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Thank you and please enjoy
From the Other Side
-Chapter 14-
-Last Time-
"Huh, sounds like some poor sap broke the golden rule." The one on the left said.
"Someone was dumb enough to take the last dango from the breakroom?" Asked the right one.
"No you dingus, never admit you had sex on a mission."
"Oh…. Man what a moron."
-And Now, Naruto's apartment-
"Ow, ow, ow," Naruto whimpered as he flopped into his recliner with a bag of ice hugged to his crotch. "By Kami this hurts, I never want to go through this again."
"Agreed," Artemis said from her own seat with Teisho on her lap, gently swatting the lamia's hands whenever she tried to fiddle with the new braces in her mouth. She'd forgotten to sever her connection to Naruto's senses while Tsunade had done the tests, so she'd ended up feeling the whole process as well. 'I'd rather go on a shopping with Aphrodite again than repeat that experience.'
As soon as this thought passed through her mind, the moon goddess paused when she felt an odd tingling sensation in her chest. Thinking it was Teisho's tail tickling her, she instinctually reached up to brush it away, only to blink in confusion when she felt nothing there.
Looking down, she confirmed that the small snake girl was still on her lap like she thought, but her tail was neatly curled up underneath her with the end being used as a headrest. Before she could contemplate this oddity for long though, her attention was drawn away by the sound of the window sliding open.
"Hello gakis!" Jiraiya said boisterously while he casually hopped into the apartment and did a silly pose. "Did you two miss me?"
'Oh great, this idiot, just what I needed right now.' Artemis thought sarcastically, fixing the old man with an irritated glare.
"Ugh, what do you want Ero-sennin? Aren't you supposed to be out spying on people or something?" Naruto asked dully as he shifted around in his seat, small jolts of pain rushing through him with every movement. "And I swear if it's because you want me to do the Orioke no Jutsu for your 'research' again I will tell Tsunade-baachan that you have a picture of her in the hotsprings."
"How did you… Er, ehem, I mean," Jiraiya stumbled on his words as he tried to regain his composure. "Nothing like that gaki, I'm actually here on business."
"And what business would that be Lágnos?" Artemis asked, wanting to spend as little time as possible in this man's presence as possible.
"Well that should be obvious, shouldn't it?" Jiraiya asked back as he walked over to Naruto with an expectant look.
Said whiskered blonde sighed before lifting up his shirt and channeling chakra, causing a complex sun-like seal to appear on his stomach and a chain tattoo that coiled around his torso all the way up to the back of his neck where the chain connecting him to Artemis emerged.
Once it was fully visible Jiraiya leaned in close and carefully looked over the seal with a critical eye for several minutes before backing off. "Alright, everything seems to be alright still, no signs of degradation or damage."
"I could have told you that, I live in that damn thing after all." Artemis said while tugging on the chain sticking out of her neck for emphasis.
"And out of the two of us, which one is a seal master?" Jiraiya asked rhetorically, making the moon goddess grit her teeth in annoyance.
"If that's true then why can't you let Arty-neechan out already?" Naruto asked as he pulled his shirt back down.
"It's too much of a risk, the person who set that up made so many redundancies and traps that it would take me years just to find all of them, let alone disable or avoid." The pervert said with a shake of his head.
"Okay, then why don't we just get that person to-"
"They/She are/is dead." Jiraiya and Artemis cut in at the same time, making Naruto pout with a snap of his fingers, not noticing the slight amount of guilt that crossed Artemis's face.
She hadn't told him that it was his mother's spirit that had locked her inside of his soul, figuring that it would have just caused unneeded strife between the two of them and she needed him as cooperative as possible.
'Besides, all telling him now would do is upset him.' The goddess thought with a shake of her head before returning her attention back to Jiraiya. "Alright Lágnos, you did what you needed to do, now leave."
"Ohoho, so eager to see me leave? I'm hurt gaki-chan, I thought we were friends." Jiraiya said with a mock sad face, casually dodging out of the way of the knife that was thrown at his head. "I didn't just come here to check up on the seal, in fact that was actually just an afterthought I had after I got here."
"What? Then why are you here Ero-sennin?" Naruto asked with a raised brow. Instead of getting a verbal response though, he caught a small scroll that the self-proclaimed super pervert tossed to him. Confused and curious, he opened up the roll of parchment and quickly read its contents with Artemis joining him a few seconds later.
Urgent Notice:
Due to recent unfortunate events, all newly graduated genin will be temporarily assigned to a sensei for seven days of individual training and evaluation.
By order of Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage
"Oh Kami, does this mean what I think it mean?" Naruto asked as he and the goddess slowly turned their heads towards Jiraiya with looks of dread, only made worse when they saw the wide grin on his face.
"Starting today, you are going to be my new student… well students."
…
"Kuso." "Skatá." Naruto and Artemis swore at the same time with drooped heads.
"Hey! What's with the attitude? You're going to get training from one of the Sannin. I'll have you know that anyone else would be honored to have me as their teacher." Jiraiya said with a huff.
"Whatever you say Ero-sennin." Naruto said while waving the old man off.
"No respect these days," Jiraiya grumbled under his breath as he walked over to the window he'd come in from. "Anyway, I expect the both of you to be at training ground three in two hours and ready for a lot of pain."
With his piece said, Jiraiya gave the pair a salute before leaping out the window and vanishing into the village.
"I cannot stand that man, his presence is intolerable," Artemis said through grit teeth as she stood up, causing Teisho to slither up to her shoulder. "Just being near him makes me want to eviscerate something."
"I know, but Hokage-Jiji says we have to work with him, so we don't have a lot of choice in the matter." Naruto said with a shrug as the moon goddess growled softly before standing up with a small wince. "Now come on, we have two hours until then and I want to go see how Shikamaru, Sakura-chan, and Sasuke-teme are doing finally, maybe raid the med storage for some pain killers while we're at it."
"We might as well." Artemis said with a shrug, picking Teisho up off his shoulder and handing her over to Naruto before dispelling. "Now hurry up, those pain killers sound really nice right now."
What could she say, she was tired of feeling phantom pains in her crotch.
'Hai Arty-neechan.' Naruto thought before hopping out the window like Jiraiya had.
Twenty minutes of roof hopping later, he arrived at Konoha's hospital and after a bit of asking around, getting lost twice, and a quick stop for some pain killers, soon found himself inside Shikamaru and Sasuke's room.
Shikamaru had his usual bored look on his face, his bed raised to just the right level that he could read the book he was holding, How to Find the Best Cloud Watching Spot, while occasionally moving one of the pieces on the rotating shogi board sitting across his lap or eat a chip from the bag beside him every few minutes or so.
Meanwhile Sasuke looked a mixture between infuriated and depressed as a doctor had him look through a phoropter. "Which one is better Uchiha-san, one or two?"
"One."
Deciding wisely (for once) to leave that ticking bomb for later, the whiskered blonde walked over to Shikamaru and waved. "Hey Shika, I heard you guys ended up in a bit of a mess while on mission."
"It was troublesome." The lazy boy stated, not taking his eyes off his book as he idly moved another piece.
"Says the guy who thinks breathing is more trouble than it's worth at times." Naruto said, chuckling when Shikamaru shrugged in response. "But seriously, how are you doing buddy?"
"No lasting issues, they'll be releasing me tomorrow." Shikamaru said with another shrug.
"That's good to hear, I also came by to introduce you to my new friend, say hi Teisho-chan." Naruto said while petting the lamia's head gently.
"Hmmmm~"
Finally looking away from his book, the lazy Nara glanced at the snake girl with a cocked brow before going back to his book. "How troublesome, Choji told me about her earlier."
"Ah, should have figured he would." Naruto said with a chuckle. "So I-"
"Go on Naruto, we both know that I'm not the one you want to see right now," Shikamaru cut him off while pointing to the door. "Sakura is in room 207 of the Urgent Care Recovery ward."
"He's perceptive as ever," Artemis said, feeling a small amount of respect for the spiky haired boy's ability to read others. "Take away his laziness and he'd be an ideal man for Athena have one of her brain children with."
Unable to deny the lazy boy's statement, and ignoring Artemis's 'crazy moment', Naruto sighed as he walked towards the door. "Thanks Shikamaru, I'll talk to you later then."
"Yeah, sure Naruto, whatever you say." Shikamaru said with a lazy wave of his hand, thankful that the book he was holding hid the guilt covering his face.
"Later Teme, good luck with… whatever it is you're doing." Naruto said unsurely, not having a clue at what that weird eye device Sasuke was looking through. Said broody team responded by flipping Naruto the bird, getting the whiskered boy to chuckle as he left.
Back in the hallway, Naruto walked to the other side of hospital where U.C.R. was and after a bit more looking around found the room Shikamaru had told him was Sakura's. Pushing the door open and stepping inside, his breath caught in his throat as he saw the condition his crush was in.
Sakura, who had been lost in her thoughts since her conversation with Ino, was jolted back to the present when she heard a shocked gasp. Looking to see who it was, the pinkette blinked in surprise when she was greeted by the sight of Naruto rushing over to her.
"Sakura-chan! Oh Kami, are you alright? What happened? How are you feeling?" These were just a few of the questions that flew from the blonde's mouth as he knelt beside her bed with a look of worry.
Stunned by his concern, sudden entrance, and rapid questioning, Sakura responded with the ever-intelligent response of: "…What?"
Of course, Naruto wasn't deterred for a second as he zipped around the crippled pinkette worriedly. "Do you need anything? Are you comfortable? Are you-"
"Naruto!" Sakura yelled once she finally managed to regain her wits, causing the whiskered boy to freeze in place. "Calm down you ba… I'm alright, mostly."
"Oh right, sorry Sakura-chan." Naruto muttered sheepishly, missing Sakura's brief hesitation when she spoke. Artemis did not however, and within the seal her gaze narrowed as she watched the armless pinkette through Naruto's eyes. "It's just that I heard what happened then I saw you there and I was so worried."
"It's alright, I've been getting that a lot lately." Sakura said slowly and neutrally, like she was carefully picking out the words to say. Naruto didn't think twice about it, figuring she was just shaken up from her recent trauma.
Because what reasonable person wouldn't be shaken after having their arms cut off? ("Hey! I had both my arms torn off and you don't see me bitching!" I said reasonable Deidara, not bat-shit crazy. "I'm not crazy, you're just jealous of my art!" Oh, don't you da-*Boom*)
Artemis knew better.
She'd had many young girls of various ages join her hunt throughout her existence, most of which had been in varying states of emotional and physical distress, the latter of which usually ended with her shooting some foolish male mortal. As such, she was easily able to recognize this girl's actions as one of unsureness and self-confusion instead of unease and depression.
'Somebody gave her a reality check, and a big one by the looks of it.' Artemis thought, having seen similar reactions when she or her more experienced hunters would help girls who had been in denial about something. 'Question is, what was it about?'
"Still, I heard you were hurt, but I didn't think… I'm sorry this happened to you." Naruto said, struggling to come up with something to say that would make her feel better.
"You and me both," Sakura muttered, looking down at her 'arms' sadly as she wiggled the useless stubs. Shaking her head to clear the depressing thoughts, Sakura looked around quickly for something to change the subject before settling her sights on Naruto's shoulder. "Sooo, you gonna introduce me to your little friend there or what?"
Blinking in confusion for a few seconds, Naruto smiled widely once he realized who she was talking about and gently nudged Teisho, who had started to doze. Waking up with a slight start, the little lamia looked at Naruto with a confused hum.
"Hey Teisho-chan, look, someone wants to meet you." Naruto told her while pointing to Sakura, causing the snake girl to look at the pinkette before slithering down the extended arm. When she reached his hand, her tail coiled up around the forearm and she leaped onto Sakura's bed, her wings fluttering slightly as she 'soared'.
"Sakura-chan, Teisho-chan, Teisho-chan, Sakura-chan." Naruto introduced simply, not feeling the need to say more as he watched Teisho slither up and settle onto Sakura's chest, staring straight into the pinkette's green eyes with her amber ones brimming with innocent curiosity.
"Hello Teisho-chan, aren't you a cute little thing." Sakura said, smiling softly with a slight tilt of her head, inwardly squealing in delight when Teisho mimicked her.
"Hmmmm~"
"Daww, you have such a sweet voice too." Sakura gushed while using her longer arm stub to pet Teisho before squealing aloud when the little lamia started snuggling against her cheek.
On the side, Naruto grinned as he saw his crush cheer up a little bit thanks to Teisho's antics, chuckling a bit when she started unintentionally tickling Sakura with her wings. "Sorry to interrupt such a sweet moment, but we need to get going Naruto."
Glancing up at a nearby clock, the blonde swore under his breath as he saw that he had barely twenty minutes until Jiraiya expected them at training ground three. 'Aw crap, the training grounds are on the other side of the village.'
Looking back at Sakura though, Naruto bit his lip as he watched the crippled girl smiling and laughing as Teisho played with her. Not wanting to break the two up after such a short amount of time, Naruto tried to come up with a solution without avail.
*Sigh* "Just leave Teisho here with a clone to watch her." Artemis stated in exasperation, moments like this reminding her that her 'landlord' wasn't the smartest individual. "We can't take her to training anyway, she might get hurt."
'Oh right,' Naruto thought sheepishly as he quickly formed said clone, startling Sakura by accident when the doppelganger appeared in a poof of smoke. "You know what to do."
'What? When could Naruto make clones? And solid ones at that?' She asked herself in shock as the Kage Bunshin saluted Naruto before walking over to her bedside and taking a seat.
"Sorry Sakura-chan but I have to go, hope you don't mind me leaving Teisho-chan here with you for a bit, if you need anything ask the clone, bye." Naruto said quickly as he rushed out of the room.
"Uh… alright then." Sakura muttered awkwardly, her eyes flickering from Clone Naruto and the door in confusion while Teisho curled up in the crook of her neck and fell asleep. 'I'm starting to think I'm in a coma, cause I'm pretty sure the worlds going loopy.'
Hopping across Konoha as fast as he could, Naruto landed in training ground three with less than a minute to spare. Said training ground consisted of a large clearing surrounded by thick forests with a river cutting through one side.
In the middle of the clearing stood three wooden post, with Jiraiya sitting on the middle one with an amused look on his face. "You're cutting it a little close there gaki. What took you so long?"
"Just checking up on my friends really quick," Naruto said with a shrug, "Now what kinda training are we doing Ero-sennin? Fighting? New Jutsu?"
"All in good time gaki, all in good time," Jiraiya said while hopping off the post, landing beside the whiskered blonde with a goofy grin as he patted the boy's back. "But first, I've been hearing rumors that somebody got to have a little fun with a princess while on mission."
"Ugh, not this kuso again." Naruto groaned in annoyance while sending the old pervert a withering glare. "I'll say it once, and only once, do not ask or else."
"Oh come on gaki, you gotta tell me something, just a few details!" Jiraiya begged as he pulled out a notepad and pen. "What did she look like? Did she have big boobs? How long did you two go at it? What positi- Hey, where are you going?"
"To Tsunade-baachan's place! Let's see how she likes those pictures of yours!" Naruto yelled as he bolted off, causing Jiraiya to gain an alarmed expression before giving chase.
"NO! ANYTHING BUT THAT!"
"I warned you Ero-sennin!"
Jiraiya learned two things this day…
It is physically possible to tie a person into a knot, and Uzumakis do not bluff.
-End Chapter-
Translations:
Lagnos: Lecher
Skata: Shit
AN: Filler chapter, sorry. But don't worry, the action will be kicking up again soon. Thank you for reading and please review.