Chapter 28
"This is Alpha. What is everyone's status? Sound off, over."
"Bravo here. Eyes on target."
"Charlie here. Readying tripwire."
"Delta here. Approaching from above."
"…"
"Foxtrot, respond."
"…"
"Foxtrot, respond."
"I'm busy."
"Busy? What the fuck are you busy with? This is important!"
"Language."
"Sound. Off."
"I told you, I'm busy."
"What, pray tell, are you busy with?"
"There's a pebble stuck in my arm."
"Is it impeding your movement?"
"No, but it's really uncomfortable."
"Then it isn't very important now is it? Are you in position?"
"I've been in position for a while now. And what is it with all these codenames? I don't remember anyone except for you, Alpha, and that's only because I'm married to you."
There was an elongated sigh over the intercom. "The reason that we're using codenames is in case anyone on the other team in on the same frequency as us."
"Oh? Is that why? Then why was I saddled with Foxtrot? What if you were saddled with Catjump? Or Pumapounce? That's a pretty big call out on who we are."
"If we go with the conventions, then we won't have to worry about that."
"What are they going to hear anyway? We already planned out everything ahead of time. The only thing that they're going to be hearing is really vague terms like 'I'm in position.', or 'there's a pebble stuck in my arm.'
"Because that's so vague."
"Exactly."
"Hey guys, are we going to go with the plan or won't we?"
"We're going with the plan, Golf. Everyone else sound off."
"Hotel underground and in position."
"India here, I have a good line of sight on the target."
"Xray here-"
"Xray? Why does he get Xray?"
"Because, Foxtrot, he threw a fit."
"I didn't throw a fit."
"Stow it Xray. What do you have to report?"
"They're the genuine articles alright. They don't expect a thing."
"Okay good. We'll act in one… two… three… NOW."
A series of wires whipped out from the trees that surrounded a small clearing and attempted to wrap around anybody within their reach. In the clearing was a group of 8 individuals, one holding a blow-up doll wearing a paper Miko get-up. The wire encircled around the leg of one of the people there, and she went down with a thud. From the foliage leapt Yugito, who wasted no time in engaging the enemy. Someone fell from the canopy while they were distracted by Yugito and managed to drop an enemy before the rest of them noticed what was wrong. A pair of hands sprouted from the ground and held tight to an enemy's leg, holding him in place.
One enemy unit wised up to what was happening and shouted out a jutsu name. "Great Cylinder Wall." The clearing's ground vibrated vigorously before a giant, several foot thick encampment sprouted from the ground. Yugito and the two others who had made it in were promptly pushed back to the wall from the reorganized enemy unit.
A shinobi tried to vault over the wall, but was nailed in the chest by a violent expulsion of quicklime. The soggy material congealed around him and hardened, keeping him from maneuvering out of the way from impacting the ground where he lay for the time being.
One of the enemy units, the one holding onto the blow up doll, vaulted over the wall with the help of a wind chakra empowered kick and began racing to her destination. Her progress was halted when a long, thin blade impaled and went through the tree she was about to leap to. There was a paper thin strand of wire coming out of the blade's hilt, taking away her ability to move forward. A shinobi jumped on the branch she was about to leap onto and grabbed a hold of the wire, then pulled the blade through it.
Three others jumped on the resounding trees, but the first shinobi told them "Don't worry about her. Go help everyone else." With a commanding tone.
After a moment's hesitation, they complied and jumped into the cylinder to bail out the rest of their teammates.
Naruto leaned against the Nuibari and smiled at Temari. "Heya, how's it going? Sorry, but I'm going to need to take that sex doll."
Temari smirked back at him. "You can have it after I'm done with her."
"Are we really using toys to spice up our relationship already? It's been what, a month? Two months?"
"About four months now, actually"
"Oh, that's right. I was out for two of those wasn't I?"
"Shouldn't you be using toys with Fu and Kurotsuchi right about now as opposed to me?"
A small dusting of red graced Naruto's cheeks and nose. "That's- No- I don't-"
"Getting flustered are we? Or do you just need Fu and Kurotsuchi to take care of you more… virile needs?"
The blush expanded to all of Naruto's face.
"Getting horny just thinking about it?"
"Stop joking about that."
"You started it."
"And you took it way too far."
Temari acquiesced to that fact by holding up her hands in defeat. "Whatever. The fact remains that I need to transport Ms. Miko here alive and well. And you're in the way of that."
Naruto held the Nuibari horizontally to his chest. "I guess you could say that."
Temari's smirk increased in intensity. She crouched low to the branch and using a wind chakra powered jump, flew directly towards and past Naruto.
"That's not fair! You can't use your leg for that!" Naruto shouted after her.
"Didn't agree to that!" She shouted back.
Naruto grumbled and pushed a few buttons on his prosthetic left arm. "Didn't agree my ass." His prosthetic opened up from a seam that went from his shoulder all the way to his wrist. Clamps and wires shot out and Naruto placed the Nuibari firmly within their grasp. Once they had a grip on the sword, they clung close to and held it inside of Naruto's arm.
A building pressure and force started emanating from his shoulder and went all the way to his wrist very slowly and slightly painfully. Naruto aimed his arm to the left of where Temari headed off and tapped another button on his shoulder. One second the Nuibari was within his arm, the next it was gone. The only trace of it ever having been there in the first place was a thin wire continuously spiraling out of Naruto's wrist.
It was his new arm, one that Kankuro had made himself for Naruto's express use. It basically had the ability to turn into a sword hurling canon using a very complicated series of rotating gears, wires, and chakra.
Naruto didn't know the inner complexities of the arm, but knew that it was very awesome and very easy to accidentally get a pebble stuck inside of.
Ahead of him, the Nuibari made a sudden right turn and blocked Temari's path. It continued on this journey until it had circled around Temari's position several times, ensnaring her within a bundle of trees held impassible by micro-thin wire.
Naruto raced ahead to find Temari trying desperately to cut through some of the wire with a knife. "Cool, huh? It's a good thing that I didn't agree to not using my arm either, huh?" Naruto asked smugly. "Now fork over the doll. I don't want to have to go domestic violence on you."
Temari ceased her cutting only to look at Naruto incredulously. "Did you really just make that joke?"
"It was wonderfully crafted. Now, the doll." Naruto said expectantly.
Temari's left leg straitened violently and expanded into a large fan. She sent a high kick downwards and unleashed a violent burst of wind empowered blades to cut down the trees she was stuck within at the bases of the trunks. The tension of the wire slackened and Temari was free to make her escape.
Naruto grumbled a little bit and shot after her. "Seriously! Give it!"
"Nah." She said with nonchalance whilst continuing to move at very fast velocities.
Naruto cocked his right arm back and began to aim the Nuibari to entrap her once again. He didn't have the time to wait for his arm to charge like last time, so he chose not to bother with it.
Just as he got a good view of her, she stopped dead on the branch with a suddenness he did not expect. Naruto didn't stop and Temari grabbed his left arm when he passed by her. She hit a few places at the shoulder and the entire thing unlatched itself from his stump.
Temari smirked and kicked him in the chest. The impact was light, but the force of the wind emanating from her prosthetic was more than enough to make him shoot off into the forest.
"That is so not fair!" Naruto shouted as he went.
"Don't care!" Temari shouted after him.
Only steps later, the Nuibari zipped past her head, accidentally nicking the Miko doll. It began spluttering and deflating. "Oh goddamn it." She paused and reached into her ninja pouch for a small, compact device.
Naruto landed on the branch next to her, ready for more combat, but the look of the deflating doll made him stop. "Eh? What's the big idea here? I need her alive."
"Then maybe you shouldn't have cut her up." Temari hissed, gesturing to the Nuibari as it was quivering in a tree.
"I wouldn't have cut her up if I had better balance, Ms. Armsnatcher." Naruto said, gesturing to his arm as it was dangling from her grasp. Temari tossed the arm over to Naruto, then loaded the device with a red cylinder. She aimed upwards and shot it off. The cylinder flew into the air, trailing a green smoke as it went. She pocketed the flare gun.
Just around that time, there were more flares as they flew up into the sky. They had various colors associated with them. "Looks like it's a tie again." Temari said to Naruto.
He groaned. "We really needed a win. We're down in points."
Temari placed her hands on her hips and smirked playfully at Naruto. "Yeah, I know that."
Figures began showing up left and right. Some going to Temari and others going to Naruto.
Yugito jumped onto the branch Naruto was standing on and looked down on him with a serious expression on her face. "You wanna tell me what happened?"
"Okay, this is not my fault. Temari." Naruto paused to gesticulate to his sand wife. "Took my arm mid-fight. That's against the rules."
"First off," Temari said. "We're ninja. There are no rules. Second off, that was never described in the meeting beforehand."
"No use of anything relating to a special power such as, but not limited to, bijuu, some kekai genkai, pre-made sealing arrays, and so on. These prosthetics are in that category."
"Any normal person can get their hands on a prosthetic."
Naruto grumbled to himself indignantly. "Okay, we're just going to have to see about this with the camp leader, won't we?"
00000000
Several weeks had passed since they first arrived at the joint training camp. In total, there was about 200 ninja total spanning from all five of the major nations and a few of the smaller ones. Truthfully, there wasn't much use in the camp other than trying to get people open to the idea to getting along. There were different instructors that people went to when they needed different things worked on. There was a chakra control course, a chakra expansion course, several elemental chakra nature courses, genjutsu courses, taijutsu courses, medical ninjutsu courses. Heck, there was even a domestic studies course taught by some civilians. Suffice to say, there were things being taught there that one could learn in their home village.
The only difference in learning at the camp and learning at their villages was the fact that they were surrounded by people that they had been trained since birth to hate. Well not the minor villages, they were just happy to be there.
The 200 were split up in 3 teams. Red, Blue, and Purple. Naruto and Yugito were with the Reds. Kurotsuchi and Temari were with the Blues. And Fu and Mei were with the Purples. Every week, there were customary 'war' games. Different operations carried out by different teams of various sizes all occurred concurrently to each other. However a team did as a whole gave them special rewards. More shower time, better food, good bedding, and so on. So there was an incentive to do well, although lethal techniques were not allowed during the 'war' games and neither were powers that would render the whole games one sided and useless.
Red team had been on a losing streak recently, making the tensions between the nationalities higher than they would have been.
"THIS IS ALL YOUR FUCKING FAULT YOU DUMBASS SANDFUCKER!"
"EAT A DICK YOU CUNT! YOU DIDN'T HAVE MY BACK WHEN I WAS PREPARING MY TECHNIQUE!"
Although Naruto and Yugito's operation didn't go so smoothly, ending with a tie when both teams needed the 'hostage' alive, there were a few operations that went horribly. A group of twenty Reds went against a group of twenty Purples for a 'king of the hill' game type. They were beat into the ground within minutes of starting the fight, rendering the concept of 'king of the hill' useless.
The leaf nin and the sand nin began tussling on the ground. No ninja techniques, no taijutsu, no genjutsu, nothing except for the want to inflict as much pain on the other as possible. Yugito walked over to the two as blue flames began erupting all across her body. An audience formed around the situation. Two tails sprouted from her tailbone and wrenched them away from each other. It was a good thing that Yugito could control whether or not she wanted the fires to burn, else they would have been toast within seconds. The niibi animoorph looked at the two nin with disdain. "What was this about?" She asked in a raspy, deep voice.
Fear was immediately evident on their faces. "S-She didn't have my back when I was preparing a fire jutsu, so we both got taken out." The Sand nin said while pointed shakily at the Leaf nin.
"I-I was busy trying not to get hit by a lightning technique." The Leaf nin said in defense.
Two calico eyes peered at them in disappointment. "Fighting is to be done in the designated sparring areas. Punishment has to be delivered for failure to comply." Yugito found out a while ago that speaking robotically while in her niibi half form was much more intimidating than when she spoke normally. "Do either of you have any suggestions in how you wish to be punished?" It wasn't so much as the fact that they had been going against the rules so much as they were perpetuating the hatred that the camp was trying to lessen.
Both of them were far too afraid to answer correctly. "If neither of you have any suggestions, then I guess that I will have to-"
"I know what to do with them!" Naruto shouted out from somewhere in the group surrounding Yugito and her two new ninja friends. He began pushing his way through the crowd and finally caught sight of the three giving him their attention. "Can I get some chairs?" he asked the audience of nin.
After a little bit of scrambling, some wooden fold out chairs were passed along to Naruto. He unfolded two of them and sat them facing towards each other. "Neko-chan, can you sit down our new friends?"
"Don't call me that." Yugito ordered, setting the two into the chairs.
"Do you prefer Neko-sama then?"
"Yugito."
"Fair enough. Now! You two" he said to the two confused nin. "Are going to be holding hands for the next two hours, else you'll be shipped back to your home villages." Naruto said while smiling widely.
"What?!"
"You don't have the authority."
"I'm Naruto Uzumaki. I have a lot authority over things than you know. So are you two going to be holding hands for the next two hours, or packing your bags?"
Yugito tapped Naruto's shoulder. "We can't afford to send away two nin." Losing two able bodied ninja wasn't a very good in the long haul. Their team needed some moral boost and moral boost was best obtained through excessive wins and subsequent rewards.
"I honestly don't really care about that right now. The whole point of this camp is to figure out what we have in common and to at least act nicely to each other. If these two aren't in the spirit, then they go home." Naruto said with an air of finality. "Plus, I honestly don't think that they'd be willing to be sent home in shame for not holding hands."
Neither of them made any move to do what Naruto had told them to do.
"I'm going to count to three." Naruto warned.
The Sand nin looked away and grabbed a hold of the Leaf nin's hand suddenly. "Let's just get this over with then." He said hastily.
She looked like she wanted to tell him off, but huffed and looked to the side instead, trying her best to not to think about how she was touching him.
"Ah-Ah-Ah." Naruto said chidingly. "Both hands."
They began fumbling for each the opposite's other hand without moving their necks to look. It was quite the comical sight actually.
When they had each other's hands firmly in their grasp, they went back to their silent hatred of each other. "Nope." Naruto said. "Eye contact."
"What the fuck man?"
"I'm not doing that."
"Hey Yugito, can you go get Temari for me? I need to ask her something." Naruto asked, grinning like the devil.
The sand nin's eyes widened in surprise. Nearly every nin in Sand knew about the Sabaku family line and were at least aware of the clout that they held. "Whatever." He said, looking forward at the Leaf nin. "It's just two hours, you bitch."
Her head whipped from the side and glared at the Leaf nin in disdain. "Cocksucker."
"Treefucker."
"Sandass."
"Stop insulting each other." Yugito said.
"No, no. it's alright." Naruto said while smirking. "They're doing what I told them to do. Now we leave them. But don't think about looking away, I'll be watching."
With that, he promptly left the crowd, which dispersed behind them. Many of them had smiles on their faces as they looked at the two nin insult each other endlessly. Yugito walked after Naruto, flames dissipating along the way.
"What was that about?"
"What?"
"They're only going to hate each other more now."
"No they're not. Two hours is a long time to remain in physical contact with and to be looking in each other's eyes. Eventually, they'll settle their differences."
"How do you know that?"
Naruto shrugged. "Worked for me. Well, the situation was a little different, but it works this way too."
Yugito looked at Naruto with a confused expression on her face. "What do you mean you've done that before? Is that a thing they do in the Leaf academy?"
Naruto nearly laughed. "Two nin of different countries who have every right to hate each other are put in a situation where they must coexist. Sounds like something you went through too."
Yugito looked down at Naruto with an exasperated glare. "Those situations are too different. This isn't going to work."
"Well what am I supposed to do? Marry them and wait a few weeks? Nah, this'll work. They have too much in common."
"What do they have in common?"
"For one, they're both human. They live on the same planet. They're both ninja. But most importantly, they're both in a situation that they don't want to be in."
Yugito shook her head. "If this goes sideways, you're going to be on the line."
"I know. But if it does work, then at least two people will be slightly more okay with the treaty."
Yugito was silent for a little bit as she took in Naruto's face. It was set in stone and stubborn beyond belief. She smiled at him. "I guess that you aren't going to be shaken from this." This wasn't a question. Merely a statement of truth. "Come on, let's head to the tents. Mei probably set up a hotspring again or something."
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The three teams were set up into three distinct living areas, but there was no divide between the tents. Meaning that although the teams lived separately, the tents did not separate to accommodate the teams. In the middle of the camp where the three teams' sections all met up, there were six tents. In the middle of those six tents there was usually a hotspring going on powered by Mei's steam release.
Naruto was practically never in his tent. Yugito couldn't sleep without him, Fu enjoyed sharing a bed with him, if he didn't sleep with Kurotsuchi then she'd wake the whole camp, Mei found that sleeping with him was somewhat of a stress relief, and Temari, although she would never admit this, found herself lonely in the tenting situation without him. So it was decided that Naruto would make four clones and they would all share a bed with them for the night.
The only thing he used his tent for was getting in and out of various clothes. Right now, he was wrapping a towel around his waist, preparing for the hotspring.
The hotspring was situated in the middle of the six tents. It had 3 meter tall cylindrical wall of solid granite and contained a small bathing area along with a depression filled with steaming water. A small opening broke up the wall and allowed people inside.
Naruto slapped his hand on the outside of it, the only way to get sound through the thick walls. "I'm coming in now!" He shouted into the opening to announce his presence.
"Yeah yeah." A voice called back out offhandedly.
Naruto ducked his head and entered the steaming area. Inside, Yugito was washing Fu's back, Temari was sprawled languidly at the edge of the bath, and Kurotsuchi was leaning back with a towel covering her face.
They had all become slightly more… open with their bodies over the course of their spending time with each other. Not in the sense that they all stared at each other wantonly with no embarrassment whatsoever, more like it was an unspoken agreement to not look.
It was something done out of convenience rather than closeness. Mei didn't want to create a separate bath strictly for his own use because she'd have to be continually going over there to heat it up for him. For the first few days of bathing together, everyone always had a towel wrapped around their bodies that covered their sensitive bits, but that was rather obtrusive to actually bathing. So eventually they all get rid of the towel with the simple command of "Don't look." Now it's just kind of the standard.
"Where's Mei?" Naruto asked as he lowered himself into the hotspring.
"She wasn't here this morning." Fu said.
"Did she go back to Kiri? I guess it makes sense considering who she is, but did she anything before she went?"
There was a chorus of noncommittal negatives across the spring. "She's a busy person." Yugito stated. "She probably couldn't say goodbye."
"I guess… oh wait, if she's gone, then who's powering up the spring?"
Kurotsuchi rose her hand from the side. "I'm getting good at doing it myself."
Naruto frowned in confusion. "But she said that she powered it with steam release."
If Kurotsuchi was capable of shrugging in the position she was in, then she would have. "I just use a lava release to constantly heat the floor of the tub. Don't touch the floor by the way."
Naruto folded his legs into lotus position. Water began lapping at his prosthetic. Although the prosthetic was not affected by water at all, it was still a very strange feeling to have water enter your limb. Naruto tapped a few buttons and threw it to the side, now free of the inconvenience.
Fu decided that she was clean enough and hopped into the water, creating ripples that lapped at Naruto's and Kurotsuchi's torso. Naruto, being the pubescent guy he was, couldn't help but find his eyes somewhat drawn to Fu's and Kurotsuchi's torso when he was sure they weren't looking. He usually made an active effort not to, as he was afraid of either them noticing what he was doing, or getting a hard on. The one time he did get a hard on in the springs was a moment embarrassing enough that he decided that it wasn't worth the effort to peek.
Fu swam slowly to Naruto's side and wrapped her arms around him. He always blushed a little bit when she initiated physical contact within the springs, which she found adorable. Fu hadn't confessed to him until about 2 weeks ago. Up until that point, she was like a nervous wreck whenever he was around. She had been rightfully aware that Naruto could reject her due to the fact that he was with Kurotsuchi and was very scared of that rejection. Unknown to her, Kurotsuchi had talked to him beforehand and explicitly told him that she was okay with the prospect of sharing so long as he would always throw a shadow clone out at her whenever she wanted one. Naruto was very confused by this statement at first, but it quickly made sense when Fu approached him quivering like a leaf.
Two weeks had passed since Naruto accepted her confession and not much had changed. Fu was much more open around him now that she knew she was given the okays to romantically approach him, but she didn't really know how to go about doing that. She's an orphan who decided to live in the forest alone, by herself, with no one but her books to comfort her. So she had an understanding of what to do next, but found herself stopping up short of doing it whenever she was alone with him.
Fu was content with just being close to him, with being able to talk openly to him, with knowing that she could.
Yugito stepped into the springs next and sighed in pleasure as the water began to clean away her aches and pains. "So Naruto, what did the leader say about prosthetics?" The camp leader was a rather intimidating man of a minor village. This was done to make him a sort of arbiter to the rest of the nations. Even though he was from a minor village, he was at least jonin level if not more.
Naruto thought that since he was a strict man when it came to the rules, he would side with him. Naruto adopted an annoyed countenance. "He said that prosthetics were fine to use."
Temari pumped an arm in the air from her position of lying down. "Damn right."
"Yeah yeah. What are you doing out there anyway? The water's fine."
"I already soaked. Plus having water go into my leg feels really weird."
"I know. I've got a false limb too, you know."
"But you can take yours off." She pointed out.
"Fair enough."
They soaked in the bath for a while after that, just letting the warm water heat their bodies and rub away the stress in their muscles.
Yugito rubbed the back of her neck. "What I wouldn't give for a massage."
Naruto perked up at the mention of massage. "You know, I'm taking those domestic studies classes." He put out there.
"Yeah, shadow clones and all. What about it?"
"There was a massage course about a week ago."
Yugito cracked an eye open at that. "Why would there be a massage course in a domestic studies class?"
Naruto shrugged. "Don't know."
"Are you any good at it?"
Naruto shrugged. "I think I am."
Yugito grabbed a nearby towel and wrapped it around her lower body. She then got up and laid down on the smooth rock on her belly. The cat woman looked at him expectantly. "I'm waiting."
Naruto smiled in amusement. He remembered somewhere in the back of his head about an encounter with a cat before. He had housed it for about a week before the Third found out and took it away from him. During the time he had been with the cat, it acted self-righteously, stubbornly, and expectantly. Yugito, whether she knew it or not, shared a lot of those attributes.
These weren't bad attributes by any stretch of the imagination, just different ones. Ones that Naruto was happy enough to oblige to. Naruto got out of the pool with his towel on, grabbed and put on his arm, and kneeled by her location. He pressed his palms on the center of her upper back and began to spread them outwards from that location, locating any knots of tension within her muscles.
There were a lot.
Naruto pressed the heels of his palms downwards and began smoothing out those muscle knots, the slickness from being in the water helped him do so. Knots in the muscles are made when the muscles build up tension and seize up in localized clusters, leading to back cramps and uncomfortableness.
It usually wasn't recommended to use much force when pressing those knots out, but women with more back muscle compared to other women sometimes have knots closer to the bone than the skin. Naruto really pushed his hands into her back, trying to relax the tension built in the muscles.
Yugito groaned, prompting Naruto to stop. "Am I pushing too hard?" There was the very real possibility of accidentally bruising the bones when too much force is applied, so he was rightfully trepidatious
"No. it just feels good. Keep on doing it." Yugito said, slightly annoyed.
"Okay Neko-chan." Naruto said as he continued to press into her back.
"Mmmmm. Don't call me that." She moaned out.
"Do you prefer Neko-sama then?"
"Aaaahhhh. Whatever. I don't care anymore."
As Naruto pressed into her back some more, he felt a vibrating feeling come from the center of her back. Naruto quirked an eyebrow. That sort of thing didn't happen on the people he practiced on at domestic studies. He continued rubbing her back regardless of the vibrating feeling coming from her back.
The vibration continued and mounted in pressure until Yugito began to groan out those vibration sounds as well. "A-Are you purring?" Naruto asked.
"Huh?" She asked. The vibration stopped all at once.
"You were purring!"
"Humans can't purr."
"Neko-sama can though."
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Hey Temari, come over here. Yugito's purring."
"Really?" Temari asked as she wrapped the towel on her back around her body and walked over to where Naruto was
"Yeah." Naruto began kneading her skin once more. After a little bit more of trying draw out the tension from her muscles, he seduced the vibrating feeling again. "Here, feel her back."
Temari's face lit up in amusement as she pressed her hand on the back of Yugito. "No way."
"What's going on over there?" Kurotsuchi asked from across the pool.
"Yugito's purring!"
Kurotsuchi grabbed the towel off her face and looked over to where Yugito was getting a back rub. She scrambled out of the bath, getting her towel on all the way.
"Really?" Fu asked.
"Yeah. Get over here!"
Soon enough, all four of them were surrounding a slightly uncomfortable Yugito.
"Ha." Kurotsuchi laughed a little bit. "You're just like a cat."
Fu giggled a little bit as she felt the vibration continue.
Yugito started blushing a bright red. "Stop crowding." She said.
"But you're purring." Fu said. "That's so adorable."
Indeed, she could feel a slight vibration in her larynx travel through her lungs and throat. "I'm not adorable. I'm a proud ninja of the Hidden Cloud."
"Whatever you say Neko-chan." Kurotsuchi said as she continued to feel her purr.
Yugito huffed, grabbed a secure hold of her towel, and got up from having her back felt up. "Thanks for the massage Naruto. I think I'm going to bed now."
"She's blushing." Temari said, almost to laughter.
Yugito's face did feel slightly more heated at the moment. Was she really blushing? She didn't blush. She never blushed.
"She's so adorable like that." Fu said airlessly.
Yugito sternly walked out of the wall and to her tent, still only in her towel.
Naruto stretched his body out and got up to leave as well. "It's getting pretty late. I'm hitting the hay too."
"See ya later then." Kurotsuchi said, making her way to the pool again. Fu and Temari wished him a good night offhandedly and went back to their bathing activities.
00000000
Naruto found Yugito curled up on her fold out bed, curled up around her hugging pillow. Even after he reunited with her, she refused to let him have his jacket back.
The tents that they were granted were just like any other tent in the camp. A good twenty by twenty foot circular tent that had a small kitchen set-up, a medium sized mirror standing over a small basin of water, and a fairly comfortable fold out bed. Not luxury accommodations, but pleasant considering the fact that they were in the middle of the forest.
Naruto had gotten dressed back in his tent and made it back to her. She didn't so much as look his way when he entered the tent.
"Is something wrong?" Naruto asked, immediately on guard. He didn't get a response from her. "Did I do something wrong?"
No response. Naruto sat at the edge of her bed. She was fine a minute ago. What made her so unresponsive since then? Maybe it was something she didn't want to say in front of Temari, Kurotsuchi, or Fu.
Considering that Yugito and Naruto had spent the most time around each other for the day, it was probably something he did.
"Is it because I didn't get the doll from Temari?"
No response.
"Is it because I went against what you were going to do to those fighting nin?"
No response.
"Is it because I told everyone you were purring?"
No response. Naruto scratched the back of his head in confusion. There had to be some reason why she was like this. There had to be something bothering her.
Naruto settled for falling under the covers and pulling himself closer to her. "You know you can tell me things, right?" Naruto asked quietly.
Yugito took a deep breath of exasperation. "I just had a realization in the hotspring."
"What was that?"
"That I felt… normal for once."
Naruto wasn't quite sure how to respond to that. "But… you are normal."
Yugito flipped on her side so she could look at Naruto in the face. "If there's one thing that I'm certain in the world, it's that I'm not normal. I hold Matatabi in body. I'm a jonin of Cloud. I've been ostracized for a good portion of my life because I accidentally went on a killing spree when I was in the third shinobi war. No, I'm not normal."
"Then if you're not normal… then how do you know what it feels like to be normal?"
Yugito averted her eyes from Naruto's "I don't know. It was a feeling that sort of snuck up on me."
Naruto tapped his forehead to Yugito's. "Is it a bad thing that you feel normal?"
"N-No. It's not. I just… it feels weird being nice with everyone."
"Huh?"
"I mean, we shouldn't like each other. We have no right to. But I can't help but feel like they're my… friends."
"Of course they're your friends. We protect each other. That was the deal we made."
"There's a big difference between telling each other we're not going to die and we're going to help each other, and coming together as more than just comrades."
Naruto pulled Yugito closer to him. "We're your friend. I'm your friend. And that's not a bad thing."
Yugito didn't respond.
Naruto settled into her for the night. He had already made a few clones for everyone back in the pool, so he didn't have to worry about waking up to made them. "You're right. You're not normal. But when a person who isn't normal is around other people who aren't normal, then what does that make her? Good night Neko-chan."
Yugito allowed herself to close her eyes and settle in for bed. Despite the thoughts swirling around in her head, she found sleep easily.
00000000
Mei was alone in a room. It was rather spacious, allowing for about 10 people to be inside of it at once without it getting uncomfortable. On the walls were pieces of poster paper that held the mottos of the Village Hidden in the Mist. In front of her sat a dormant desk. There was a small, disheveled stack of papers on the side of it next to a pen. In front of the desk was a couple of seats, allowing an audience to the person at the desk.
The thing that got her attention the most, however, was the concave blue had on the desk's seat. On the hat was the kanji for 'water.'
She slowly walked to the side of the desk and reached out to grab the hat. It was stiff to the touch, but the underside was soft and could sit on someone's head without any worry of it tipping over by mistake.
She undid her signature top-knot and allowed her silky tresses to fall to her knee joints. The top-knot would have gotten in the way if she were to put it on.
Mei gingerly set the hat on her head. It felt right. It felt… good.
She sat at the chair and leaned her elbows against the desk. She was the Mizukage of the Hidden Mist and boy did she have some reforms to make.
AN/ gentleman here. I've got a few things to say, so I'd prefer it if you read the authors note.
Let me start off with saying that this is my first fic. Well, not even that. Never Use Shadow Clones to do Your Paperwork was the very first non-essay writing that I've done since the first grade.
I always wanted to do this seriously. I never wanted to approach it from a crack perspective. I guess that it really came off that way with the beginning chapters because of my lack of writing expertise, but I feel like I've come a long way since starting this story.
I've learned a great deal from writing this story. How to handle dialogue better, put the characters into fairly realistic positions, get the character dynamic right. You know, the stuff that people learn through trial and error.
Yes, if you haven't figured this out, this fic was one huge trial and error experiment.
I'm not going to abandon this story. I'm going to continue it, but I'm starting to feel like I might continue It in a different way.
If I knew then what I knew now, the story would have so much better. It would have been set up better, it would have had better character interaction and most importantly, it wouldn't feel like a crack fic.
So I need some advice from the only people that I can turn to in regards to it.
You.
Do you think I should start this fic over under a new name, or should I continue it? Any input would be appreciated, as I'm extremely torn on the subject right now.
