traitorous Uchiha at some point. I won't kill them... Just teach them not to mess around with powers out of their control. Regardless, I'm getting off track; you need to forget and live in the present. Otherwise you die, your parents will die and I'll get sealed into a useless baby. Forge bonds here. Now get out of my site kit and don't come back till you've got a grip."

Reeling in the shock of being kicked out of her own mind, Naruto blinked a few times before she realized that she was in fact face down in the grass.

"Hey! What happened? You suddenly face planted the ground..." Obito trailed off, not wanted to ask if the demon had hurt her. Not in public at least.

"I'm fine. Kurama's just suffering from his mood swings. The ones that take up a good ninety percent of his time," wiping the due from her lips, Naruto looked up at both Kushina and Obito before sighing.

"Until the furball decides that he'll lend me his chakra, I can't do a lot of training. I can get by on my own though. I just won't be much help in the war for now..."

"Doesn't matter kiddo; you said Konoha come out unscarred before, we'll do it again. Now let's focus on finding Tsunade."

The gambling district was empty. The wind whipped past, rattling Naruto's twin pigtails as she stared around, frowning.

"Hey you!" Kushina made her way over to the nearest person; a height challenged man on the chubby side.
He quickly began sweating like a pig upon the red-heads approach, a terrified whimper escaping his mouth.

"You see a blonde chick with huge knockers?"
Naruto and Obito both had to hide their giggles at Kushina's upfront words, watching as the man stood flabbergasted for a second, looking at Kushina as if wondering if she was serious.

"I...if you mean the blonde woman that couldn't gamble at all? She left a week ago, said she was heading for Ishigakure, or somewhere near there."
Kushina cursed under her breath, kicking at a rock and sending it flying across the street, breaking through the stone wall and carrying on out of sight.

"Come of Naruto, Obito. We'll need to have a serious talk. Ishigakure is right behind enemy lines, I highly doubt we'll be allowed to go there..."
As the Konohagkure ninja's walked off, the pudgy man trotted behind the house, nodding to the raven haired woman before releasing her henge. Tsunade blew the strands from her face before offering her young trainee a small smile.

"And that is how it's done Shizune. Now, since they'll be heading west, we'll go east into Kumo, not too far but far enough. It should keep the village off my tail for a while."

Pocketing her hands, Naruto nodded slightly to Kushina's plan. They were to head back to the village and await further instruction from the Hokage. Enemy lines were far too dangerous for the Kyubi Jinchūriki's to be, and adding a Uchiha to the group would just be plain suicidal. They'd be hunted down faster than a turkey at thanksgiving. Yet, something was nagging at the back of her mind, something that she just couldn't quite place. As far as she was aware, Tsunade had been here during the original time-line, the slug summoner had told her herself... Grimacing, Naruto desperately routed around in her head for the missing piece of information that was stored up there, just out of her reach.

"Did you see that guys necklace though? Kinda looked like the old Hokage's necklace, you know, like the one in the photos?"
It felt like she'd just walked into a tree.

"Obito! It looked like that necklace because it was! Granny Tsunade is trying to give us the slip! That guy was her henged!" Naruto shouted over her shoulder, already taking back off down the street in a full sprint. Chakra flared up in her nose, enchanting the sense a thousand fold as she scanned the earth for Tsunade's specific scent. There was a heavy lace of perfume covering the ground, but around it, Naruto was quick to pick up the soft, warm scent that was Tsunade. With a growl, she took off into the surrounding trees, already well aware she was heading somewhere into Kumo.
Kushina and Obito were both hot on her trail now, leaping from branch to branch as the team shot through the undergrowth. The scent was slowly getting stronger, yet Naruto's young body wouldn't permit her to go any faster. And with none of Kurama's chakra available, she couldn't do anything about that fact yet. The hollow thump of shoes meeting trees rang out around the forest, and Naruto was dead sure that Tsunade knew they were following her. But they'd never catch up being quiet, the only chance they even had of coming near the Slug summoner was to run as fast and as careless as possible. However, this was something that Naruto excelled in.
And if things had gone smoothly, then they might have even caught up to the woman. However, Tsunade wasn't know for playing fair. Out of nowhere, the trail cut off, faint wisps of chakra fading into the air around them and Naruto cursed, stomping on the ground, hissing and kicking at a tree for good measure.

"What happened?" Kushina asked when she caught up, Obito huffing and panting beside her, hunched over and leaning against a tree for support.

"Reverse summoning. Of course slugs can do it to. No wonder Tsunade was able to avoid the debt collectors so long, she's the only one with the slug contract after all."
The team stood around, looking at one another and trying to figure out what they should do now. It was at that point, a branch snapped behind them.

Naruto was the first to react, sending several kunai's at the disturbance and watching as four figures flew back. Great, this would probably end up with a fight.

"What do you Konoha ninja think you're doing on Kumo land? And just when we were considering not going to war," the tallest sneered. He was a bulky man with a grizzly brown beard, hair slicked back in a style familiar to her beloved B. in fact, her fellow Jinchūriki would be around in this time... If it was just her on her own, maybe she'd have let them take her in and talked to B. However, Naruto wasn't on her own, she had both Kushina and Obito with her. And what with Kumo's first attempt at stealing the red-head, then trying to nab some Hyūga eyes in the future, it wasn't looking too good for Obito's chances of being a non target either.

"Well what do you know? Not only is it the red-head chic we wanted, but a little Uchiha as well. Which means that you'd have to be something special to hang out with them, right brat?"
Deciding to label the tall idiot bulk, Naruto clenched her fists, snarling and prodding Kurama in her mid, asking for chakra. Because these guys were all Jōnin level, easy. The fox just swatted at her.

"Not really," Naruto grumbled, folding her arms across her chest and frowning at the group, "I'm no one important."
At this, the group looked between one another, as if debating what to do.

"I suppose, since Konoha is already at war with Iwa, and you'd be blind to not notice Suna's almost ready to declare war... Well, I don't think anyone of important would be around here along with you three. Correct?"
Watching as Obito's face paled slightly, Kushina clenched her fists and Naruto's eyebrows narrowed, the leader of the Kumo nin just laughed.

"Well, might as well take you all in as well, we were about to declare war on all three countries as well." And with that, bulk launched towards Obito.

Minato shivered slightly in the training grounds, leaving his side open and allowing Kakashi to take advantage with a vicious kick to his ribs. Dropping to the ground, more from the need to think than from the injury to his ribs, Minato let himself stare up at the sky, trying to figure out why he was suddenly so worried. It was true that they were now at war with Iwa, and Suna was going to make it a three way battle any day now... But his thoughts were on Kumo. Sarutobi had made it no secret to the blond that he was not only being considered for the fourth Hokage -despite his young age- but he was also the frontrunner of the contenders. The only reason he didn't have the hat right now was because he wasn't well know enough. However, with war, this could solve that problem. And yet, he was so distracted because the Hokage had admitted to him that Kumo was being far too quiet than normal. They hadn't heard anything from the country for three months, without doubt the mountainous region was still growing in population, yet they weren't demanding any more exports from Konoha. There had been no contact at all, which had the Third sat on the edge of his seat and fully expecting the little slip of paper that'd say Kumo was to join this free-for-all.

"Sensei?" Rin bounded over, hands already glowing and more than ready to sort out her sensei's wounds. Ever since war had been announced, she'd been trying to learn medical ninjutsu, and she was coming along in leaps and bounds.

"It's okay Rin. I'm not injured... Just worried that's all."
At that, Kakashi snorted, dropping into a sitting position and frowning at the group.

"You shouldn't show emotions sensei. They'll just get you killed in the end," the silver haired boy grumbled, folding his arms yet raising a brow, asking Minato if he was allowed to share the information.

"I don't want either of you to repeat this, it could spread more panic and that is the last thing we want in the village at the movement... Hokage-sama is expecting Kumo to declare war on the other villages, including ourselves... So this war is going to become free-for-all."
Rin drew in so much air that Minato was surprised he had some left to breath. Kakashi shrugged at the girls gasp, running a hand through his hair before sighing.

"What about Kiri? Are they going to be fighting as well?" Rin whispered, looking at at sensei and expecting the worst.

"No, there's a relatively small chance of Kiri joining... In fact, Kakashi has more chance of getting accepted into the Uchiha Clan. Kiri are too busy fighting their own people at the moment. And don't worry about how many people we have to fight, we have the biggest population of all the villages and we're already calling back the vast majority of our spy's."

"But that's not what's bothering you, is it sensei?" Minato ground his teeth at Kakashi's question, he'd been rather hoping to avoid this little bit of conversation, however it would appear the Hatake wouldn't be letting him go without a full explanation.

"You're right Kakashi, what's bothering me the most, is that the Land of Hot Water is right next to Kumo. And who has just gone there?"

Rin's face dropped and even Kakashi suddenly looked edgy, sating "Obito" and "Naruto," respectively. The brunette didn't even have the nerve to look offended that Kakashi had pointed out Naruto before Obito, like he favoured her above them.

"Correct, both Obito and Naruto, along with Kushina, have gone to the Land of Hot Water. And we can only hope Kumo will hold off on their declaration till they get back."
Both pre-teens nodded sternly to one another, not daring to say anything else on the subject. Kakashi simply got up and began to train again, the wooden log he'd selected quickly taking the beating of it's life. Minato watched from the sidelines, head held in his hands because he couldn't shake off that bad feeling something horrible was going to happen.

Gah, this feels really rushed, and I terribly sorry because I've had such a block. But I hope it's okay. Hopefully the next chapter will be better. Tsunade's such a slippery slug.

In other news, this story has hit 13,000 views, 118 reviews, 126 alerts, 83 favs, is in 13 communities and with this chapters passes 40,000 words! Thank you all so much for your support!

Next chapter
Battle time!

Thanks for reviewing;

Big sis of 8- Wow, do you really have 8 siblings? How do you manage? And thanks, I love writing it, the only problem is when I get a block.

sinder8889- That'll come with Jiraiya's arrival, promise =) I prefer those two as well, Naruto and Asuma is just gonna be a bit of a play around.

Animefreak Amii- That's fine. Thanks, and I have a plan for Obito, involving Rin and Hayase (the other girl that likes him), so don't worry, I haven't forgotten Obi-kun.

yyh-ygo-fma- teehee, wait till they all try it out on Kakashi and Minato. And that's Kushina for you. Minato on the other hand... There will be blood. I wanna read icha icha too, just to see what Kakashi sees in it. And Obi-kun will live here!

harlequin320- Thank you, will do

Vaughn Tyler- Thanks!

Fk306 animelover- Thanks, sorry it was so long a wait.

VA842867- Thanks! And yes, as time goes on both Shisui and Itachi will become important players in the story.

Forbiden Light- And it shall continue to appear! And yeah, poor Kakashi indeed.

Eternal Cat Moon- There's a lot happening in the chapter -like you wanted-, I just can't seem to find a balance right now so it seems a little lopsided. Oppies. Thanks for reviewing!

Read and review people?

Lot's of love,
Tsume