The Missing Hokage
25: Planning for the Future
Yuuhi Kurenai woke to the not-entirely-uncomfortable feeling of a very grabby kunoichi attached firmly to her back in the cramped confines of her sleeping bag. Rolling her eyes in exasperation, Kurenai carefully disentangled herself from her younger friend and rolled out of the bag. The cold air hitting her exposed skin made her immensely grateful she had decided to sleep mostly clothed. Quickly throwing on her nearby sandals and jacket, Kurenai glanced around the camp to take stock of their surroundings. The few toads Jiraiya had summoned the night before to keep watch were gone, as was the Sage himself. Below her, Hana had curled into herself and drawn the rest of the sleeping bag closed. Nearby, Ichiraku Ayame slept peacefully in her own bag. Kurenai hummed in observation at that—the girl was no kunoichi, though she knew from both observation and questioning her that Ayame, like a majority of those in that age range, had at least been through basic academy training up to the genin exam. Ayame, by her own words, had at least kept up with the requisite genin exercise regimen—though mostly to maintain her figure and because she, like any woman, didn't like feeling defenceless. The waitress/ramen chef had even packed like a ninja—basic essentials only, and light for fast travel, even though it wasn't needed when they had sealed all of their gear into scrolls anyway.
Turning her attention away from her traveling companions, present and missing, Kurenai extended her senses and felt for the threads of chakra making up the genjutsu she had layered over the area the previous night. Satisfied that it was still in place and undamaged, Kurenai followed the chakra back to its anchor point and broke it, dropping the genjutsu that would have shown anyone passing through just more of the same empty field as opposed to the camp-site underneath. That done, the jonin restarted the fire that had burned down during the night with the last of the wood Hana had gathered. Rummaging around in her supplies, Kurenai came up with a kettle and the makings for tea, along with a cup for herself. Putting the water on to boil, the red-eyed jonin went in search of the missing Sannin. It didn't take her long to find him, sitting against one of the few large trees in the area and facing the sun rising in the distance. The Sannin didn't look up from where he was studying the crystal ball—which she knew she still had when she had gone to sleep the previous night—though Kurenai knew he was aware of her approach.
Glancing over the Sannin's shoulder, she took in the scene playing out in the sphere. Once again, it was focused on Naruto and Hinata—though it seemed the two had shifted in their sleep, the blond with both arms firmly around the former Hyuuga and his face buried in the valley of her breasts. Hinata didn't seem to mind—in fact, it looked more like she had either encouraged it or had dragged him there some time during the night, as her own arms were holding the boy's head firmly in place. A closer inspection showed that Hinata's shirt had ridden up and she was probably bare from the breasts down, though the sleeping bag made it impossible to confirm—with the exception that Kurenai now knew for a fact that her student wasn't wearing a bra. Around them, the others were beginning to stir as their camp-site was slowly brightening—it was noticeably brighter than their own, Kurenai noted, which put them a few hundred kilometers east of their position at the least. The only person awake at the moment on that side of the sphere seemed to be Tsunade, who was doing much the same as Jiraiya and Kurenai were—that is, looking on the pair and waiting for the inevitable embarrassment.
"What have I told you about peeping on my student?" Kurenai asked, her tone warning, though both she and the Sannin knew she likely wouldn't do anything about it seeing as she was equally guilty. That, and Jiraiya didn't seem to be peeping so much as looking on fondly, just as she was—though he hid it better.
After a moment, Jiraiya made a quiet observation that would leave Kurenai something to think on for some time to come. "She's just like her mother was, during her genin days."
"Mm?" Kurenai hummed inquisitively, sensing juicy gossip material and urging the Sannin to elaborate.
"She had this huge crush on Minato," the Sannin continued. "She did stuff like that all the time." After a moment, the old ninja chuckled before continuing. "Of course, Minato earned another nickname during his tenure as Hokage with good reason. 'Blondaime Hokage' was completely oblivious to anything even resembling a hint."
"So, what happened?" Kurenai asked, sitting beside the Sannin to get a better view of the sphere, where the pair centered therein were beginning to stir. To Kurenai's mild disappointment, Naruto's only reaction on waking to a face-full of breasts was to yawn and pull Hinata's shirt back into place. The look of fond irritation that passed over Hinata's face was not missed by either of the Sannin or the genjutsu mistress. This, of course, lead Kurenai to wonder exactly how far along her once nearly terminally shy student had developed away from Konoha and the Hyuuga clan.
Jiraiya shook his head and pocketed the sphere before standing and offering Kurenai a hand up. "Well, they grew up. This cute little redhead came along and had her way with Minato—pretty much the only way he'd ever take a clue was if someone beat him over the head with one, and Kushina did. Repeatedly. Hoshino... never really grew out of her crush on Minato, but she went on to 'hold true to her duty to the clan.'" The Sannin snorted, leading Kurenai to suspect the woman had used those words exactly. "Hiashi was less of a jackass back then, but still a jackass. I think he knew about it, and that's why he hated Minato. Oh, Hiashi respected him for sure, but never trusted him beyond his capacity as Hokage and a ninja of the Leaf. A few years later, Kushina died giving birth to Naruto—or so the official story goes. That woman was healthy as a horse and I've had my doubts on that theory for a while. A couple of months after that, Hinata was born. Considering what I found in Minato's home, I think they planned it."
Throwing the Sannin a puzzled look, Kurenai hummed in thought before coming to the obvious conclusion. Hiashi's marriage had been arranged well before he and Hizashi were conceived and rumor had it, Hiashi's was a loveless marriage. Hinata's mother had tolerated Hiashi, even liked him, but there had been no love there if murmurings within the branch house of the clan and now Jiraiya's own observations were correct. "What exactly did you find?"
Jiraiya smirked. "Betrothal contracts."
The red-eyed jonin blinked, asking, "Plural?"
"Yup," the Sannin nodded. "Nothing that would have forced either of Hiashi's daughters to marry, but seeing as they were both to Yondaime's heir, they would have preempted pretty much any attempts on the clan elders' or Hiashi's part to marry either girl off. They're worded fairly openly. Basically, until they decide for themselves otherwise or until they turned twenty-five both Hinata and... oh what was that kid's name?"
"Hanabi."
Nodding his thanks, Jiraiya continued. "Right, Hanabi. Both of them are betrothed to Naruto until they choose otherwise or turn twenty-five. Present tense. They would have been, had Minato and Kushina survived the night, but as they didn't and Naruto was officially orphaned and claimed as a ward of the village—Sarutobi hid the truth pretty deep, but he kept the original birth certificate."
"And let me guess," Kurenai interrupted, "Before you made that announcement you went ahead and made it official on paper, turning over the Namikaze name to Naruto and pushing through those contracts." Seeing Jiraiya's smirk, Kurenai grinned. "Oh, Hiashi's going to be pissed when he finds out."
"Probably not, seeing as he already knew," Jiraiya corrected. "His signatures and personal hanko were on the contracts as well as Hoshino's, Minato's personal stamp and the Yondaime Hokage's seal, and Kushina's. I'm guessing that at the time, he thought it may be beneficial—or maybe he decided to be a little rebellious towards the clan elders. No one knows now but Hiashi. Of course, when Minato and Kushina died and Sarutobi forbade anyone who knew from disclosing Naruto's lineage, that put a damper on the plan."
They lapsed into silence for several minutes, until Kurenai broke it as the camp-site came into view. Ayame had woken up, dressed, and was sipping tea. Hana had yet to crawl out of the bag. "If you knew all of that, why didn't you come back? Or at least check in on them every now and then? You know, take up the responsibility they left to you?"
Jiraiya's shrug was not the answer she had been expecting. "I wasn't ready for it, I suppose. Really, I'm still not." Before Kurenai could continue, he motioned for her to be silent. "I won't blame him if he thinks that isn't good enough. If he'll let me, I'll own up to my mistake and try to make up for it. If not... Well, I'm still going to try." Seeing the kunoichi nod, he quietly added, "And what I told you before? Keep it to yourself." At her questioning look, Jiraiya clarified, "The plan was to keep the contracts secret. The entire point behind them was to offer legal protection, not have the weight of arranged marriage hanging over their heads as it had with the girls' parents. Which is also why the four of them were the only signatories, with Minato using his position to make it official as opposed to going to one of the clerk's offices or having Sarutobi sign off on it."
Kurenai nodded. "I agree. I'd feel better giving them the choice. What about Hanabi though?"
"What about her?" Jiraiya asked dismissively. "There is no Hyuuga Elder Council any more—I had them killed myself, remember? As for Hiashi... well, he likely won't have to worry about it long. Likely, Hinata will decide to go after her on her own eventually and the Hyuuga main family will have lost both their heirs. Maybe that will be enough to end this Main House/Branch House bullshit. And if not, well... We may have a use for some disgruntled Hyuuga. Even if we only get the sealed Branch and there are still Main House Hyuuga out there with a grudge, we could always hide them until they can bear unsealed children."
"Recruiting already?"
The Toad Sannin smirked. "Well, a ninja village needs ninja. Depending on how things look in the future, we should probably try and sway some of the larger clans from Konoha. Well, that is, if Tsunade agrees and we decide to go through on Tsume's idea of just starting our own village. Orochimaru did it pretty much from the ground up with a few promises of power and a lot of missing-nin—we're already ahead of where he was when he started, seeing as we've got Konoha's funds at our disposal and we aren't wanted by the majority of the other villages."
"And how long will that last once word of Naruto's parentage spreads?" Kurenai asked, as they sat down around the camp-fire. Accepting a cup of tea from Ayame, Kurenai absently reached over and kicked the lump in her sleeping bag until Hana rolled out onto the cold ground.
"Huh? What time is it?" the Inuzuka heiress murmured sleepily, accepting a cup of tea absently.
"Almost time to clear out. I want to be on the move in half an hour. I've sent the toads ahead, but Suna's border is about as far as they can go—too dry further in and Suna's got some of the best chakra sensors of any of the hidden villages. Just showing up a few miles out from their village wouldn't look good, even if we're technically friendly." Turning his attention back to Kurenai, he answered, "As for Naruto... well, you know how the saying goes. 'Hope for the best, plan for the worst.'"
Kurenai blinked. "Tsunade told you to hold off on leaving, didn't she?" Seeing Jiraiya look like he had swallowed a bug, Kurenai rolled her eyes. "She's going to put you in a hospital for this. Especially for making Naruto an even bigger target than he already was."
"Probably," he agreed.
"So we're going to Suna to ask their demon vessel -turned-Kage, who happens to be a friend of Naruto-kun, for shelter and asylum if we ever need it?" Ayame asked, drawing a look from both the Sannin and Kurenai. After a moment, the ramen waitress rolled her eyes. "What? Just because I'm quiet doesn't mean I don't know what's going on. I was in the top ten of my class come graduation day. I'm not a ninja because daddy pitched a fit about his baby girl going off to kill people and because at the time I wanted to stick around and keep an eye on Naruto." Ayame left out the fact that she had intentionally flunked the practical on graduation day and had put in her withdrawal from the academy the next day.
After a beat, Kurenai smiled. "So, how do you feel about becoming a ninja?"
"Not interested," the waitress answered flatly.
"Too bad," the Sannin leered. "If you've got the skill, we're not going to let it go to waste. And you're dead on about why we're going. Sabaku no Gaara's bijuu gives him pretty much absolute control over sand. Suna is surrounded by the stuff, what with being in the middle of a desert. Trying to mass an attack against Suna with him watching over the place would be suicide, and the other villages know it."
"What do you plan to offer up in return?" Kurenai asked, out of curiosity.
Shrugging, Jiraiya answered, "Well, if Tsunade agrees, we could offer our services when they need them. I'm a seal master and she's the best medic in the Elemental Nations, despite what Chiyo—that's their own resident med-nin of grand-master skill—will undoubtedly say to the contrary. Those two don't really get along. And last I saw him, Gaara looked like he's been suffering sleep deprivation for years. His seal's likely faulty. If I could fix it, he'd owe us big."
When Hana finally achieved functional wakefulness, the foursome broke camp and took up a decent pace—well, decent considering they weren't trying to hurry so much as move away from the camp-site to appease Jiraiya's ingrained paranoia about staying in one place for too long while on the road. In the afternoon they stopped for lunch and shortly after, Kurenai put Ayame through a skill assessment test similar to the exam she had given her own team, though geared for one person as opposed to a team. Unfortunately for the ramen chef's daughter, Kurenai and Jiraiya both agreed that she passed despite her attempts otherwise. Shortly after that, Jiraiya summoned a toad and the foursome crossed through one toad to the other to find themselves on a grassy plain near the River/Wind border.
"Alright, this is as far as we go by toad. For the next day or two it's all day-travel through the desert. Suna's not that far in, so if we keep a decent pace we won't have to deal with it for too long. Hope you brought your insulated undies—nights are going to be cold." Looking between the three kunoichi, Jiraiya gestured towards the ground. "We'll rest here a while and then set out again in an hour or two." So saying, the Sannin dropped his gear, spread out a sleeping bag, and flopped down onto it. The wide-brimmed hat that came with his former position was unsealed from a scroll and pulled down over his eyes and Jiraiya proceeded to nap.
Of course, the morning wasn't quite as peaceful for some as it was for others.
"What do you mean, 'she's gone?'" Gone where?" Kiba asked, though he was careful to keep his irritation out of his voice. His mother frequently reminded him that she was still bigger and stronger than he was and could still keep him in line if she had to. At least she hadn't done it in public since he had started the academy.
"You always did take after your father more than me," Tsume lamented quietly, though Kiba heard it. Even if he hadn't, he'd heard that phrase enough to recognize when his mom was thinking it—usually any time he said or did anything a bit dumb. "Where do you think, idiot?" As he opened his mouth, she cut him off. "That was rhetorical!" Kiba's jaw snapped shut. "She left with Jiraiya-sama and some friends. They're probably going to meet up with Tsunade-sama."
Kiba blinked. "Well, that explains why she's been acting weird. So why'd Hana leave?"
Tsume rolled her eyes. "Because she thought it was the right thing to do. Besides, we need her there."
"What for?"
"Have you been into the village since last night?" Tsume asked in return. Seeing him shake his head, she continued. "Don't, unless you need to, and if you do then make it fast. Give things a while to settle down. Jiraiya hit them pretty hard and the civilians are stirred up like a hornet's nest."
"Oh come on, that thing about Naruto was just a joke or something, right? Everyone knows Yondaime never got married," Kiba pointed out. After all, the academy covered personal history lessons of the previous Hokages and what they knew of the Kages of the other villages.
"Trust me, it's true. And that isn't what has them so pissed—well, not all of it. Jiraiya emptied the treasury when he left. Rumor has it, he pilfered a lot off of the merchants too. And the libraries. And pretty much anything else that wasn't bolted down or buried. As it stands, Konoha is broke and pretty vulnerable at the moment. I'm surprised the ANBU were able to put down that riot last night without resorting to killing people."
"Why the library? There isn't much in the way of techniques actually written down, except maybe in clan collections." Kiba asked.
Tsume grinned. "No, there aren't any jutsu on scrolls in the main library above C-rank. Nothing that would be useful to the other villages or anyone stealing them, anyway. What it did have was history, science, literature, the arts—and a lot of it and more. Do you have any idea how many of the books and scrolls we had could be considered priceless? It's worth a fortune in and of itself, and the knowledge available is a huge asset. Hell, a good portion of it was summoned—not native by any means. Either from across the ocean or from who knows where. And he didn't just take the stuff from the main library, he took the stuff from the ANBU private library, the hospital library, even the academy library. Advanced jutsu theory, advanced chakra theory, medical knowledge, and even the basics to build up to that stuff. We're stuck teaching and learning by example and word of mouth until we can get or make replacements for the basics. All of the stuff most of you runts pass off as being useless? It actually has a purpose and with it gone, you're missing out on things you'll need later on in your ninja career. The ANBU stuff is just lost, since it was one of a kind. Konoha has no funds to pay our ninja, our ninja academy is crippled since we don't have the cash for it and most instructors won't be able to adapt to be worth anything without the books since no one can remember every facet of the lessons they teach, the private sector is fucked since anyone with any money held back is going to either sit on it or get the hell out of town and that means no tax revenue, and the Fire Lord is likely to start looking elsewhere for missions as we pretty much have to raise the price of missions and the quality of the coming generation of ninja is going to be in severe decline. And in case you haven't noticed, about every third woman is starting to show so we're in for a population boom soon. That's going to put more financial strain on those families, cutting into any disposable income they may have had and making them less inclined to spend on anything but the necessities." There was a reason Tsume was on the Council, and it wasn't just that she was the head of a major clan.
Little did Tsume know just how busy Jiraiya had really been. Between himself, Kurenai, Iruka, and Tenzo and those ANBU he trusted, Jiraiya had managed to ferret out nearly every business that had done Naruto even remotely wrong—anyone who had ever denied him service, overcharged him, or chased him out when other customers had come along. Every baker, every grocer, every clothing store, book store, weapon and gear supplier—not one had been spared, and every one of them had gone in either the previous night or this morning to find inventory gone, storage rooms emptied, and equipment missing, bare floors and walls leaving no sign that they had once been a prosperous business. Over the next few weeks, those with the resources to purchase new inventory would find it mysteriously gone the next morning, until eventually ninja would find the seals that had been at the root of the problem. Of course, the moment someone became aware of the seals they would self-destruct, setting fire to the buildings in question and starting the whole mess over again while leaving no real evidence behind and no way to use the seals to reclaim the pilfered material. The seal holding Kyuubi prisoner within Naruto was a prime example of what a genius could do with seals given some time and an idea of what needed to be done—and the Sannin who Yondaime had at one time called Master (if only on paper) had had years to develop seals that Minato simply hadn't.
"So where does Hana going with Jiraiya-sama come in?"
Lowering her voice, even though she knew they were alone and the room was clean of spying seals, Tsume answered, "The clan may be looking for somewhere to move to soon."
"What, leave Konoha?"
"Maybe," Tsume nodded. "Depends on if Tsunade and Jiraiya can get their shit together. I hate to say it, but this place could fall down around our ears any day now. We need her there to pass information back to us and let us know when it's time to hit the road."
Nodding, Kiba asked, "So, what do we do until then? Just wait around here and act like nothing's going on?"
"Pretty much. That, and keep an ear to the ground—feel out some of the other clans." Standing from the breakfast table, Tsume took up her plate and empty coffee mug and dumped them into the sink. "Well, come on. You likely won't have team practice or missions for a while and I need someone to fill the vacancy Hana left at the clinic."
"What?" Kiba jerked, the thought of having to deal with sick animals all day was not exactly appealing. Sure, he'd done it before and had tended to Akamaru when he was injured, but this sounded like a long-term reassignment. He had to find some way of getting out of it, otherwise he'd be stuck filling Hana's position indefinitely. "I kind of had plans to work with Akamaru on some new techniques," he tried.
"Bullshit," Tsume snorted. "Now, come on or I'll have you scraping shit out of the pens by hand for the rest of the day."
Resigned to his fate, Kiba put his own dishes away and followed. After all, arguing with his mother would get him exactly what she'd threatened and worse. "Today is going to suck."
The sun had turned the sky hues of orange and pink when Team Hokage dropped from the treetops a couple of kilometers outside of a small town known locally for its hot springs—one of many such towns scattered across Fire Country. "We're stopping there for the night," Tsunade announced, pointing towards the town visible in the distance, set in a valley between two small mountains—which were part of a chain of small mountains running across the eastern part of Fire Country and up into the neighboring land to the north until terminating at the sea between there and Lightning Country.
Glancing between Tsunade and the town, Shizune quickly produced a map of Fire Country and studied it a moment before letting out a sigh of relief. Beside her, Hinata hummed in question and Shizune tilted the map towards the younger girl. After studying it a moment, Hinata giggled. "I see," she managed to get out, around her small giggle fit.
"What?" Naruto asked, looking over at the map. After a moment, recognition dawned on the blond and he grinned. The map in question was a standard ninja-issue map, though this one had obviously been well used and was marked somewhat differently from other maps the blond had seen. What he found amusing though was that every town in Fire Country with so much as a pachinko parlor was marked. Several of them (the majority of them, actually) were marked further, with signs warning the reader to stay out of those towns. And beside those towns was a number, sometimes several digits long, that Naruto could only interpret as Tsunade's gambling debt in that town.
"Put that damn thing away," Tsunade grumbled. After a moment, she said, "I was thinking we could spend the night at one of the hot-spring inns."
Spotting the obvious distraction for what it was, Shizune smiled and rolled her map up before replacing it in her pack. "That would be nice," she agreed.
"A hot spring and some sake sound nice right about now," Anko agreed, drawing nods and murmurs of agreement from most of the others.
Casting a side-long glance at Hinata and seeing the small grin spread across her face, Temari roller her eyes. "What's got you so chipper?" she asked, though she had a pretty good idea as to exactly what that was. In all likelihood, the ex-Hyuuga would be using the night out as an excuse to finally make her move on Naruto.
The question drew the attention of the females of the group, causing Hinata's grin to spread just a little before she quickly hid it and adopted an innocent look. Tsunade snorted. "Ok, spill it. You look entirely too smug. What have you done?"
"Nothing," the girl answered, pulling Naruto closer to her side. The unspoken 'yet' was obvious to everyone there, save for the seemingly-oblivious boy at her side.
Glancing between the pair, Tsunade hummed in thought before she smirked. "You two have been spending an awful lot of time together lately, haven't you?" Seeing an annoyed look cross both teens' faces, Tsunade continued. "And Naruto's been showing marked improvement in his chakra control exercises the past few weeks..."
Hearing the Sannin's unasked question, Hinata relaxed somewhat, seeing that the woman had gone off on a tangent away from anything that would draw attention—Anko's in particular—towards the sleeping arrangements. The special-jonin in question had been particularly irritating since the group had returned to Otafuku Gai. Hinata wouldn't mind sharing, if not for the fact that the grabby kunoichi had a bad habit of interrupting her any time she worked up the nerve to try to do anything more with Naruto than they had already. Pulling her mind away from the special-jonin in question, lest her frustration on that front show and give the woman the satisfaction of seeing her effort paying off—or worse, encourage her—Hinata decided to force the Sannin to ask what it was she really wanted to ask. "Where are you going with this?"
Eye twitching at having her fun with implications cut off, Tsunade huffed in mock annoyance before pointing out, "I'm a Sannin you know. You don't get a special title for being stupid." Sending a smirk at Naruto, she couldn't resist adding, "Well, unless you're blond and a loudmouth..."
Shooting the eldest blonde a look of annoyance, Naruto deadpanned, "Sounds like someone I know."
"What was that, you brat?" Tsunade grumbled, grinding her fist into the top of the boy's head until he ducked down and moved to put Hinata between himself and Tsunade, upper set of ears laid back and tail twitching in annoyance.
Seeing her mentor looked in the mood to continue harassing the boy, Shizune decided a shove back on course was in order. "You were saying, Tsunade-shishou?"
Rolling her eyes, Tsunade continued. "I know you've been up late most nights playing with chakra. What have you been doing?"
"Well, as you know, some part of Kyuubi's chakra broke off from Naruto when we recovered him," Hinata started, drawing nods from most of those present. Yuugao looked concerned, but quickly hid it. Temari simply motioned for Hinata to continue. "Whatever Akatsuki did, they damaged the seal. Parts of it are missing and, until recently, it had been leaking."
"Leaking?" Anko asked, raising an eyebrow. "And what parts are missing?"
Hinata shrugged. "You know more about sealing that I do. But I'd say about a third or so is just gone. And yes, it was leaking a large amount of Kyuubi's chakra into Naruto-kun's chakra coils. Or it was, until I plugged the leak."
"How?" Shizune asked, then made an 'ahh' sound a moment later as the obvious answer came to mind.
"Jyuuken," the younger girl smiled. "But it's pretty much stopped for the last week or so."
"You're going to have to go into a bit more detail than that," Tsunade pointed out, though she was clearly intrigued. And somewhat upset that she hadn't been informed of this sooner.
Nodding, Hinata attempted to relay what she'd learned studying Naruto's seal. "Buried inside the normal pattern of the seal are nine points which, I'm guessing, are representative of Kyuubi's power—the tails, specifically. Four of the points are equal parts blue and red, and I think the others are supposed to be too—or most of them, anyway. When I first noticed it, four were fully red and bleeding the fox's chakra out into Naruto's own. The ninth was violet and also leaking, but not as much as the others. I've closed off the four that were red and they've gone back to looking like the other four, equal parts blue and red. The last one is still violet and starts leaking chakra again if I don't reapply jyuuken, so I think it's supposed to do that anyway."
"A constant supply of chakra from the fox, built into the seal?" Yuugao asked, drawing a speculative look from Tsunade. "It would make sense that Yondaime would want that available to him."
"It wasn't like that before," Hinata pointed out. Seeing looks urging her to continue, she said, "The chakra around the seal is visibly a different color to my byakugan, whereas before, it was just all blue."
"Could be a timer or something?" Anko shrugged. "We wouldn't know without looking over the original seal." So saying, she shot Tsunade a questioning look. "It is in the scroll, isn't it?"
The Sannin in question nodded. "It is, but knowing Minato, he probably kept half of it in his head. What we have is likely just the base seal for holding the fox in and the jutsu for summoning a shinigami. There's no telling what he actually did. Hell, if I remember correctly, Hiraishin was created on a spur of the moment."
"So, in other words, we don't know what the hell's going on with my seal and likely won't until either Ero-sennin can look at it or the fox decides to wake up from its nap," Naruto surmised.
"That's not true," Haku pointed out, drawing the others' attention as the ninja in question had been silent on the matter until then. "We know that it's still functioning and that it's supplying you with a steady flow of chakra which will cut the time it takes to replenish what you've used and will likely further speed your healing."
Naruto nodded. As he opened his mouth to say something, the blond disappeared in a cloud of smoke and chakra. Hinata blinked before calling out, "Naruto?"
From the trees around them, a Naruto clone dropped down from where a small group of them had been working on something most of the day. "Where'd I go?"
"That wasn't a clone?" Hinata asked, starting to worry.
Naruto shook his head. "No, that was me. The real me, that is. Hang on, I'll check." So saying, the blond dispersed.
"It's always something," Anko murmured, drawing several annoyed glares from the other ninja. "What? It's true! He's a trouble magnet!"
Tenten rolled her eyes before countering, "Pot, kettle, black."
And elsewhere, Naruto looked around before pointing at a grinning old man and yelling, "You!"
"Me," Jiraiya smirked.
"What the hell did you do, you old pervert! I was in the middle of something, damn it!" the boy protested, loudly, drawing snickers from Ayame, Hana, and an old toad at Jiraiya's feet. Kurenai kept quiet, but wasn't fighting the smile tugging at her lips.
"Well, I felt it was time we talked," Jiraiya explained before the impulse to tease won and he asked, "But first... exactly what were you in the middle of?"
Seeing the innuendo for what it was and sidestepping it, Naruto asked, "How'd you get me here?"
It was the toad at Jiraiya's feet that answered, an old and wrinkled thing that was puffing away at a long pipe. "The contract goes both ways, sonny."
Naruto blinked. And then blinked again as the implications dawned. "You summoned me?" he asked, to be sure. Seeing the toad nod, he decided to clarify. "Because I signed the contract?" Another nod. "Shit, let me see that thing!"
The elder toad blinked. "I don't have it."
"Then summon the guy who does!"
Picking up on the boy's tone, Jiraiya asked, "What?"
"You can't?" the toad asked, exhaling a small cloud of smoke and frowning up at the blond as he jumped and alighted on Jiraiya's shoulder. "I thought this one summoned Bunta," he tossed out to Jiraiya.
"He did, and it's a long story," Jiraiya murmured, gesturing towards the blond—specifically the red ears and tail prominently visible and flicking in agitation.
"Summon the goddamn contract toad," Naruto growled at the Sannin, who rolled his eyes before complying. All but snatching the contract away from the amphibian, Naruto quickly read over it. "Fuck." A moment later, the boy's head jerked up from the contract, turning towards the east. "I've got to get back."
"Nearly everyone there has signed the contract, brat," Jiraiya pointed out. "They can just summon a toad and the toad can summon you."
Naruto shot a look at the Sannin before handing the scroll back to the toad, who then disappeared. "That's if they think of it, or even know it can be done. To hell with that, I'm going now." So saying, the blond brought his hands up into the familiar last seal for Kage Bunshin. Two clones poof!ed into being before one of them dispelled.
And across Fire Country, another Naruto clone beside Hinata nodded. "That jackass," he rolled his eyes before pulling out a pen.
"What's going on?" Anko asked, watching as the blond added a few lines to a seal that had already been partially drawn on the underside of his arm.
Looking up, the clone saw he had the attention of the group as a whole. "Ero-Sannin summoned me somewhere. Looked like it was close to Wind Country."
"So, what are you doing?" Yuugao asked, studying the seals more closely. "Those look like—"
Looking up from where he'd just finished connecting a few of the seals together, Naruto sent the ANBU kunoichi a foxy grin. "Summoning myself back," he answered, then applied chakra to the seal. A moment later, a second Naruto appeared next to the blond.
"Hey, it worked," the new Naruto grinned as the clone dispersed. Taking out his pen, he quickly duplicated what the clone had done to the seal. Above them, the group of clones dispersed, to be replaced a moment later as Naruto produced a fresh group with the updated seals.
"So, is this what you were working on before we left?" Tenten asked, drawing a grin from the boy.
"Something like that. What I did now is just a summoning seal. Well, actually, I added another seal to the kage bunshin summoning seal that bypasses the cloning part of the seal. So instead of summoning clones, it summons the person. I just made it summon myself instead of one of you."
"That could be—" Tsunade started, her tone warning, but Naruto cut her off.
"Only I can use it. Has to be my chakra doing the summoning."
"Very creative, Naruto-kun," Shizune smiled. "How did you limit it to only your chakra signature?"
"I played with the medical detection thingie seal," Naruto answered, waving the question off. "That isn't what I was working on, though," Naruto turned back to Tenten. "I made.. sort of a target seal, I guess," here the blond shrugged. "Basically, I can send us wherever I leave one. I already had a clone test the one I left in Otafuku Gai and it works."
That left the group speechless. That is, until Tsunade's mind finally caught up and she asked, "Wait, Jiraiya summoned you where?"
Naruto shrugged. "Around Wind Country. It was dry plains for the most part."
"That idiot! I told him to wait," the Sannin growled.
Seeing the woman's irritation and wanting to get back at the pervert for interrupting, Naruto shot her an mischievous grin. "You could tell him yourself..." he offered. Seeing Tsunade light up at the idea, the boy created and dispersed a clone.
And across Fire Country, Jiraiya blinked as one Naruto disappeared less than a minute after dispersing a clone. "Did you just...?"
The clone grinned and nodded, rolling up his sleeve for the Sannin to see. "Summoned myself back," he explained, pointing at the seals. "This one isn't finished though, since I finished it on the other side there and I was made before then... But still, same basic stuff."
"Brat," Jiraiya started, shaking his head. "Naruto, this is really good."
On his other side, Kurenai took a long look at the seals laid out on the boy's arm before asking, "Does this summon.. clones?" she asked. Seeing the boy nod, she continued. "How does that work? Normally,
kage bunshin divides the caster's chakra evenly amongst any clones produced. So one clone halves your chakra, two cut it into thirds, and so on. I know you can create more than that, but my point is, you shouldn't be able to summon clones of someone else without using their chakra."
"I do, just not much." Naruto shrugged. "Enough to make it a clone of that person, and the rest is mine. I think it's less than what's used for a normal bunshin, even—not quite sure since I've never really been able to do the technique... So when the clones pop, whoever they were made from get both their chakra and that bit of mine back, along with the memory of whatever the clone has done." Naruto paused before turning to look over his shoulder to where Ayame had grabbed his swishing tail and Hana looked like she had tried to do the same but Ayame had beaten her to the punch. "Uhh... guys?"
"It's very soft," Ayame murmured. A hand sliding into her field of vision drew her attention to Hana. "Get your own," she protested, turning away from the Inuzuka heiress with prize in hand.
"Oh come on, I just want to touch it," Hana whined.
Kurenai looked between the girls, who looked close to breaking out into a minor fight over the red length of softness to the boy attached to it, who sighed in resignation and put on the long-suffering look of one used to this sort of treatment. "Get this a lot?" she asked.
"From pretty much anything female," the boy lamented in agreement. "I don't mind it so much from Hinata and the others, but it gets kind of weird when random girls on the street just run up and either ask to pet me... or don't bother asking. Weirdest thing is, Hinata doesn't seem to mind letting them get it out of their system." After a moment, he added, "I'm surprised you're not," only to trail off as one of Kurenai's hands found its way to his ears. "Never mind."
Jiraiya looked on with a sense of awe, jealousy, and pride. Naruto had, with absolutely no effort whatsoever, managed to attract and hold the attention of all three of the kunoichi traveling with him in a way that the Sannin simply couldn't. "Damn," he murmured. Minato had always been popular with the ladies, and Jiraiya hadn't failed to notice the looks thrown Naruto's way by the girls of various villages outside of Konoha, even if Naruto had. But now, it looked like they just couldn't help themselves. If only the blond would figure out exactly what sort of sway he held over the fairer sex and exactly how to take advantage of it... And given a few years to grow a bit taller and put on some muscle, it would probably be panties along with those looks being thrown his way. "You are one lucky brat."
Rolling his eyes, Naruto perked up and sent a grin Jiraiya's way as a clone most of the way across the country dispersed. "Oh, you're in for it now."
"Huh?" Jiraiya managed to get out, just before a cloud of smoke and chakra obscured his vision. A moment later, it cleared to reveal Tsunade's team standing between Naruto and the Toad Sannin. The Godaime Hokage herself took one look at Jiraiya before stepping forward, winding back, and releasing a punch that sent Jiraiya flailing ass-over-teakettle into the dirt and dispersed Tsunade's clone.
Across Fire Country, Tsunade's smirk was vicious as she chuckled. "That was completely worth it. Now, summon me again."
Jiraiya stood as Tsunade reappeared, quickly taking several steps back. When it looked as though she wasn't going to move, he rubbed his sore jaw before asking, "Not going to attack me this time?"
Tsunade shook her head. "While I'm sure Naruto could keep summoning us for most of the night, I'd rather beat on you in person. Now, let's talk."
Seeing the blatant opening to twist the woman's words into something perverted, the Toad Sannin started to do exactly that only to be cut off by a commotion amongst the group. Upon the group of clones' arrival, the resident Inuzuka had taken one good sniff of the group as a whole before breaking out into giggles. Like the majority of those born into her clan, her senses of smell, taste, and hearing were all particularly sharp and, having been around sexually active kunoichi for several years, she could smell the frustration rolling off some of them in waves—especially from Anko, Hinata, and surprisingly Shizune. She had been largely ignored, at least until she finally managed to latch onto the Naruto clone's tail as Ayame had dropped it on the group's arrival and began rubbing her face into its soft red fur, drawing a look of irritation from Hinata—who, as Naruto had pointed out and the others had long since noted, had never really minded such things before. A moment later, a lavender-haired blur knocked the Inuzuka heiress to the ground as Hinata launched herself at the older kunoichi, the pair rolling around on the ground for a moment before coming to a stop—Hinata perched firmly on the older girl's back, several sharp little teeth digging into the back of the Inuzuka girl's neck and a quiet growl rumbling low in her throat. Below her, Hana had gone completely limp. The group was dead silent, save for a few chuckles from Anko. "Alright, will you let me up now?" the older girl asked quietly after several moments, her tone meek. The former Hyuuga released her and stood, quickly attaching herself to Naruto's side and turning her attention back to Tsunade and Jiraiya as though nothing had happened. Just to rub it in, Ayame had again taken hold of the clone's tail and Hinata didn't seem to mind at all.
"Looks like she sorted you out," Anko chortled, helping Hana back to her feet.
The Inuzuka heiress blushed, shooting the special jonin a glare. "You shut up," she growled, adding quietly, "This is so embarrassing."
Leaning in towards the shorter girl, Yuugao sniffed before a grin spread across her face. "No, what should be embarrassing is that you liked it."
Sending the older kunoichi a glare, Hana hissed, "Shut up!" before turning away and studiously ignoring the quiet and not-so-quiet laughter coming from those around her, allowing herself to be lead away a moment later as Kurenai joined them to catch up on things, but only after motioning for Hinata to join them which the younger kunoichi did by way of another clone.
Seeing one of Hinata going off with her sensei and some of the others, Naruto hummed in question to the girl at his side. Shaking her head, the foxy girl sent the boy a smile before answering, "Girl talk."
Shizune rolled her eyes, seeing that things had gone well off topic. "Right, now that that's settled," she lead, nudging Tsunade with an elbow.
The Slug Sannin allowed herself one last chuckle before turning her full attention back to Jiraiya. "I thought I told you to wait."
"What just happened?" Naruto asked, intentionally ignoring the Sannin for Hinata.
Beside him, the girl sent him another small smile before shrugging. "I'll explain later. Suffice it to say, we settled a disagreement before it could start." After all, she couldn't possibly say 'I was marking my territory,' with a straight face.
"I would have preferred to wait a while," Tsunade argued, shooting her younger two apprentices a glare to quiet them before continuing. "Konoha's going to be pissed and I wouldn't be surprised if some of them decided they want revenge against us or Naruto."
Jiraiya shrugged. "It's not like there's going to be any big change from the way things were before. At worst, those idiots will make a run to Otafuku Gai and look for Naruto there, and when they don't find him, they'll burn the place down."
"Oi! I liked that place!" Naruto complained, drawing eye-rolls from both Sannin.
"Shut up, brat," both Tsunade and Jiraiya grumbled before Tsunade countered, "And what if they don't stop there?"
Again, Jiraiya shrugged. "I made off with the rest of the treasury. I really doubt they've got resources to spare looking for us. Sure, we might get a few random attacks from disgruntled Konoha ninja on other missions, but they aren't going to be actively hunting us for some time. And by the time they do, we'll be able to deal with most anything they send at us."
Beside Tsunade, Shizune blinked at that before holding out her hand. At Jiraiya's questioning look, she elaborated. "The scroll with the treasury fund. Hand it over."
Looking between Tsunade and Shizune, Jiraiya snorted before handing the kunoichi the scroll holding all of the other scrolls, which held the contents of the treasury, various libraries, and merchants' inventory. "Just make sure I get that back."
"Naruto-kun?" Shizune asked, drawing the blond's attention. "Can you send a clone to Otafuku Gai, withdraw our funds there, seal it and get it back to us?"
The boy in question nodded. "Sure, shouldn't be a problem," he agreed, creating and dispersing another clone to pass along the message.
"What are you thinking, Shizune?" Jiraiya asked, getting a murmur of agreement from Tsunade.
"Well, if it isn't safe for us in Otafuku Gai any longer, then it certainly isn't safe for our funds to remain there. While they're good for generating profit on interest, banks are generally run by civilians. And the first thing any competent ninja would do knowing they've been stolen from, is find out who stole from them and where they're keeping the money, and then steal it back." Humming in thought, Shizune added, "Naruto-kun, can you make a clone of me once one of you gets there? There are a few other things we might as well do since we won't be going back, and it'd be best to get them all done at once."
Nodding in agreement to Shizune's plan and waving her off to take inventory of what Jiraiya had pilfered and add the count to the things Tsunade herself had taken, she asked, "What do you have planned in Suna?"
"Oh, a little of this and a little of that," Jiraiya leered, earning a slap to the back of the head courtesy of his predecessor in office. "Ow! Ok, fine. I'm going to see about negotiating some kind of deal with that Gaara kid."
Tsunade hummed for a moment before nodding. "I'll go along with it, so long as we're there when you do."
As Tsunade and Jiraiya got down the business, Jiraiya made a clone, who motioned Naruto to follow him off to one side of the camp and away from the others. When he noticed Hinata tagging along, they traded a look for a moment before the Sannin shrugged and motioned for them to sit before taking a seat himself. "Ok, there's no easy way to say this so I'm not going to beat around the bush." Seeing he had their full attention, Jiraiya continued. "Naruto, your father was Yondaime Hokage." When the boy opened his mouth to say something, Jiraiya held up a hand to silence him. "Let me finish. You probably know this, but Minato wanted you to be seen as a hero. When your mom died too, Sarutobi was left to pick up the pieces. I'm not saying he didn't make mistakes, because he did, but he tried his best to do right by you—which is a lot more than I did. He tried to honor your dad's wishes, but the villagers weren't having it. And since both your parents were dead and the villagers looked ready to riot, he decided to keep your parentage under wraps, probably until you were a chuunin or jonin and he thought you could take care of yourself and deal with anyone Iwa, Kumo, or one of the other villages sent—and you know they would, eventually. Then he made that law, outlawing people from telling you about Kyuubi and swore those of us who knew or suspected—me and Kakashi, mostly—to secrecy about your dad. Which kind of sucked, seeing as Minato made me your godfather and either myself or Kakashi were supposed to look after you, if one or the other couldn't. I could have gone against it and stuck around anyway, but I didn't. As for Kakashi... I don't know what excuse he has for not taking a more active role in looking after you, though I imagine Sandaime had a hand in it. Either way, that's between you and him." Jiraiya sighed before scrubbing a hand through his shaggy hair and finishing, "Look, what I'm trying to say is I did wrong by you and I'm sorry, and I want to try to make up for it if you'll let me. "
For what felt like hours to the Sannin and those eavesdropping—and nearly everyone there was eavesdropping, though they were at least allowing them the illusion of privacy—Naruto simply sat there, his gaze on the ground at Jiraiya's feet. Emotions crossed the boy's face faster than most of those watching could follow before finally settling when the warm hand that had been in his the whole time tightened its grip slightly. Shooting a thankful smile at Hinata, Naruto turned back to Jiraiya. "What was he like?"
Isaribi yawned as she emptied the dust pan in her hand into the trash bin. Throwing last appraising look out over the store front, she nodded before going to put the broom and dust pan away for the night. While the store wouldn't normally close until well into the morning hours, the fish-girl tended to go home around dark on most nights, where—if the others were on the road—she would make herself a simple meal and study or read for a few more hours before going to bed and repeating the process the next morning. Tonight, though, Dane had elected to close shop early and spend the night working on a new project that had caught his interest. The bell over the door drew the girl's attention and she made her way back up to the front counter. "Can I help you?" she asked, shooting a glance at the front door. 'I know I locked that,' she mused. Catching sight of the 'Open' sign clearly facing her position, meaning it would show 'Closed' to passers-by, confirmed her suspicions. If it hadn't though, the group of four who were obviously ninja—three chuunin, if their vests were anything to go by, and one who was probably a jonin as he looked far older than the rest—would have.
Before the girl could answer one way or another, the door to the back room opened and Dane made his way to the front of the store. Shooting a glance between the door, the group, and his young helper, the retired ninja turned his focus on the group. He did not fail to notice that each of the ninja present wore Konoha headbands. "We're closed for the night, fellas. There's a nice inn a few streets over that'll put you up for the night for cheap, if you want to come back in the morning."
Ignoring the two at the counter for a moment, the eldest of the group turned to what looked to be the youngest—a girl with shaggy red hair and her headband pulled down over her eyes. "Here?" Getting a nod in answer—though it was somewhat hard to discern between the girl's energetic bouncing on the balls of her feet—he turned his attention towards Dane. "We're looking for a blond kid, probably got some scars on his face that look like whisker marks or something, and wears a lot of orange."
Dane was impressed when Isaribi didn't visibly react at the mention of Naruto. Rubbing the back of his head and pretending to think to buy some time, the elder ninja carefully toed off his right sandal and ran his big toe over a small razor set in the sole of his left sandal. Smearing blood over several distinctive indentations in the wood under his foot, Dane hummed a moment before nodding. "Yeah, he and a group have been coming in pretty regular lately. Goes through clothes like nobody's business," here, he grinned before shrugging. "Well, nobody's but mine anyway."
"When's the last time they were here?" the elder ninja of the Konoha group asked, feeling that he was being distracted from something but unable to put his finger on what exactly. Whatever it was, it had his gut instinct screaming that something wasn't right. Maybe it had something to do with the guy's accent, or the fact that he could swear he had seen him somewhere before.
"Eh? Early this morning. They came in to buy some training gear."
Unable to hold back any longer, Isaribi asked, "What do you want with them?"
"Village business, keep your nose out of it," one of the younger boys—his hair a dark brown and skin tan from being on the road—answered, his tone setting off warning bells for Dane.
Sighing, a boy that looked like a slightly older version of the one who had spoken rudely sent the pair behind the counter a short bow. "Please forgive my brother his rudeness. He is young and impetuous."
"You're only a year older," the rude one grumbled quietly, only to be silenced by a swat from what seemed to be their jonin-sensei.
"Knock it off," the jonin rolled his eyes before turning his attention back full to Dane. "Know where we can find them?"
"Not a clue," Dane shrugged. Beside him, Isaribi fidgeted.
Shrugging, the jonin motioned for his team to follow before pausing and shooting Dane a contemplative look. "Do I know you from somewhere?"
The retired ninja grinned. "I'm pretty sure I've never seen you in here before."
"Your face just looks really familiar," he murmured, drawing a shrug from the store owner.
"He's lying," the redhead sing-songed, her head cocked in Dane's general direction and a wide smile crossing her face.
Every eye in the room turned to the red-haired girl who had, until then, remained—miraculously, thought her teammates—silent. Now sure of his suspicions, the jonin asked, "You fought in the war, didn't you?" He had no real grudge over the last war, but his curiosity just wouldn't leave it alone.
"I really wish you hadn't said that," Dane sighed. A moment later, the redhead blurred towards the counter, one hand going to the weapon at her waist as Dane's chakra flared and the group of four vanished in a cloud of smoke and chakra. "Time to go!" he shouted, toeing on his sandal and taking hold of Isaribi before running for the front door.
"What's going on, where are we going?"
Throwing open the door, Dane set the girl down long enough to kick over the dog statue in front of the store and place his foot on the section of cement it had covered before slapping a panel on the side of the door and channeling chakra into both places. Slipping his foot back into his sandal from where he had kicked it off for direct contact with the seal, the retired ninja picked up the fish girl and slung her onto his back before he broke into a dead sprint onto the roofs and out of town. "We're getting the hell out of town," he answered.
The building behind them going up in flames drew Isaribi's attention long enough to ask, "What the hell?"
"Destruction seals. No evidence and no material for them to collect," Dane explained. "Damn shame losing the place though. I kind of liked it here."
"Why am I coming with you? And who were they?" the girl asked as Dane cleared the last of the buildings and took to the ground. The thought crossed his mind that she was taking this amazingly calmly, considering they had just been attacked and were likely to be again if they did not make haste. Though she didn't know it, the retired ninja was actively using his chakra to try and scatter his scent and any footprints as much as possible.
"Why do you think?" The retired ninja rolled his eyes before answering. "Because you were there. And they're hunter-nin. Well, at least two of them."
"What? How do you know all of this?"
"The girl?" Dane lead, and on getting a nod, he continued. "She's a dog, essentially. She probably lost her eye-sight early on in her ninja career. Something like that happens to normal people, their other senses make up for the loss. Ninja get the same effect, only multiplied. She was likely that jonin's apprentice. Money says even if she wasn't before, she's a chakra sensor now. And she obviously tracked Tsunade's group there by smell. So, we're going to do our best to lose them."
After a moment of holding on for the ride in silence, the girl pointed out, "You're leaving something out."
Dane grinned. "And you'd have made a good ninja. You've got the intuition for it, at least."
Seeing that she wasn't going to get any answers as to exactly how the ninja-turned-tailor could spot hunter-nin, or why the jonin from Konoha seemed to recognize him from 'the war,' she tried a different track. "Where'd they go, when she attacked?"
"Huh?" the ninja asked, before nodding. "Oh, that. More seals. Sent them to the bottom of a lake a few miles south of town. It likely won't kill them, but it'll be fair warning not to follow if they know what's good for them." Naruto was neither the first nor the last ninja to have dabbled with summoning seals, after all. He just happened to be something of a prodigy. Many ninja learned at least one aspect of fuuinjutsu at some point in their careers—most just never took it further than summoning, storage, or explosives, simply because they wanted to spend more time on flashier techniques or missions. The technique Dane had used involved printing a general summoning seal on an object—in this case, a rock—along with a remote trigger seal. The rock had been tossed to the bottom of the lake in question and the actual seal to trigger it was laid out several times over across Dane's home and business and were crafted in such a way as to target any living organism standing a certain distance away from the activated seal, out to the walls of the building—thus neither Isaribi, who had been within arms' length, nor any civilians outside or in neighboring buildings had been summoned while the intruding ninja had.
"Where are we going?"
The retired ninja shrugged. "North. If we stick to the east coast, we can make our way through Lightning without drawing too much attention. From there, it's on to the Land of Snow. Supposedly, there's a ninja village up there and Tsunade's group is friendly with the Daimyo. With any luck, I can set up shop and make a bit of cash. Now, settle in and be quiet for a few hours." When the girl nodded, Dane shifted his focus to planning out their route and stops along the way, his body running pretty much on auto-pilot as the retired ninja began mentally dusting off old skills he thought he had put away for good after the last war. The first stop was going to be to pick up provisions—food, a couple of tents, sleeping bags, and things to make toys to dissuade others from bothering them if it came to that. After that, he would try to hit a few towns between Otafuku Gai and the Lightning/Snow border to pick up supplies enough to replace his lost stock. Tomorrow morning though, he would be sending word by way of dog to Tsunade's group, letting them know he and the kid had made it out okay but that their Otafuku Gai location had been compromised. He doubted this had been a sanctioned mission on Konoha's part, for the simple fact that they would have sent more than one team of rookies, a hunter-nin, and his apprentice seeing as they had at least one Sannin to deal with along with the others. No, this was likely some sort of retaliatory action. And if so, then they could be dealing with a single team lead by a disgruntled jonin or potentially dozens of teams of like minded ninja—not to mention the civilians sure to follow and far more likely to succumb to mob mentality and start burning things down. Either way, the compound outside of town would either be burned to the ground or turned into a deathtrap—at least, that's what he would have done. 'Well, looks like it may be coming up on time to come out of retirement,' he mused, wondering absently if there was still an entry in Konoha's bingo book bearing his face.
And south of Otafuku Gai, four heads broke the surface of a lake gasping for air. It was the redhead who broke the relative silence, drawing the attention of her teammates. "Can we go after them? Please?" she begged, drawing out the 'please' into a long whine.
The jonin chuckled. "You sound eager." On getting an enthusiastic nod in response, he shook his head. "No, we're here for the Kyuubi-brat. Besides, I remember where I know that guy from now."
Seeing that their leader didn't seem to be going to elaborate as he broke into a pull for shore, the polite brother asked for clarification. "Where, sensei?"
"Eh, it was before your time. Back during the second war, there was a bounty for a live capture in the bingo book. Forget the guy's name, but he was apparently one of Iwa's. Not sure on the details, but rumor has it his master passed on some secret technique for making ninja armor that could shrug off most anything you threw at it. Needless to say, the bounty was pretty high."
"It sounds like this stuff could have won the war," the rude brother pointed out. "So why aren't we going after him?"
Their sensei rolled his eyes before answering, "Because trap experts are a son-of-a-bitch to take down. They always find the deepest hole they can to crawl down into and it's a pain in the ass digging them back out again if you want them alive—usually turns into a complete cluster-fuck. It's just not worth it. For future reference, just because a ninja doesn't have an S-ranked entry or is low-ranked doesn't mean he isn't dangerous. Take the Kyuubi-brat, for instance. The thing is crafty and I'm realistic enough to admit it's got more chakra than most ninja in the village—more if it gets serious. And sometimes... well, enough power can trump skill. The problem we've got now is that it's got two of our Hokage convinced it's human, and it will do its damnedest to gain as much skill from them as it can before it kills them. Given power and skill... well, it's best it doesn't get to that point."
"What about what Jiraiya-sama said? What if he really is Yondaime-sama's son?" the polite brother asked, only to duck a swat from the rude brother.
"Idiot. It's obviously not true."
The jonin shook his head. "No, it's probably true—if three of our Hokage sheltered it, then it was likely born Yondaime's son. But as much as I respect and trust Yondaime-sama, there are only two ways the sealing could have turned out: either that no man could create a seal strong enough to hold Kyuubi entirely, even with the aid of a shinigami, or that no human put through what we put that boy through could have possibly remained sane enough to resist the temptation that demon was whispering in his ear."
The rude brother hummed before asking, "So, either it was the fox all along, or—"
"Or, through our own actions, we created what we've feared most since learning the truth," the polite brother finished. "But if that's the case, then we're to blame—"
Their sensei nodded. "Yes, if that's the case then it's our own doing. But it's also our responsibility to take care of our own problems and keep them from spilling out over onto the rest of the world. What happened that night, I wouldn't wish on anyone. And if our leaders can't see that, then it's up to those of us who do see it to do what is right."
It was the redhead who broke the silence the group fell into as they pulled themselves onto the banks of the lake. "Right, wrong, I just want to stick a kunai in something."
The group's sensei chuckled before ruffling the girl's hair fondly. "Don't ever change, kiddo."
And elsewhere still in Otafuku Gai, a Naruto clone looked up from where he was finishing up clearing out their account—another clone in town having dispersed and passed along the memory of Dane's shop going up in flames and sending yet another clone and the paired clone of Shizune after the tailor and his cargo of one fish-girl—while Shizune summoned a dog to track the retired ninja's path, Naruto had created another clone and dispersed to send word along and the pair had given chase. Currently, a clone of Shizune was helping another Naruto seal and send everything they could from their home outside of town while yet another cloned pair of herself and Naruto were taking care of clearing out their bank account. A final set of clones had been sent to give Dane and Isaribi a heads-up, but had apparently gotten there just in time to watch it catch fire.
As the last of their hastily boxed possessions was sealed away and tossed onto a stack of similar sealed scrolls, which were then sent away to the original Naruto's location, Shizune let out a sigh of regret as she took one last look around what had once been their living room. "We'll find somewhere better," Naruto assured her quietly. "Somewhere safe."
"Yeah," the eldest apprentice agreed quietly, taking Naruto's hand as the boy hefted her to her feet and lead her from what had been the only real home the girl had had since leaving Konoha. Since her last living relative and Tsunade's lover had died, home had been by the Sannin's side. For a few short months, though, Shizune felt she had truly known what a home was. And while they would have another in the future, letting go was still difficult. Once outside, the pair turned to regard the place their little group had grown so attached to in so short a time. "One last thing to do."
"I should—" Naruto started, only to be cut off by Shizune shaking her head. They had discussed this and, while both agreed it was necessary, neither of them really wanted to carry through with it.
'Without everyone here to give it life, it's just another building,' Shizune consoled herself, though she knew it would hurt just the same. Channeling chakra, Shizune ran through a set of five seals before bringing her fingers to her mouth and exhaling a stream of fire. The door and surrounding wall immediately caught, followed by the roof as the med-nin angled the stream of her blaze upwards along the roof and outer wall. Dropping the jutsu, she took to the road leading off the property—shooting a backwards glance to make sure Naruto was following. It had been decided that since they were already in town with a group of clones, they would spread out and try to tag a all of the larger towns in the area with Naruto's target seals—including Konoha, if they could sneak back in. With any luck, they would have fast access to every dot on the map in Fire Country within a few weeks, if they could keep a few teams of clones constantly moving—and seeing as it was Naruto providing the chakra for both his own and her clone, they would be able to do that and more.
Pushing the pang of loss out of her mind and focusing on the more immediate future, Shizune found another thought niggling away at her—several, actually, but connecting them... Firstly, Naruto-kun—and thoughts of the blond brought with them a whole other slew of thoughts that had her fighting to keep an excited smile off her face as they, or at least several groups of clones thereof, would be spending the next several weeks alone on the road together, and forcing herself to focus—had created a derivative of the summoning seal that could send objects or people great distances for little chakra in trade. Shizune had tested the seals herself—just to get a feel for how much chakra it would take someone without Naruto's massive reserves, as Naruto didn't even notice the loss—and had found that as with regular summoning, the amount of chakra required was proportional to the mass one was trying to summon, or send in this instance. However, Shizune also noted it took far less even then—which she supposed was because all of the summoning/sending was being done locally, as opposed to summoning beings from whatever plane beings such as Gamabunta and his clan resided on. She was not a seal or summoning expert, however, so that was really just an educated guess.
Secondly, the vast majority of a ninja's time on missions outside of their home village was spent en route, either to or from a mission theater. Sure, ninja could cover a lot of ground in what seemed like no time at all compared to slower methods of travel that either required paved roads or tracks such as the few automobiles and locomotives in existence, or at the very least roads a horse and buggy could travel—especially since ninja typically traveled as the crow flies, that being the most direct route possible. The problem was that it still sometimes took days, weeks even, for ninja to travel from their village of origin to wherever their mission called. All of this was time wasted for the client—time that could mean the life or death of a hostage, ending a minor war before it broke out, or even just that someone went hungry because they were late making a shipment to some remote region of the Elemental Nations with no real means of sustaining themselves. Most clients accepted this loss of time and adjusted their plans accordingly, if they could—which is why most villages did not get certain types of time-critical missions from outside their home nation, when a closer village could get the job done faster. However, Naruto had created a seal that required absolutely no chakra control and that academy students could power, which could cut travel time between towns—between nations—to zero. Sure, time would still need to be allotted for assigning a team, gearing that team, reconnaissance of the target area and mission objective... but this would mean mission times of days, weeks at the very most as opposed to a week at minimum.
Thirdly, Team Hokage—both sets, if Shizune now counted Jiraiya's group as a separate entity—could move freely amongst the Elemental Nations and take missions as they came, or so the theory went. And as they were the only ones who possessed this method of travel, at least for the moment as Shizune had no doubts everyone would be using it as soon as word of the technique got out, they were currently the most versatile group of ninja on the continent—or at least they would be as soon as they managed to expand Naruto's network of seals. What this meant for them was that they could, or would soon be able to, take nearly any time-sensitive mission regardless of rank, complete it, and return before most villages could even field a team to the area in question. And time-sensitive missions paid well almost without exception. Even taking a cut on the pay as they would essentially be contracting their services out to a larger village, the sheer number of missions they could accomplish in the time it would take that same village to complete even one would guarantee they would get first pick for any job that required travel outside of a village's home nation.
And that's when reality set in for Shizune. Neither Tsunade nor Jiraiya would feel like taking a constant stream of high earning missions as they would point out, rightly, that they did not need to. They had enough cash on hand to fund building a ninja village from the ground up, why would they need more at the moment? Sure, they'd take missions on to help train those who needed it, or just for fun, but not for the money. And the others would follow the Sannins' lead on this. Shizune, on the other hand, was of the opinion that even if they were richer than several gods at the moment it wouldn't hurt to have more money coming in. And so, another idea was born. Before learning of Jiraiya's activities, Tsunade's group had been on their way to Hidden Mist by way of Wave, on the request of an acquaintance of Tsunade's. Jiraiya's group, however, had been on their way to Hidden Sand to negotiate an alliance. From what she understood from listening to Haku's debrief upon first joining the team, Wave worshiped Naruto as a minor deity at this point and would probably go along with anything he asked. Wave, under Gato's control, had been part of one of the largest shipping and fishing empires on the eastern seaboard—even if the citizens saw no gains off of that prosperity, it was still there. Suna, from what Shizune understood from attending talks between Tsunade and Gaara in their official positions, had to import much of their foodstuffs—and fish was especially expensive, as it spoiled quickly and was a week's travel for ninja to the nearest town even resembling a port. Fish had to either be packed in ice, which was a commodity in and of itself in most nations, or cleaned and packed in salt—also a fairly expensive commodity—if they were going to be transported any distance. And since Suna was buying it from the same stock being packed across the country by cart, it was already prepared before their ninja got there to seal it, leaving no room for negotiations for unpackaged fish. However, if one cut the distance out of the middle it also did away with the need for many of the related expenses. No travel distance meant no team to retrieve the goods, no ice or salt or otherwise for packing, and no danger of the goods spoiling and a shipment being wasted. Using the seals, they could send shipments back and forth between Suna and Wave and, in the process, earn themselves steady income.
There were problems with this, however. What incentive would there be for Suna to pay them for the use of their seals? Sure, from what she understood, Gaara felt he owed Naruto a great deal, but she doubted that would stop others in Suna—their village council, for instance—from just stealing the seals and using them for their own ends. Not to mention the problems if other ninja villages got their hands on the seals and decided to try fielding armies with them. That thought in mind, Shizune asked, "Naruto-kun?" Seeing she had his attention, she continued. "Can you hide or disguise your seals to keep others from stealing them?"
Naruto hummed in thought before answering. "Not yet, but I'm sure the old letch or Tsunade-baachan knows how. I'll ask when I get a chance. Why, what do you have in mind?"
"Oh, nothing much," Shizune answered, before going on to explain her thoughts, and nearly causing Naruto to stumble once or twice while doing so.
When the eldest apprentice finished, the blond nodded. "So, we're going to take over the shipping industry then?"
Shizune did stumble as she realized she had fallen into what seemed to be a common fallacy amongst ninja: she had been so focused on one aspect of her idea that she had missed the bigger picture. Why stop at linking Suna and Wave? Goods and people were moved across the continent and surrounding island nations on a daily basis. Sea travel, as Shizune could attest, was notoriously slow and yet was the largest and most lucrative of the shipping businesses. Businesses, nations, and various Lords and rulers would pay handsomely to have their goods delivered within the day as opposed to within the weeks or months it took now. And since they would be cutting out the cost of insurance against weather, pirates, and other dangers sea-faring vessels faced, they would be able to offer their services cheaper than any shipping guild or business could possibly hope to. Insurance alone took up nearly forty percent of the cost of shipping goods, after all, regardless of whether it went by land or sea. They didn't know it yet, but with just a few words from a certain blond, Shizune had found a way to cut off the various trading companies at the knees. Her body nearly vibrating with excitement at the possibilities, Shizune cast her thoughts towards finding a way to secure her... that is, their future empire. Casting a sidelong glance at her traveling companion, Shizune nearly choked on a giggle. 'If Hinata-chan thinks she's keeping him all to herself, she is sorely mistaken. After all, what's an empire without an Emperor?' Beside her, and elsewhere in the world, every iteration of Naruto felt a chill run down his spine. Casting a quick glance around and not finding himself in any immediate danger, the blond still found himself unable to shake off the feeling that somewhere out there, someone was out to get him.