Author's note: Hello Everyone! I updated again today! Yay!

Let's make this quick because I do not feel well today.. so here it is..

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO READ, REVIEW, FOLLOWED, AND PUT THIS STORY TO THEIR FAVORITES!And also to those who FOLLOWED ME AND PUT ME TO THEIR FAVORITES, THANK YOU SO MUCH TOO! I love you all! Mwaaahhh!

Disclaimer: Uhhhmm...no... I do not own Naruto... but I hope you enjoy this new chapter I posted... :)

Chapter 25: Good and Bad Omens

As a new morning woke him up, Yamato unenthusiastically got up from his bed. As much as he wanted to forget last night's event, his mind kept wandering at it. It's like a painful stab in the heart. And though he just wanted to be away from Mirage or anything associated with Ayame he just couldn't abandon the promise he made with the child; Ren. And so he trudged towards the guest house, hoping against hope that he won't meet up with Ayame.

XxXxX

Naruto grudgingly walked towards his office. Hokage works are harder now that his secretary is gone. His office is messier, his paperworks are not in order, and complainants are in chaos.

As he opened his office door, he was half expecting some piles of paper to fall down to his face. But to his surprise, nothing fell to him. Actually, his room is squeaky clean and shining as the sun illuminates the room. His pile of paper works must be neatly arranged in the drawers nearby and his table was decorated with a fresh flower.

"And is it just me or does it smells like lavender?" Naruto asked his self. He walked towards his table in awe. He glided his fingers to check if there are some dusts or something on the table.

"Is there a problem?" Naruto snapped from his reverie and he froze on his place.

'I am hallucinating. I am hallucinating.' He chanted to his self, 'Must be from all the stress...'

"Hokage-sama is there a problem?" The owner of the sweet voice inquired and she came into view. Naruto unconsciously held his breath.

"Shikamaru-san said you needed a temporary secretary since you assigned Ino to be the Konoha ambassador in Suna and since I have nothing to do here in Konoha while I wait for the assigned date of the concert, I might as well get myself busy and do something." Hinata said as she beamed at Naruto.

"Uhhmmm..." Naruto contemplates on what to say.

"Oh by the way, I prepared you a breakfast. Shikamaru-san said Ino always makes you one since you don't cook breakfast." She continued as she placed the tray containing Naruto's breakfast on his table.

There was suddenly a knock on the door and Hinata quickly excuse herself to open the door.

"Naruto, the team we assigned for investigating the destructed village is here. Team A is now here to report." Shikamaru started. He stopped when he noticed the Hokage's odd behaviour.

"Uhhmm, Hokage-sama, Shikamaru-san, I will attend to the some other papers now. I shall excuse myself." Shikamaru nodded to Hinata as the raven-haired girl left.

"Punch me. I want to know if I'm dreaming." Naruto commanded right after Hinata closed the door.

"No, you're not dreaming. Yesterday, I saw what a mess it was when you have no secretary. I decided to get you one but no one is available. So I decided to push my luck and ask Eris to be your secretary. Surprisingly, she agreed." Shikamaru explained.

Naruto suddenly grinned from ear to ear. "You really are a genius."

'I doubt that. I wasn't even thinking straight when I asked her.' Shikamaru thought but he kept it to his self.

"I must take this opportunity to persuade her and the whole Mirage to stay here in Konoha." Naruto said.

"And how exactly are you going to do that?"

"I don't know. But I can think about that later." Naruto said as he kept grinning to his self. "Anyway, what were you saying before I burst out here?"

Shikamaru sighed, "Team A is here to report." And he proceeded to call Team A. Team A is consisted of Tenten, Shino, Choji and Kiba, he recognize the team to be the one assigned to guard the destructed village near Konoha.

Team A came inside the office and the room stayed quiet. Shikamaru stayed beside Naruto, also waiting for them to speak until Naruto realized something.

"Where's Kiba?" He asked, Team A minus Kiba grimly looked at each other.

"He and Akamaru are in the hospital." Tenten answered, her voice was almost cracking. The Hokage and his adviser noticed Shino stiffened and Choji patting Tenten who was in the verge of tears.

"We... we don't know what happened... We can't even do anything." Tenten started crying, "I feel so helpless and useless. We can't even help him. We just saw him almost not breathing, his eyes were wide open and both he and Akamaru were bathing in their own blood."

"I tried my best to keep his and Akamaru's heart pumping until we reach Konoha. We don't know how they are now since we immediately went here to report." Choji said, still trying to comfort Tenten.

"That idiot must have seen the culprit and followed it without notifying us." Shino concludedn, his voice firm and not betraying any emotion, but they knew better. "I told him to not be stupid and notify us once one of us saw any signs of the culprit."

Naruto slammed his fist on the table. These attacks are getting out of hand. He must do something. Hinata suddenly came in and the others who did not know why Hinata was there were shocked but they did not voice their surprise. Besides, there are more important things at hand than bother Hinata's presence.

"Neji-san and Lee-san are asking for your permission to come in, Hokage-sama. They have something important to report." Naruto nodded his approval and Hinata temporarily vanished from the door only to reappear again after a few minutes with Neji and Lee following her. Both Neji and Lee have grim auras.

"What is it Neji, Lee?"

"There was another attack near Iwagakure." Neji blantly said.

"Our intel had also recently received a letter from Ino-san telling that another village was attacked near Suna."

"Also the intel received some reports that some allies of these villages are currently moving and planning a war against Allied Shinobi Forces though their identities are yet to our knowledge." Neji said again.

Another knock on the door and Hinata once again vanished from the room. When she came back again, Moegi was closely behind her.

"Hokage-sama..." Moegi started, tears are brimming from her eyes. "Sakura-san wants a meeting with you..."

Naruto was dumbstruck. Moegi was assisting Sakura in the hospital and from what Naruto knows she is Sakura's trainee. And if Moegi is almost in tears, it only means whatever Sakura was about to sa is going to be bad. Somehow, Naruto dreaded her next words.

"It's about Kiba-san..." she continued.

A/N: Thank you for reading! Please review.. :)

Okay... Yamato is heart-broken because of what he saw last night... and yep.. he's jealous...

Now, Hinata accepted the offer... WOW! That is a big turn of events! Now.. why would she accept it? i don't know... but I guess that will be unraveled in the next chapters...

And UH-OH! What the hell happened to Kiba?

Am I talking fast? Sorry... I don't really feel well... so I am fasting my pace... really sorry...

I shall update again next time... and I hope you're still there with me... :))