Chapter 26

Halting his momentum from the run, Naruto slowed to a stop behind the shinobi he was following. As the man turned around to look at him, the symbol of the Sound emblazoned on his forehead protector momentarily reflected a glare from the afternoon sun into Naruto's azure eyes, making him wince.

"We're here. The lot of you should wait while I go get a status update. I don't need them to see Leaf symbols and cause an incident. Especially if you want what you're offering to work."

Naruto nodded, understanding completely. The line of trust between them was obviously thin, but that he had even managed to establish any trust at all was a feat all by itself.

"So let me get this straight. You want us to betray our village and join you instead?" The jounin's voice was dripping with sarcasm at this point. The other two sound chuunin who were tied up next to him had expressions that were a mix between curiosity and fear.

Naruto, however, was frowning while shaking his head negatively. "No, you're still going to be a part of Sound, but you will be working for me as well. That is my plan."

The jounin was silent for a while, likely trying to wrap his head around what exactly Naruto was offering to him.

"I don't see how it would be possible to work for Sound and Leaf at the same time."

Once again, Naruto was shaking his head. "Sorry, I'll try to clarify this as much as I can. You won't be working for Leaf. Technically Leaf doesn't even know I'm planning this."

All three shinobi were looking at him incredulously now. Their gazes were flickering back and forth between him and Kakashi, who hadn't moved from his place near the door. That Kakashi made no movement to show any kind of surprise at this statement showed that he already knew what Naruto had planned. While the Sound jounin did not know the blond haired boy, he knew the Copy Ninja. Since the man had made no movement to show that he disagreed with what Naruto was doing, he had to assume that the Copy Ninja respected whatever it was the blond was trying to do. That in and of itself spoke volumes.

The jounin grunted. "All right, kid. Lay it on me. I'll listen to you completely explain this offer, I have to admit I'm curious."

That was apparently the correct action to take, as Kakashi decided to go sit down in one of the previously vacated chairs. Meanwhile, Naruto was literally beaming at them.

"I'm glad you're agreeing. I know I'll have to earn Sound's trust, but hopefully it will come. With Orochimaru being dead, you guys might need the help, since I know Lightning Country is on the move and you're in it's path."

"You sure know a lot, kid."

Naruto grinned. "I've picked up a lot of tricks from one of my sensei in the past, Jiraiya of the Densetsu no Sannin."

The eyes of the three shinobi all bugged out, everyone knew who the Sannin were. Orochimaru was one of them, and though the snake summoner never specifically mentioned or relied on the fact that he was a member of the group, everyone still knew about it regardless.

The jounin was glad that he had decided to go with this... Naruto's... plan. It was now obvious that there was quite a bit more to this kid than met the eye. So far they knew that he was the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki, and was trained by one of the Sannin. Not only that, he had the respect of the Copy Ninja. Who knew what else he might be able to claim?

"Anyway, with what I have planned, you will still be registered as members of the Sound. However, you'll also be working for Whirlpool at the same time."

"Whirlpool? I thought what was left of that country was annexed by Fire Country some twenty-odd years ago?"

Naruto shrugged. "Most of it. Fire annexed everything south of the river where the old Whirlpool Village was located. Everything north technically belongs to Swamp Country, though since Swamp has no official government, it is just assumed to be their land. Whirlpool is now being reformed; I told you earlier that we are at the Whirlpool Outpost."

The jounin nodded, remembering. "So I guess that means the Uzumaki survived? You said you were one of them, and I doubt you'd be doing this by yourself."

Grinning, Naruto nodded. "There's a few of us, yeah. This was originally just going to be an Outpost to try and deter Lightning Country from even looking this way during their current rampage, but it's become something much bigger than that."

Leaning his head back against the wall, the senior Sound shinobi of the captured trio closed his eyes for a few seconds, but continued talking while keeping the same pose.

"So if you're rebuilding Whirlpool, why do you need us? I'm sure you can find plenty of volunteers from the nearby villages."

"We can, but that's not the point. Tell me, do you ever think about peace?"

The jounin slowly opened his eyes, leaning forward and giving Naruto a piercing gaze. "Of course I do. I'm sure most shinobi do in their own way. I'd like for nothing more than to know my family will never be threatened by anyone or anything. But I accepted long ago that they would never be safe so long as others are greedy. Greed will always exist, and a prime example is what's happening right now with Lightning Country."

"Yes, and the daimyo needs to be stopped. That's why I'll need your help, and that of all the other villages. I'm going to be using Whirlpool as a base for a peacekeeping force, made up of shinobi who are on loan from their home villages. If Sound accepts, you will be the first village to do so. I don't think I'll have any trouble getting acceptance from Leaf, or Sand for that matter."

"Very well, but I doubt it will be easy to convince those in charge. Shit, I don't even know if they've figured out who to put in charge yet. We only heard rumors about Orochimaru-sama's death, and Kabuto-san and Sasuke-san could not be located. A scout reported seeing Uchiha Sasuke heading away to the east, so a few of us formed a squad to track him to get confirmation. It took longer than we expected to get the squad together as we had no clear line of leadership and were in a bit of disarray. Since it hadn't rained, we found it easy for our tracker to follow his trail."

"That's when you encountered my people and attacked them."

It was more of a statement than a question. If the jounin was chagrined in any way, he didn't show it. His gaze did not waver, either, and he spoke with complete confidence. "I'm afraid it was standard procedure. Everyone in Sound knew of Sasuke-san's previous affiliation, and if Orochimaru-sama really was dead, we had to proceed as if he was a Leaf agent until we could get confirmation. We encountered the group that contained the Copy Ninja Hatake Kakashi as we were tracking the path Sasuke-san had taken. Some of my old squad mates attacked before we could gain a group consensus. The three of us are all that is left as a result of that lapse in judgment."

Naruto sighed, rubbing at the bridge of his nose. "I don't like what happened, but as a shinobi, I do understand the procedure. The only one of our group to sustain an injury is healed now, but it would mean a lot to me and our new... partnership... if you would apologize to her on behalf of Sound."

The jounin opened his mouth as if to speak, but then closed it quickly and pressed his lips into a fine line. Inhaling sharply through his nose, he nodded quickly. "Very well. I will."

Naruto smiled. "Good..." Pausing, Naruto looked at him strangely for a second. "I'm sorry, I just realized that you have me at a bit of a disadvantage. I don't know your name."

"You can just call me Hibiki. It's not my real name, but everyone calls me that anyway."

"You got it, Hibiki-san." Naruto got up from the chair, walking over to the trio. "I'll untie your binds, and offer you a bunk to stay for the night. Tomorrow we'll head towards the Sound Village and make my offer. Sadly, as a security precaution, I'll have to keep you three under observation until we leave and the partnership is officially approved."

Hibiki nodded as he felt his binds loosen, then began rubbing his wrists were the bindings dug into them. "Understood. I wouldn't expect anything less."

"It seems that there is still no formal leadership of the village yet, but the leading jounins have formed a council of sorts. They've agreed to listen to what you're asking if you help us out first."

Naruto shrugged as he watched Hibiki walk casually over to their group, knowing that it was likely there would be a catch of some sort. "What do I need to do?"

"It seems that Lightning Country mercenaries have been making random forays into Rice Field Country along our northern border. Reports indicate that one of our border forts has been fighting constant skirmishes with various groups hired by Lightning. There are also reports of Kumo shinobi, but so far they have not been participating in the strikes, and have been acting more or less as observers."

"So where do I come in? Some sort of relief?"

Hibiki nodded. "From what I gather, this is a test that they concocted. To see if you really mean to follow through with this desire of yours. If you want to form a peacekeeping force that badly, you'll help us protect our land as a show of good faith."

"Of course I'll help. I might be able to dig for some information while I'm up there. When do we leave?"

Hibiki looked over Naruto's shoulder towards the rest of their group. The two Sound chuunin were still with them, as well as two of Naruto's chuunin guards from leaf who were picked by Kakashi to escort him. Kushina wanted Kakashi himself to go, but the man refused, stating that his participation was likely to worsen any chances of Naruto's plan succeeding. After Kakashi shot down his participation, Sakura volunteered to go with him, but this time Naruto told her no. He stood a better chance of success if he was the only one who went, because he only had to worry about his own safety, and a large group of them was likely to draw too much suspicion.

Kakashi had shot that idea down as well, and told Naruto that he'd grab two reliable chuunin who were at the outpost to send with him. Originally Naruto rejected this, but after a short argument that ended up being everyone against him, he reluctantly agreed to bring along two others. He didn't know the Leaf chuunin well at all. He recognized their faces but didn't remember their names until Kakashi introduced them. They were polite and had followed his orders to the letter up until now, so he had no complaints. They had also struck up conversation with the two Sound chuunin, which was a good thing in the long run.

"We can leave now if the other four are ready."

Turning slightly so he could look over his shoulder, he noticed the other four shinobi nod.

"Alright then, let's get a move on. The border fort isn't far from here, we should be there in just over an hour. Let's stick to the roads if we can, though - farmers tend to get pissy if we trample through their fields."

They arrived at the fort at what ended up being just under an hour. The fort itself wasn't what Naruto would really have called a 'fort', it was more or less a series of large stone walls that were arranged in a pentagonal shape. There were holes all throughout those walls, however, and the Sound shinobi had a makeshift camp set up in the middle of them. Doing a quick head count, Naruto could only see perhaps twenty shinobi, if that. There were a handful of others present, but none of them carried themselves like ninja, so they were probably civilians who were bringing supplies or helping to heal any wounded. It wasn't uncommon for civilians to hang around forts either, they had already gotten quite a few visitors at Whirlpool.

"You there... what are you doing here?"

Naruto stopped, as did Hibiki and the four chuunin with them. Turning to look, he saw an older man approaching them in full shinobi battle gear. He had one arm in a makeshift sling, so he had probably been out in combat recently. Naruto opened his mouth to introduce himself, but he felt Hibiki's hand on his shoulder and immediately closed it. Turning to look at the jounin, he saw Hibiki shake his head at him, then move up towards the other man and give him a quick bow.

"Forgive me for not seeking you out first, taichou. We come from the Sound Village with information, as well as orders to help you in your efforts to repel any aggressors."

The captain gave the briefest of nods at Hibiki, but kept his eyes on Naruto, obviously staring at the teen's forehead protector. With a grim smile, he gestured for Hibiki to follow him, to which the jounin immediately complied.

Watching them walk off a ways, Naruto decided to take another look around. He couldn't really understand how they could call this a fort, it looked nothing like any fort he had ever seen before. Though perhaps it was merely given that moniker because it was just something temporary, and forts tended to have smaller garrisons than outposts. If nothing else, the construction was definitely interesting, though not likely to last through a true assault. That meant they had probably not had anything more than skirmishes before now. The makeshift walls were likely created through some strange technique, their positioning was a bit too convenient for the odd looking rocks to be a natural formation.

Hearing some chuckles from behind him, Naruto turned to see the four chuunin laughing about something. Moving closer to the group, he gave them a smile and tried to enter into their conversation.

"What's up, guys?"

The two Sound ninja stopped chuckling and looked at him somewhat warily, while grins remained on the two from Leaf. One of them, a male with wavy sandy-brown hair, answered his question.

"Not much, Uzumaki-taichou. We were just commenting that the commander here looks like a scary guy. Our friends here agreed with us, and we had a laugh about it."

Naruto looked at the two Sound nin and grinned. "Scarier than me?"

At that, the two Sound chuunin looked at each other with odd expressions, while the other Leaf chuunin, a female with her black hair in a close-cut bob, laughed outright and chose to answer this particular inquiry in between gasps for air. "No... you're the strongest... person I know, Uzumaki-taichou."

The male chuunin turned to give her a puzzled look, but maintained a cheeky grin. "Do you think he's stronger than Hokage-sama?"

She stopped laughing, shrugged, and began looking carefully at Naruto. "I've not seen him in action yet, but from what I've heard... probably. He must have impressed Hokage-sama somehow, right? I mean, if it wasn't for him, Hokage-sama wouldn't even be there. I know you heard how he saved her from both Orochimaru and Kabuto."

"Y-you've fought Orochimaru-sama and lived?! How?!"

One of the Sound shinobi finally decided to speak up, and Naruto gave him a wicked grin. "The first time he won, I have to admit. He could have killed me, but he was more interested in Sasuke at the time and just left me unconscious. The second time he didn't have use of his arms, but Kabuto and I fought each other to exhaustion, so they fled because Jiraiya was starting to get his abilities back and their summons had been stopped. The third time... let's just say that even Orochimaru can only fight the Kyuubi for so long before he had to flee."

All four of the chuunin present paled slightly as he finished the last sentence. He was planning on talking about Orochimaru more, but the voice of the commander from before interrupted him.

"So, you really are the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki then. Leaf apparently has more respect for it's Jinchuuriki than other nations do."

Not entirely sure what to say to that, Naruto simply nodded as he turned to face the old man, then waited for him to continue.

"Hibiki here told me about your little plan. While I personally would like to see your idea succeed, I'm afraid it will be nothing more than a pipe dream in the long run. I've been doing this job for far too long to believe the world will change any time soon. However, if you're successful at perhaps... stopping... these little incursions of the mercenaries from Lightning, then I might be inclined to give you my word of support for you to take to the jounin council back in Sound Village. One of our recent civilian arrivals from a small hamlet to the west of here has mentioned that the scum have managed to slip around our fort and are setting up a flanking post. Your task will be to go and... remove it. How you do it is up to you, but it had better not be there when I send one of my scouts to go verify your mission report."

"Very well. Just point me in the right direction, and it will be taken care of."

The commander held up the hand that wasn't in the brace. "Hold on a second. I'm placing Hibiki's group under your command for this mission. He's going to be reporting to me on how well you handle this particular task. I won't be able to offer you my support on good conscience if this is flubbed."

Naruto nodded, not showing any expression other than that of complete seriousness. After the commander finished speaking, Naruto looked briefly at Hibiki, then at the other two chuunin.

"Okay. Change of plans, we'll be leaving at dusk to go take care of this camp. Until then, I need to know the abilities of you three so that we can plan out how we're going to handle this. Since they're mercenaries, it shouldn't be too hard to handle, but we'll need to be prepared in case any of the previously sighted Cloud shinobi are there."

After murmurs of understanding, Hibiki led them over to one of the quieter sections of the camp, and they began going over abilities and constructing plans for the upcoming mission.

Crouched behind a larger batch of shrubbery, Naruto observed the mercenary camp from a distance. The other members of his group were not far behind him, performing their own observations. So far there wasn't much to see, there were a handful of mercenaries wandering about, as well as two lookouts that he had spotted. Activating his special senses, he was able to pick up dozens of faint chakra signatures, as well as one that was stronger than the others. The mercenary group itself would likely not be a problem to handle, but depending on what the shinobi decided to do, there could be some difficulties.

Naruto held his hand out, then pointed his thumb upward. Seconds later, he felt through his chakra detection as his companions moved into the position they had planned for earlier. Since there was only one shinobi, they would go ahead with their original plan. Once he detected that they were all in place, Naruto casually stepped out from behind the bushes and started walking forward. He kept his hands visible at his sides - he wanted the mercenaries to be aware of his presence, but at the same time he didn't want to start a conflict, yet.

The lookouts were definitely doing their jobs. He hadn't walked more than a few meters before he was spotted and he noticed a flurry of activity from the camp. Naruto noticed many of the mercs were scurrying about, and he saw as many of them glanced in his direction before continuing to prepare themselves. The teen had to admit to himself that he was rather surprised they even bothered getting out of any armor they might have worn. Their camp wasn't exactly hidden, and there were plenty of people passing by that could have reported them in to authorities, as one such civilian had done. Perhaps they felt that they had weakened the fort enough to test how far they could penetrate. That they even made it here at all showed just how exhausted the shinobi at the fort must have been.

As he continued his approach, one of the bigger men he could see moved outside the camp slightly and watched as Naruto got closer. Naruto considered flaring his chakra a bit to perhaps instill some sense of dread in the mercenaries, but decided against that. If conflict was avoidable, he wanted to exercise every option possible. Threatening them was not a way to avoid conflict. For their part, they seemed to be taking his approach rather calmly.

"Oi, brat! I don't think it's a good idea for you to get any closer, if you value your life!"

Naruto's head swiveled slightly to look at one of the other men who had shouted at him. He contemplated shouting something back as he continued walking closer, but the man was jostled around by his compatriots a bit so he figured it would be a rather futile action. The other mercenaries were probably giving the man a good ribbing for potentially turning away a potential victim. Something deep within Naruto stirred, causing him to grin at that thought.

"Hmm... what's so funny kid? It's not every day we get ta come face ta face wit' a ninja who's alone. Ya don't seem ta be scared neither."

"Ehhhh careful boss, you knows how dem ninja's be... I betcha dey's got more hidin' around sumhere..."

Naruto briefly glanced from the apparent 'boss' to a shorter man with wiry hair plus several missing teeth standing next to him, and then back again. The boss never took his eyes from Naruto's face, and more than once he saw the man glance at his forehead protector. While he was aware of the other mercenaries that were slowly forming a circle around him, he decided to focus his attention on this leader. None of the other goons would make a move if the boss didn't give them approval. From what Naruto knew of mercenary bands, acting against the wishes of the leader was pretty much a death sentence.

"Look, I'll get right to the point. No one wants to die, right? I'll give you guys one warning to get out of Rice Field Country. That's it."

The majority of the group surrounding him laughed, including the man with wiry hair. The boss smirked, however he continued to look at Naruto with more of an appraising look than anything else.

"It's pretty brave of ya to just come gallavantin' over here and giving us the what for, kid. You've got guts, I'll give ya that. Even if ya are a ninja, I doubt ya could beat all fifty-three of us. Ya can't be any stronger than tha bitch we travel with, an' she's not very strong from what we've seen either. Howsabout we give you one chance to run an' hide before we gives ya a good spankin'?"

That said, the group burst out into raucous laughter once more, the boss included. Naruto closed his eyes and looked down, sighing. It was hard enough convincing Hibiki to give him a chance to talk to the group first. Even if they were mercenaries, he wanted to give them a chance to get out of death. If only they were smart enough to take his offer. Too late for that now.

With a quick motion, Naruto hooked his thumbs under his open jounin vest, rubbing them against concealed storage seals he had placed on the waistband of his pants. The kinetic friction triggered the release function on the simple seals, and his two arm blades immediately appeared in his hands with a small puff of smoke. It didn't take long for shouts of panic to break out, and he heard many of the men start shifting to grab their weapons, but he proved too fast for them. In one smooth motion, he flickered out of existence then immediately appeared in front of the mercenaries' boss, the front ends of his blades crossed up against the man's neck.

"I'm sorry about this. You should have taken my offer."

The shock barely registered on his face before Naruto gripped the handles on his blades and pushed them forward and apart, effectively separating the man's head from his shoulders. He grabbed his victim's head by the hair as he sidestepped the body that slowly pitched forward and fell to the ground. Tossing a disgusted look towards the man with the wiry hair, who was simply staring at him in shock, Naruto quickly replaced one of his arm blades back into the seal then summoned several Shadow Clones to cause chaos.

Using the replacement technique, Naruto opened his eyes to find himself standing next to Hibiki, who had moved forward and was observing the circle of mercenaries. They had 'tagged' a small rock with a chakra tracer so that Naruto would be able to easily use his senses to find it and swap when his first task was done. Looking down at the ground, he noticed that Hibiki was holding open a sealing scroll while looking at what Naruto was holding in his hand. Nodding quickly without saying a word, Naruto set the severed head onto the scroll, which immediately gave a puff of smoke as the sealing completed.

"Good work. You've done your part, if you want to continue, that's up to you."

Turning to look at the chaos as the mercenaries were trying to attack Naruto's clones, Hibiki formed a hand sign. Naruto heard a few muttered words but couldn't make out much else as a loud screeching noise filled his ears. The noise traveled away at a rapid pace, and after barely a second he noticed several of the mercenaries go flying like rag dolls. That was the signal for the other four chuunin with them to unleash their own techniques, and it wasn't much longer until every last one of the mercenaries was dead... or dying.

After the skirmish ended, Naruto checked his senses to see if they had missed anyone. The only thing left which he could still sense other than his current companions was the enemy shinobi. They needed to be dealt with, but hopefully they would choose discretion over valor after seeing what remained of this... massacre.

"I know you're in the green tent. You might as well come out and talk to us."

Naruto waited several moments and watched as the chuunin and Hibiki started gathering up the corpses and moving them over to a pile in the center of the old camp. He was about to call out once more, though a hand reaching out and pulling back one of the tent flaps made his jaw snap shut. He watched carefully as someone with blue hair - barely a shade darker than his eyes - slowly left the tent. It took one glance to realize that it was a woman, and second glance to realize that she was a rather good looking, well proportioned, scantily clad woman. Unfortunately for Naruto, he didn't have much experience with women who dressed less than conservatively. However, on his side was the fact that the person he respected as both a Hokage and a motherly figure was very well endowed, and he had plenty of experience of keeping his eyes away from where they didn't belong.

The woman must have noticed his gaze locked on her face as well, because she actually gave him a rather wry grin. "Well, I have to say that I like you already, even though you're from the Leaf. You're doing a lot better than any of these disgusting louts ever did."

Naruto wasn't sure if he should have smiled or frowned at that comment, so he tried to keep his face set to a neutral mask. "I take it you didn't much care for them, then?"

The blue haired woman snorted. "I hated them. They were constantly raping me with their eyes, my skin was constantly crawling whenever I left the tent. It's my mistake for wearing this gear, but it's usually kinda cold where I come from. As a result, it's rather warm for me down here if I wear any heavy clothing. Now I know better." She gave him a cautious look, "Assuming you aren't going to kill me, that is."

Shaking his head, Naruto looked away from her to see his group tossing the last of the bodies into the pile they had formed. "I didn't want to kill anyone if I could help it, but they didn't really give me much of a choice. If you promise to leave, I can pretend that we never met."

"Uzumaki-taichou, we're done over here. Is there anything else?"

"Scavenge the area really quick, any supplies can be sealed away and taken to the fort as supplies. If there is anything they don't want, we'll take to the Outpost."

"There's valuables in that crate over there, they pillaged a town to the north on our way here. You might want to return what's in there." Naruto craned his head to look where the woman was pointing, only to see a rather large crate that had a few miscellaneous items scattered about on top of it. Shifting his gaze over to Hibiki, Naruto caught the man's gaze, and nodded at him. The Sound jounin returned the nod and moved over towards the crate, pulling a sealing scroll out from one of the pouches attached to the leg of his pants.

"Thanks for that information."

The woman shrugged, using her hands to rub at her arms as she looked around. It was then that Naruto noticed a small breeze had kicked up, and it blew at the woman's hair, causing blue strands to wave about in the breeze. It parted her hairstyle enough so that Naruto was able to clearly see the Cloud insignia on her forehead protector.

"Were you supposed to be in charge of these men?"

Looking at him sharply, the woman scowled, then moved her gaze over towards the pile of bodies. "No, I was just a tagalong. Raikage-sama doesn't want any of the shinobi getting involved in conflicts if we can help it, so that's why I remained hidden. He doesn't even want us here as far as I can tell, but the rumor is that the daimyo of Lightning threatened or bribed him somehow. He sent chuunin and genin, but there isn't really anyone that can command us... so we've just been observing."

"You're a chuunin, then?"

The lady smiled softly, looking at the ground. "Yes, I was supposed to be able to apply for jounin in about six months, but I don't know how long I'll be stuck on this dead-end mission."

Naruto was about to reply when the two Leaf chuunin approached him. "Sorry to interrupt, Uzumaki-taichou. We've gotten everything we could find sealed away. Should we get rid of the camp now?"

"Yeah, scorch it all. Don't leave any evidence, so no one will know what really happened here other than scorched earth and ashes. Just make sure you tell our friends to get out of the way."

"You got it." As the two chuunin moved into position, Naruto beckoned to the Cloud shinobi. She cautiously moved away from the camp, following Naruto at what she probably felt was a relatively safe distance. After they moved far enough away, Naruto stopped and turned around, looking at where the chuunin were starting to torch everything with various flame techniques. Turning to the Cloud woman once again, Naruto gave her a serious look.

"If anyone asks, you don't know what happened here. You were out scouting the fort, and when you returned the camp was gone." The teen watched as the woman's eyes started opening wider as he talked. "I need you to find a way to get a message to Raikage-sama. Tell him to get a messenger to the Whirlpool Outpost if he has any interest in finding a path to peace."

"A path to..." The woman shook her head, "Very well, but where will he find this outpost?"

"Go to the river that separates Fire Country from Swamp Country. Follow it east towards the sea. You can't miss it."

Nodding, the Cloud chuunin gave Naruto a quick bow. "If there is nothing else, I will be leaving now. Thank you... for... not killing me."

"I don't kill anyone unless they give me a reason to. Please don't forget my message."

"I won't. Goodbye."

Naruto didn't hear her leave, though when he turned to look, she was no longer standing where she was a moment before. Looking back to the fires, he moved over to join the Sound shinobi as they watched the two Leaf chuunin methodically remove any trace of the mercenary camp ever having existed.

"There are extra chakra signatures up ahead that I don't recognize. It doesn't seem like any of them are fighting, but we should proceed with caution just in case."

Naruto's two chuunin companions nodded to him, now on guard. It was the middle of the afternoon the day after they had taken care of the incursion by Lightning Country mercenaries into Rice Field Country. Their actions were enough to earn them support by the makeshift jounin council in the Sound Village, and they said they'd follow up with a messenger to iron out the details in the coming days. If things went according to plan, he might be hearing from the Raikage at some point in the future as well. If the Cloud chuunin they encountered was any indication, the Raikage was not eager to be a participant in whatever scheme the Lightning Daimyo had going on.

As they got closer to Whirlpool Outpost, he sensed a chakra flare from one of the signatures he didn't recognize. That could only mean that the person was a sensor, which also meant that they likely had some form of shinobi training. Naruto couldn't stop the sigh that escaped from between his lips. The random unannounced visits were starting to become a burden.

"Whoever they are, they have shinobi training. One of them is a sensor, and they know we're incoming. Be ready, hopefully they are friendly."

Another murmur of acknowledgment followed his statement, and Naruto decided to approach slowly so he could focus some chakra into his eyes. Reinforcing his vision, he squinted, hoping to catch a glimpse of who his visitors might be. When he spotted one, he couldn't help but groan.

"Uzumaki-taichou?"

Shaking his head, Naruto grumbled out a response. "The Shugonin Juunishi."

"The Twelve Guardian Ninja? Why are they here?"

"Who knows. Hopefully it's good. I hope Shibasaki-jiisan didn't bring his granddaughter."

There was a moment of silence behind him before the female chuunin asked a question. "Is there... something wrong with the Fire Lord's granddaughter, taichou?"

Naruto felt like sighing once again as they entered the Outpost, and saw all the eyes in the area turn to look at the new arrivals.

"Yeah, she likes me. I see her personal guard is here, and so is Shuugo's. Looks like they all decided to visit."

"Naruto! You're back! How did it... is that blood?! What happened?!"

Naruto and his two companions all turned their heads to see Sakura quickly jogging over to them. Before any one of them could say a word, Sakura's hands sprung forward and were glowing green and hovering over Naruto's chest. "Whoa... it's alright, Sakura-chan. This blood isn't mine. I wasn't touched." Sakura opened her mouth to reply, but Naruto turned away from her, looking at the two chuunin he had been traveling with. "You two are dismissed. Good work, by the way. I'll be writing up recommendations for both of you in my next report to Konoha."

Both chuunin gave him beaming smiles, and promptly bowed. The female spoke to him in a chipper tone. "Thank you, Uzumaki-taichou! Good luck with... whatever is going on, as well." Both of them promptly turned around and headed towards the barracks. Shaking his head with a rueful smile, he turned back to Sakura... who was now pouting cutely at him.

"Ah, I'm sorry Sakura-chan. Those two were great during the trip, but I didn't want to keep dragging them around unnecessarily."

Sighing and squinting her eyes, Sakura nodded, then proceeded to poke at the splotches of blood on his vest. "Explain."

"To make a long story short, I had to help Sound with a mission before they would offer me any support at all. I had to face off against mercenaries, but not a single one of them touched me. The mission was a success, and I'll be hearing from one of their messengers to confirm details sometime soon."

"Good to know." Sakura looked around the area, eyes stopping briefly on each of the individual escorts of the Fire Lord and his entourage. "As I'm sure you've noticed by now, the Fire Lord decided to show up to see how things were going. We were all caught totally off guard, and he didn't seem terribly happy that you weren't here."

"Technically, I'm not supposed to leave the Outpost unless it's on official business or an emergency. I was out on official business... just not business they knew about." Naruto rubbed at his forehead. "I was hoping I'd have more time to explain it, but it looks like I'm not going to get that chance. Where is he now?"

Sakura gestured towards the command building. "They were in one of the meeting rooms. Kakashi-sensei has been talking to him, but I haven't really been listening to what they were talking about. Hinata, Kiba, and Ino have been talking with his two grandchildren that came with them... apparently they are here because they want to see you again. Your mother is there too, she sent me out here when she felt your chakra approaching."

Naruto nodded at that. It made sense, considering she showed up right after he arrived. At least his mother kept his arrival discreet, it was definitely better than being ambushed. "Hey, Sakura-chan... what's your opinion of Natsumi and Shuugo?"

"Huh?" Sakura looked at him out of the corner of her eye, as they had started walking towards the command structure. "Oh, is that their names? I was talking with your mom the whole time, so I didn't really meet them. The girl, Natsumi, seems impatient about something, though Shuugo looks rather laid back."

"Yeah, well Shuugo is training to be a samurai, so part of his training is to remain calm at all times. Natsumi... she... might be a bit of an issue."

"An issue?" Sakura's voice had adopted a hard edge. Even if there was nothing for him to worry about, Naruto couldn't help but start to sweat a little.

"I had been assigned a mission while I was out training with Ero-sennin a few years ago, since we were near the capital. We met up with another team from Konoha and had to escort her so she could meet with a suitor. On the way, we were attacked, and I managed to rescue her. Ever since then, she's turned away all suitors because she wants to marry me."

Naruto was talking with a serious face while watching Sakura's expression. It was strangely neutral through most of his explanation, though her eyebrows raised sharply when he mentioned marriage. "I told her I couldn't because I wasn't of noble birth, but she claimed she didn't care and would find a way. Technically, I am of noble birth, but she doesn't know that. Shibasaki-jiisan does, though, and I just know he's going to tease me about it eventually."

"So what are you going to do?" The hard edge in Sakura's voice was gone, but she definitely didn't look happy.

Naruto shrugged. "I have an idea, but I'll only use it if I really have to. I'm apologizing in advance if I say anything that upsets you, but please beat me up later when we're alone, okay?"

A small smile tugged at the corner of Sakura's mouth. "I'll think about it. If it pisses me off too badly I might not be able to hold back."

"Oh well. Just make sure my mom doesn't see it at least. Oh! I should probably also warn you... Natsumi is the type that thinks she can always get what she wants. So don't be surprised if she seems... mean. Sometimes I don't know how her and Shuugo manage to be related."

Naruto let out a sigh as they approached the door to the conference room. Beside him, Sakura was strangely quiet, but Naruto tossed her a smile as she gave his hand a quick squeeze.

"Time to go meet my doom."

"Koibito!"

The girlish squeal was immediately followed by Naruto being engulfed in a tight hug right after he stepped foot into the room. He forced a small smile onto his face and laughed lightly, giving the female a gentle pat on the back. "Uhm, it's nice to see you again, Natsumi-hime."

The teenager promptly broke the embrace, then took a step back and pouted at him. If he wasn't so infatuated with Sakura, Naruto had to reluctantly admit he would have been soaking up all of the attention the girl in front of him had given him since he saved her years ago. Natsumi was very attractive - though obviously no one beat Sakura in that department - and the small jeweled tiara she was wearing gave her an appearance of maturity, even if she didn't act that way. The clothes she was wearing were casual, nothing close to the traditional yukata he typically saw her in, but it made sense not to wear her usual clothes when traveling. Still, her honey colored hair was done up in an intricate bun that left shoulder-length curls fall free to frame her face. The face, he remembered, that was still pouting at him.

"How many times do I have to tell you! It's Natsumi-chan for you! Natsumi-chan! You're the only one I let call me Natsumi-chan other than my family, so you'd better use it!"

Naruto nervously scratched at the back of his head. "Ahh... yes, sorry... Natsumi... chan."

Her demeanor changed instantly and a happy grin found it's way onto her face. She clapped her hands together lightly and giggled at him. "Well, aren't you happy that I came to see you? It took me three days in one of those bumpy carriages. Ugh, it hurt so much and I'm so sore, especially when the roads stopped." She stopped for a moment to rub her backside while frowning, then turned back to him with a small scowl on her face. "The first thing we're going to do is fix all the roads out here, because I'm going to be visiting a lot!"

"Oh, really? Well, that's um... good to know. It will definitely help with trade too."

The enthusiasm was clearly missing from Naruto's voice, and Natsumi must have noticed it as well. She moved her hands to her hips and looked at him curiously. "Eh, Naruto-kun? What's wrong? You're awfully..." He noticed her eyes twitch over to his side, then back to him, and then back over to his side where they remained. Turning his own head, he looked over his shoulder to find that Sakura was literally breathing over his shoulder, glaring daggers at the Fire Lord's granddaughter.

"Naruto-kun? Who is that? I don't like how close she is standing to you." Natsumi jumped forward and grabbed Naruto's arm, holding it close against her chest and dragging him away from Sakura. Much to his surprise, Sakura grabbed his other arm and stopped his movement, causing Natsumi to yelp in surprise.

"Y-You succubus! What are you doing?!" The Fire Princess was leaning around Naruto's chest, glaring at Sakura.

"I could ask you the same thing! Just because you're royalty doesn't mean you can treat Naruto like you own him!" Sakura glared right back at the other teen, Naruto swore he saw sparks appear in front of him. He suddenly had a vague understanding of what Sasuke dealt with every day when they were in the academy.

"I was doing no such thing! If he didn't want something, he could easily have said no. Besides, Naruto-kun is going to marry me! I've already decided it!"

"There you go again! You decided it, he didn't!"

Natsumi squinted and looked at Sakura carefully. Releasing Naruto's arm, she walked around him and moved over closer to Sakura, and began examining the pink haired girl closely. Sakura grabbed Naruto's arm even tighter, while the blond simply looked on quizzically.

"W-What?" Sakura was clearly fidgeting, the only time she had likely been scrutinized this closely before was when she was training to be Tsunade's apprentice.

The Fire Princess nodded and hummed to herself for a moment, then looked straight at Naruto. "Well, Naruto-kun, at least she's attractive. If you want to take her as a mistress after we're married, I approve."

Naruto wasn't sure, but he swore he felt his arm break as well as a sound vaguely reminiscent of a cat coughing up a hairball came from where Sakura was standing. It was then that Naruto also heard snickering in other places of the room. Looking around, he realized that he totally forgot where he was. There were a handful of others in the room that were all sending amused looks his way, even the Fire Lord had a huge grin on his face.

"Natsumi-chan, I'm flattered... but I can't marry you. I'm sorry."

Natsumi was visibly shocked, and her expression was swiftly morphing into one of despair. "But... why?"

Naruto looked at the girl seriously. "It wouldn't be right, because I'm already engaged to Sakura-chan. I can't marry more than one person." Sakura's hold around his arm tensed once again, but Naruto wasn't about to look at her and potentially blow a hole in the lie. Sure, he'd love it if it was true, but the rational side of him knew that it was way too early for that. He only hoped Sakura managed to keep her expression somewhat neutral, and that she remembered what he told her when they were outside the door. He risked a quick glance around the room to see what others were thinking, though most of them just seemed to be expressing confusion. Only Ino looked completely flabbergasted at his fake confession. His mother and Kakashi both probably knew what he was trying to do, and kept their expressions blank. The Fire Lord, however...

"Actually... Naruto-kun..." There was a moment of silence as the Shibasaki Kiyoshi decided to clarify something. "As you are now aware, you are officially nobility, in more way than one. Your father was Hokage, and your mother is the leader of Whirlpool Country. Most countries have laws that enable nobility to have certain... privileges..."

"No offense, Shibasaki-dono, but I don't think my son is like that. He'll probably-"

"Kyaaaa!! Naruto-kun, I had no idea you were nobility too! That means you don't need a mistress, you can marry however many women you want! I don't mind at all!"

Sakura slowly released Naruto's arm, letting her own arms fall to her sides. She didn't move away, but Naruto was still concerned, only half-listening to other conversations that were currently taking place throughout the room at this revelation.

"Sakura-chan? What's wrong?"

Shaking her head, the pink haired girl mumbled something under her breath that he didn't catch. He was going to ask her to repeat it, but Natsumi quickly moved over and latched onto one of Sakura's arms. The medi-nin looked at the princess in complete shock.

"Oh, your name is Sakura? That's a really nice name. I'm sorry I called you a succubus earlier, but I was really upset, and I saw you as a rival."

Sakura tried to bring a smile to her face, but it was clearly forced. "It's... not a problem, Natsumi-hime."

"Heee, we'll need to get along really well if we're going to marry Naruto, so maybe we should go to your office and get better acquainted? Hmm?"

The way Natsumi started rubbing Sakura's arm as she talked made some rather impure thoughts go through Naruto's mind. Sakura must have been feeling awkward as well, since her face was bright red. The coy grin on Natsumi's face was not helping matters either.

"Natsumi-chan, as much as I'm sure the poor girl would like to get to know you better, I'm afraid I'll need her in a meeting." Natsumi frowned as she reluctantly let go of Sakura's arm, but bowed at her grandfather. Kiyoshi turned to look at his grandson. "Shuugo, maybe you should go outside and help your sister practice her swordsmanship. She has been skipping lessons lately."

Shuugo immediately bowed and gestured for his sister to follow. As he passed Naruto, he mumbled an apology under his breath, to which Naruto simply gave the younger boy a smile and waved it off. Natsumi swiftly moved over to Naruto as her brother passed and gave him a quick hug, then promptly followed Shuugo out the door without looking back.

"Hinata-sama, I'm sorry to be a bother, but would you do an old man a favor and make sure Natsumi behaves with her brother? If she doesn't, please report it to me. I need that girl to start growing up."

Hinata bowed deeply. "Y-yes, Shibasaki-dono. Excuse me."

As Hinata left the room, Kiba decided to excuse himself go with her just in case. The Fire Lord spoke up one last time, "Naruto-kun, Kushina-sama, Kakashi-san, and Sakura-san... please let us reconvene to another room. We have several things we must discuss, and it would be best if we could avoid any further distractions, fun though they may be." Kiyoshi looked at Naruto specifically and winked at the teen, making Naruto realize that the old man had purposefully given him a hard time earlier just for a few laughs. The blond fully considered some kind of prank as revenge, but decided against it. He had played pranks on the Fire Lord before, mostly just to prove he could. Kiyoshi had gotten several laughs out of it, but the rest of his guards weren't quite as jovial about the whole... prank thing.

"We can move to my office upstairs, if that's alright?"

Kiyoshi nodded. "That's perfect. Lead the way, Naruto-kun."

OMAKE

Itachi settled down on his stool at the tea shop. He wasn't really hungry or thirsty, but Kisame had started complaining, so they had agreed to take a short break before continuing on to their destination in Rock.

"Ohhh man, my feet hurt. Maybe I should pick up some new sandals while I'm here."

Keeping his mouth shut, Itachi nodded at the server who dropped off the menu where they were sitting. They had an understanding between the two of them, where they would ignore each others' eccentricities. Kisame liked to talk, sometimes for no reason. Itachi had agreed to not tell Kisame to shut up unless they were in the middle of an important assignment.

Kisame, on the other hand, claimed that Itachi was just downright creepy at times, and he would prefer it if Itachi would not be that way. Unfortunately, Itachi had no idea how he was creepy, so he decided it was in his best interests to simply keep his mouth shut. As a result, Kisame was typically talking nonstop to no one in particular, likely just to hear himself talk.

"What should I get... I've had every one of their flavors of tea before... maybe I should get something to eat this time. I wonder..."

Itachi sighed as he set his menu down. He was probably just going to go with a glass of water. Boring, yes, but he really didn't feel like consuming anything that would make him thirsty again while in the middle of their journey. As he was planning the rest of their trip in his mind, he suddenly had a very odd sensation run down his spine. The Uchiha sat up sharply and looked around, his gaze eventually drifting to the direction where Whirlpool was located.

Kisame noticed his partner's unusual behavior, "Eh? Itachi? Something wrong?"

Itachi closed his eyes, his posture settling back down on the stool. "I seem to sense a disturbance in the mojo. It's as if a million voices cried out at once, complaining about how the pairing may eventually turn into a harem, only to be immediately silenced when a greater power stated that it would not be."

The man with fish-like features blinked slowly a few times. "Itachi? Remember what I said about the creepy? That was definitely creepy."

Opening his eyes, Itachi nodded. "It won't happen again."

A/N: I'd like to apologize in advance for the length of this A/N. I don't really approve of long-winded A/N's, but I have questions/comments/concerns that I'd like to share with my readers.

First, thanks to my beta, Denim88, as always for looking over this and offering suggestions.

Second, thanks to all my reviewers. Especially my consistent reviewers who are around at least once every three chapters or so. Your input is greatly appreciated. I'd go on a naming spree, but that would just add more length to an already lengthy note. (Sorry, maybe I'll do it next chapter? =P)

Third, for those of you who might not know, an Omake is just an extra to the story, it does not really happen. Think of it as a humorous 'what-if?'. I was talking to Denim and he actually gave me the idea for the little funny moment, I thought it would be amusing to expand upon it a little.

Lastly, there is something that could either be a concern, or it could just be that people are so content with this fic that they don't really need to say anything about it. I've made a point -not- to ask for reviews, specifically because I always get annoyed when I read a story and the author begs/asks for reviews every chapter. I don't mind it much at all when they just say things like 'Don't forget to review!' or just 'Review!', but when they threaten to only post another chapter of the story if some imaginary review number is met? No thanks. I'm of the opinion that if there is a legitimate critique, someone will let me know, or if there was a specific aspect that someone really enjoyed about a chapter, that they will also let me know. I know that's how I base the reviews I offer on stories I read, and from the reviews I -do- get, it seems I'm not the only one who thinks that way.

But then I came across something interesting when browsing through fics I haven't looked at yet. Just the other day I came across one that had over ten thousand reviews. Based on that alone, I had to check it out. Personally, I didn't think the fic was written all THAT great, it was decent and entertaining yes, but there wasn't anything particularly groundbreaking about it. There was enough substance to make me want to read several dozen chapters or so before I was just waiting for the story to end. The author had a bit of a mouth and replied in the story to some reviewers who were flaming him or complaining. I guess that's entertaining for some to read, but I don't check out stories to read review responses. I thank all my reviewers in many of my A/N's (I edited them out when I cleaned up my older chapters), and even reply to some of the ones that are well thought out or very nice, have good idea's that I'd like permission to use, and even critiques to find out what I can possibly change. But I don't make everyone else suffer through them.

I don't want to say I was jealous about it (even if I am human and probably was), but curiosity got the better of me and I started browsing other fics. Most that have been around since about the same time as mine (or are even 'younger') have a review count that totally blow mine out of the water, even though mine in most cases has 100 thousand more words on average. I'm not afraid to admit that it left me feeling a little hollow for a while, and having to rationalize that "I guess everyone is content enough with my fic that they enjoy reading it but don't really have anything positive or negative to say about it." Or maybe it was that "My chapters are so long and take a few weeks to write that I only keep the people with the attention span longer than that of a goldfish." Apologies to those 'goldfish' readers out there, I just needed an example.

Of course, those of you who review consistently, almost every chapter, have my most heartfelt thanks. (Yes, that includes just smiley faces, InARealPickle)

If you want a little more explanation as to why I'm a bit perturbed about the whole ordeal, here's some statistics from the month of February. I posted Chapter 25 on the 10th. On that day alone, I had 1.62k people (unique visitors, not 'hits') at least open the page where that chapter was located. For the 18 days that Chapter 25 was up in February, 2181 people at least looked at it. Whirlpool Country as a whole averages just over 100 unique visitors a day, looking at one chapter, minimum. Every chapter had a minimum 350 people who looked at it last month. The large majority of chapters had more than 400!

I am very proud and happy about the number of people who at least look at the story, and if the numbers indicate correctly, I'd say that at least 300 people read Whirlpool Country from start to finish in February alone.

Alas, here comes the heartbreak. For all of those two thousand plus people who checked out chapter 25, and for those 300 people that read the entire story.... I got 12 reviews. Chapter 24? Thirteen reviews. Chapter 23? Twelve reviews. I got two PM's during that entire time. Yes, I'll admit, I had a 'what the fuck?' moment. I also realize that I'm probably being a hypocrite for even bothering to go into this much detail about everything. But for once I broke down and couldn't help it. I enjoy reading other fics as much as I enjoy writing, and when I can't help but notice how much attention other fics get even when authors don't ask for it, I don't think I could help but wonder why. I'll never understand if I'm not told. On the same note, if I'm not told what people did or didn't like about the fic/chapter, it feels childish of me but I can't help but wonder why I bother writing in the first place. I only write because I think I have an idea for a story that others will enjoy, but if hardly anyone does... let's just say I have other things I can be doing with the time I spend typing, checking grammar, proofreading, editing, and all that stuff. Think of reviews as payment for a fanfiction writer, and this doesn't just apply to my work either. Published authors get paid cash for their work, but I'm here doing this for free. Good words, saying my work is enjoyed, a pat on the back, critiques so I can try to write better... that's all I need to make me want to keep going. I'm sure the same holds true for many other fanfiction authors as well.

I feel a little dirty being so long-winded about reviews of all things, but it's downright depressing. So for one time (and hopefully one time only) I'm literally going to get down on my imaginary internet-knees and beg for reviews. Any kind of review, just let me know how I'm doing. Any trolls about this long A/N will be deleted, because that's not what I'm asking for, and I know that there are juveniles out there that get a kick out of causing grief. Your kind of attention to my story is something I don't need. I need critiques, I need explanations as to why you like what you read. It doesn't have to be more than a sentence. Even if you just like the story for what it is, pleeeaaase let me know. I really don't want to have to resort to the 'please review' at the bottom of every chapter, but when I get two thousand people who read a chapter and barely a dozen feel like letting me know what they thought, it's a larger blow to my morale than you might think.

Whirlpool Country up to Chapter 25 - Reviews: 588, Words: 203243, Hits: 247966, C2's: 57, Favs: 726, Alerts: 772

Chapters 14 and 15 have been edited.

Up next: Whirlpool Country

A/N2: I've added a note on my profile under today's date as a response to some reviews I've gotten already, and confirmation for those that despise Harems. Oh, and leaving a very good, thorough review that is unsigned? *bonks The DoD on the head* Now I can't reply to you directly!