Fox in the Maiden's Garden was a best seller within two days of being released for the public. And as promised, Kankuro and Gaara got first editions once it was printed. Signed first editions.

It sold out in stores once the lonely perverts of the world realized it was a better written and better quality porn book. It outsold Icha Icha within weeks.

To be fair, Naruko had help writing it. Nina could at least spell check and correct the grammar without passing out from a nosebleed. Naruko wrote the porn and the battle scenes while Nina wrote the romance and the main story.

Jiraiya didn't know whether to be impressed or jealous.

Impressed that his goddaughter was able to write a book (considering her grades at the Academy) or jealous that she was able to get on the best seller within three days of printing, when it took him a full two months when he first made Icha Icha.

Kakashi was still moping over the fact that his ex-student and her girlfriend wrote the book, yet he wasn't slated for the extra rare, platinum first editions signed by the authoress herself. They were extremely rare because somehow or another, Naruko conned Nozomi into posing with almost no clothing on for the picture in the back while Naruko was in her Oiroke henge in a compromising pose next to her better half.

Needless to say, Gaara and Kankuro had to be taken in for blood transfusions once they realized what was posted in the back...and signed to boot.

The irony was that the book also boosted Gaara's reputation and increased the revenue of Suna...because they were the first to get the shipment of the new books. All because he happened to be good friends with Naruko, who made sure to send some his way first.

Shinobi from all over would come to Suna once the second book came out, once word spread they got them first. Uzushio was a close second, but they had the common sense to sell them on the shoreline in a newly built bookstore that was host to three Otome and their 'Master'.

It was ironic that the recently revived shinobi village got most of it's renewed revenue from selling porn based on the night activities of their clan head and village leader. A fact that was not lost on Naruko.

She was already planning a second book on her talks with Shizuru-nee-sama and the Headmistress. It wasn't like the Bewitching Smile Amethyst cared if Naruko published their private life...at least she asked first.

Nina had given up trying to contain her girlfriend. At least Naruko was willing to wait until Arika finally admitted she had a thing for her Master Mashiro, despite the fact they were underage in Windbloom to get up to that sort of thing.

"So...when is Leader-chan going to visit us? I did say that I had a guy I wanted to introduce her to," said Naruko.

"She said she would rather wait until he turns at least sixteen before she would consider it."

"She is aware Gaara turns sixteen in three months, right?"

"Nope."

"I wonder how Gaara will like the birthday present I plan to send him?"

"I was wondering why you were video taping...that..." said Nozomi blushing. Exposure to Big Sister Nao had managed to remove some of the issues she had with that sort of thing. At least Naruko told her what she was doing and didn't bother to hide the camera.

"What's a few home videos between friends?" grinned Naruko unrepentantly.

If she had known Gaara was a pervert (but at least he openly admitted it, unlike Ebisu), she would have introduce him to her Oiroke and Harem jutsu years ago. Kami knew he needed some fun out of life, with how crappy it had been before she saved him.

As it was, she fully planned to give him a boost in fighting power...and get laid, couldn't forget that.

Temari, when she heard of such plans (shortly after waking up both brothers and forcing them to clean up the blood) started howling with laughter.

Naruko Uzumaki was many things, but boring was not one of them. Or predictable.

Naruko hated the formal robes that Nozomi forced her into. She hated being so constricted. She hated being so uptight. She hated being formal period.

Why was she doing this again? Oh yes, Nozomi promised to let her have a bit of fun once this was over and the shinobi diplomats left.

Ever since she published that book with a yuri pairing, they had been getting multiple requests from shinobi villages for the chance to sell them almost as quickly as Suna got them.

And so Naruko, the crafty bitch that she was, had come up with an ingenious solution.

She was going to bribe the kages and various leaders of said villages with first editions (though not like the ones she sent Gaara and Kankuro, unless she liked them) in exchange for trade routes and the chance for them to become part of the Chunin exam roster.

Only certain villages with the agreement of at least three kages could get onto the roster, which always boosted revenue and prestige. A small village could become a noted one if they could get on that. It would go a long way to restoring her homeland.

Besides, she had her own way of getting back at Nina for this atrocity. She had another book she was planning to print (with someone else doing the editing) as a surprise. Nina had already agreed to edit her next book, Fox in the Forest of Fire for her.

It was basically a much nicer way of telling how she grew up...the other one, which was her payback at Nina, was Hidden Princess in the Garden of Lilies.

Basically her life as the true princess of Windbloom hiding in plain sight as the number one Otome of Garderobe.

Naruko was reminded to stand up straight by Nina's subtle yank on the lone section of hair that was left untouched by braids just for that purpose.

The blond sighed. She hated politics. If she ruled the world, that would be the second thing to go...the first being any and all forms of paperwork.

To her annoyance, her traitorous clan all snickered at her misery of wearing 'formal' outfits and being forced to act civilized just for the sake of funding the village.

Naruko meet with delegations from Kumo, Kiri (who were hoping for a treaty to help finish the bloodline war once and for all), Kusa (which brought out an unexpected relative by the name of Karin), the recently renamed Spring village (formerly Snow), Flower, and Waterfall.

Iwa would have sent their own, but Tsunade had revealed Naruko was the daughter of the Fourth Hokage (and boy, was the Konoha Council kicking itself for allowing the daughter of their beloved Fourth go to lead another village, even if it was a former ally). Iwa was still pissed about the fact the Fourth Hokage had decimated their people during the last war.

Naruko hoped that she could mend some of the damage with her books...and the offer to let them have the second shipment, since Suna got the first one. She didn't need more enemies.

"Welcome to the recently rebuilt Uzushiogakure. This is my partner Nozomi," said Naruko formally. Nina bowed and remained attentive. It was very clear she was also Naruko's lover as well as her bodyguard, just from her posture alone.

Naruko lead them into a large room, and began to parcel out the shipment schedules along with concessions. Or in the case of Waterfall, the agreement that they could dump their jinchuriki on her and get two free shipments of the books to be published. Kumo agreed to send one of their own Jinchuriki to act as a diplomat and hopefully send some of the Otome their way... Naruko was quick to warn them that using the girls as broodmares wouldn't work, as it would render their powers useless.

Not to mention piss her off.

By the time they had left for the hotel, Naruko leaned back.

"Gah! I hate politics! Being nice to jerks like that creep from Waterfall..."

Nina kept her silence, but she agreed completely. Kusa was more tolerable than Waterfall.

By the time they left, twenty more Otome would be getting jobs, and two Jinchuriki would be making their way to Uzu. Karin, the cousin that had somehow not heard about the village being brought back, would be staying as a peacekeeping gesture on part of Kusa.

Well that and she was completely enamored with Nina for some reason. Apparently she liked raven-haired and intelligent people.

Considering the only other person who fit those criteria was Sasuke, Naruko was glad that her cousin had narrowly avoided falling for that asshole.

Gaara looked up when he saw Machiko, one of his new personal Otome guards, arrive with a package.

"Thank you, Machiko-chan," he told her.

Machiko blushed. Most of his guard seemed to have developed a crush on him, to the amusement of his siblings. He had to admit, they were better behaved than most shinobi. After all, hardly anyone would consider a girl with no chakra to speak of wearing those frilly outfits to be a threat...at least not until Gaara gave them the order to attack.

Gaara opened up the package. Inside were two copies of the newest book.

Three Lilies in the Garden.

He had Machiko deliver the second one to Kankuro, before opening the back.

'Hey Gaara, you won't believe this but apparently one of my cousins doesn't mind having regular threesomes. Though she seems more attached to Nina-chan than she is me outside the bedroom. Looks like I have a second assistant~!

Love, Naruko'

Gaara barely managed to staunch the nosebleed before it ruined the book. Not that it would, considering Naruko had a habit of insuring the covers were lined in plastic for just that reason.

Inside was a picture of Naruko and her presumed cousin wearing barely anything at all while Nina wore something that could barely qualify as clothing. This was almost as amusing as her 'birthday' present she sent him a week early. It was a good thing he had read the note first, otherwise he would have had to deal with the awkward situation of Kankuro stealing the movie once he realized what was on it.

As it was, he had to fight Temari for it when she was told.

There was another note inside the book, which he found once he opened it.

'Gaara, Midori said she can free up her schedule so we can start moving some of her people to Suna in a month. They're already used to living with limited resources, but I would definitely recommend having them go out to kill some of the bigger, more dangerous species so you can sell the meat. It's how they've been surviving until now.

I hope you two can get along!'

Because of the bad blood between Midori's people and those they had attacked over the years (not to mention the horrific case of chakra poisoning they were stuck with), Naruko felt giving them a clean break would help both parties.

Suna would recover from the failed invasion without having to share with Konoha, Midori would finally get a boyfriend and Gaara would have someone who could help with the paperwork. Best of all was that the children, who were already suffering from the symptoms that plagued the small village, would have a better shot of removing the problem altogether with some shinobi training.

Good thing they were already used to desert conditions.

Midori was leading most of her people to Sunagakure. Partly because Naruko had worked out an agreement with the leader of the village, but also because she had hinted that the one who lead it wouldn't be off-put by the fact she was older than she looked.

At this point it was almost impossible to find anyone who she liked that wouldn't take advantage of her or her people.

Close to them was a small contingent of Otome graduates who had trouble getting work after they left Garderobe. There were only a small number of girls who managed to earn a GEM, and out of those there were countless others who were stuck with an education that couldn't get them a job.

Though recently the number of jobless Otome had started dropping dramatically.

Soon the sand-colored walls came into view.

They were greeted by a red-haired man, little more than a teenager really, along with a girl with sandy blond and one wearing make-up with what appeared to be a human-sized doll of some kind.

"Welcome to Suna."

Midori, once she was sure her people would settle in easily along with the new shipment of Otome who would act as guards for the Suna council, followed the red head wearing the formal robes to the village head office.

That was when she got the shock of her life. The red head was the village leader!

Gaara (the red head) took one look at her and sighed.

"You wouldn't happen to be the same Midori Naruko-chan insists on setting me up with are you?"

She nodded slowly.

"I swear she causes more trouble than she can deal with."

"So you're not upset about the fact she's trying to set you up with a woman who could easily be twice your age?" asked Midori. It sure as hell would have bothered her. Thank the gods she wasn't a damn noblewoman.

"It was either use her suggestion as a way to explain why the people of the Black Valley moved here instead of Konoha, or deal with some other simpering female who was picked 'completely by coincidence' by my own council. The fact most of the girls they've brought to my attention was related or closely connected to one member or another had no bearing on it, I'm sure. And frankly I trust her judgment a hell of a lot more than I do theirs," said Gaara flatly.

Yes, Midori was possibly old enough to be his mother, but frankly she was far more appealing than some idiot girl the council tried to saddle him with as a wife or partner. He had never been more thankful for the fact that the council still worried about his homicidal tendencies than when he took the mantle of Kage. A little movement from his sand, and the girls couldn't leave fast enough.

Midori snorted in outright amusement. Perhaps this wouldn't be a bad arrangement after all.

As Naruko explained, shinobi lived fast, died young, and if they were lucky went out in a blaze of glory that would be remembered by future generations.