36. Change of heart?

As the smoke began to fill the room, Sakura clutched her hands in front of her nose and narrowed her eyes instinctively, trying to make out anything in the thick, grey fume, but failing entirely. However now that she was deprived of her sense of sight and her sense of smell, Sakura's hearing ability increased noticeably and therefore she had no problems in making out the sound of her enemies' departure, so she took up the chase at once, groping her way towards the hole, she had punched into the wall earlier on.

As soon as she was outdoors, her vision cleared up again and she could see her opponent, who had flung his client over one of his broad shoulders and carried him away from his own mansion, so she hurried to catch up to them – unwilling to let them, escape that easily.

Since his injury and the extra-ballast slowed the ninja down considerably, the pinkette got ahead of them without any problems and cut off their way, by banging her chakra-filled fist into the ground. Her blow had been forceful enough to crack the earth open at once and some huge boulder rose into the air, obstructing the path away from the mansion.

"Damn…" Tessai cursed, looking desperately for an escape route, however in that second, the grey-haired Jounin landed behind him as well, hence he was cornered. With a self-assured look on her face, Sakura jumped over the clumps of dirt towards her opponent, who was biding into his lower lip, while he tried to find a way to get out of this precarious situation. He didn't need to ponder long though, since the appearance of his team-mate, brought his arrogant sneer back on his face, while his opponent on the other hand looked a little appalled now.

"Where's Sasuke?" The pink-haired Kunoichi demanded to know from the newcomer, however that one just glowered at her, before he turned towards the Hatake again and suddenly ran with raised katana into his direction. Once again the Konoha-nin was slightly caught off guard by his enemy's speed, who had almost reached him before he could even grab for a kunai, however a second before the man's katana would have hit him, Sasuke appeared right in front of him and blocked the attack.

"We're not done yet." The raven-haired man, murmured in a low, but clearly audible voice, directing a menacing glare through his crimson-red eyes at the man in front of him. That one gritted his teeth, clearly furious, before he leaped backwards and landed about five metres in front of the two Konoha-nins, where he started to form a couple of hand-signs.

Once again numerous tiny needles, whose movements the enemy-ninja was apparently controlling with his chakra, shot towards the two shinobi, who seemed to be in quite a plight right now, since those objects were on one hand too many to dodge them, but also too numerous to fend them off just like that, but Kakashi had the saving idea. He performed a jutsu, which let a huge rock face rise from the ground, which served as a shield for the two ninjas behind it, however instead of thanking his Sensei for the help, the Uchiha merely growled: "This is my fight – stay out of this."

Dropping his shoulders with a sigh, the Hatake agreed, even though he really disliked doing so, but his student's intonation had spoken for itself, so he would let him have his way, once again.

Jumping on top of the rocks Kakashi had created, Sasuke gazed down at his opponent, with an air of superiority surrounding his appearance. As Sakura looked up at him, she couldn't help but to be reminded of the day, they had finally been able to find him in one of Orochimaru's hideouts. He looked the very same way he had, a short time before he had tried to kill them and once again his appearance didn't fail to intimidate her, even though he was currently on her side - she sure wouldn't like to be in the Yuki-nin's shoes right now. That one however didn't seem to be as impressed by his enemy as she was, he still stood like a watchman in front of his colleague and their client, completely rigid, apparently waiting for the Uchiha to make the first move and the clan-heir didn't waste anymore time.

Drawing his katana, he jumped in a for his standards rather slow pace towards the man in the leather jacket, who already prepared to fend off his opponent's sword with his own one, but before the Uchiha had reached him, he let his chakra run through his Kusanagi and used his Chidori to extend its blade, which then hit the Yuki-nin, who couldn't get out of the way in time, in his rips, causing him to fall to the ground, while uttering some choked curses.

Still not pulling his katana out of his enemies wound, Sasuke stepped towards him, while the bluish-shining chakra-blade grew smaller the nearer he came. He looked down at the Yuki-nin with an unreadable face – however in that situation there couldn't have been an expression that would have appeared more mocking than this one. With a face contorted with pain and anger, the man in the leather-jacket looked up at his enemy, blood and saliva running down his chin as he stumbled some unintelligible curses, while trying to tug the katana out of his body.

"Y-you…" He stumbled weakly, his senses starting to fade as more and more blood started to pour out of his wound, but the Uchiha-heir remained merciless, He just carried on staring at his dying opponent, unaware of Sakura's shocked expression, until he eventually drew his sword out of his enemy's rips and was just about to thrust it into his heart, to finish him off completely, when he heard an enraged yell and realized as he looked up, how the other Takume-ninja rushed towards him.

Completely forgetting about his own injuries, Tessai ran with a frightening expression, just like a blood-thirsty beast, towards the raven-haired boy, displaying an astonishing agility for a man of his rather plump stature, but before he could reach the Uchiha, who had remained motionless the entire time, he felt something grip his shoulder and he was suddenly unable to move any further. As he turned his head around, he looked into the intent face of the pink-haired Kunoichi he had been fighting with earlier on, but before he could do so much as to react to her sudden assault, she added to the pressure on his shoulder and spun him around completely, before she concentrated chakra into her fist and slammed it right into her opponent's stomach.

The force of the impact, knocked all air out of the hired-ninja, who fell to his knees, as Sakura pulled her fist back and his eyes rolled to the inside of his head before he completely lost his consciousness and fell to the ground right in front of her feet.

"Well done. " Kakashi praised his students in a casual, non-surprised voice, while he let his eyes wander from one of the ninjas to the other. As he was sure that they wouldn't cause them anymore trouble, he walked leisurely towards Nobunaga, who was trying to climb over the boulders, which had been caused by Sakura's punch from earlier, in the vain attempt to flee from the three Konoha-nins. However since he was no spring chicken anymore and quite sturdily built as well, Kakashi caught up to him in no time and planted himself in front of the Takume-leader.

"You're coming with us now." He said in a peremptory voice to the wide-eyed man to his feet, who still struggled to get away from the Jounin, however that one just lifted him up by his collar, as if he'd weight nothing - what he sure did - and dragged him back down to his students.

"I guess we're done here." Kakashi stated, shaking his captive a little to make him stop whimpering. "We should go and check on the others – all that talk about explosions has got me worried a little."

Sasuke and Sakura nodded in agreement and while letting her eyes wander over the battlefield again, the pinkette asked: "What about him?" She nodded towards her opponent, who was still lying unconscious on the ground, a couple of metres away from them.

"Tie him up and leave him here – we'll see to him later" Kakashi decided with a frown on his face; he had a few scruples about leaving him behind, but since they had the Takume now, he was of hardly any value to them… Besides, the situation with the rest of his team seemed a little more important to him, so he led the way back to the Kihimi mansion, they had left just a couple of hours before.

…

…

"Damn!" Naruto screeched as he dodged a huge icicle that had literally appeared out of the blue and was therefore hit by another one, whose spike cut his calf and unbalanced him, almost causing him to get hit by some other ones, but his Shadow clones, which were buzzing through the air like flies, had reacted in time and pulled him out of the way, giving him an idea while doing so. He used another Shadow clone to throw him even higher up, until he reached the roof, or rather what remained of it, where he then concentrated his chakra into his hands and feet and kept sticking to the ceiling like a spider, waiting for his enemies to give up on their attack. However as he still waited for them to do so, the blonde realized that even though he was more or less safe for now, the other people in the room weren't as lucky as he was… His enemies carried on creating one icicle after the other, so the room on the floor got scarcer each passing second and it was just a matter of time until someone got seriously hurt – he couldn't let that happen.

While he watched how more and more of the pointed ice-spears shot out of the cracked floor and the shrill sound of splintering ice, when the icicles hit one another and the desperate screams of the people trying to find a way out of this enchantingly sparkling but utterly deadly labyrinth, assailed his ears, Naruto broke a sweat since he couldn't think of a way to save them until he was hit by a sudden idea.

Once again he created plenty of his shadow clones, since all the other ones had dissolved by now, until they covered the entire ceiling. Then two of them always formed a team and started to create numerous Rasengan which they then used to smash the ice-peaks beneath them, while the remaining ones jumped into the shimmering maze and tried to save the confined people.

As Naruto commenced his spectacular rescue-operation, Sayuri, who was still dragging the wounded and barely conscious Yuudai with her, was trapped somewhere between the numerous icicles. Since she wasn't exactly the strongest person she had a hard time to move with the extra-weight her patient was putting on her and every time she seemed to have found an escape route, new ice-spears shot out of the ground and obstructed her way again and the worst thing about all that was that she knew she couldn't do anything about this, other than running away and that didn't seem too promising either… She was pretty much screwed.

After having strayed through the labyrinth for what felt like hours, even though it were more likely just a couple of seconds, it seemed as if the two cloaked men had stopped their attack, so Sayuri came to a stop, still not letting her guard down, until she eventually felt it safe to let their captive down for a while to stretch her arms, which had already started to hurt from his weight, when another icicle shot out of the ground all of a sudden, just at their feet. Sayuri leaped forwards to push Yuudai out of the way, who let out a tormented cough as he collided with the floor and in addition, the girl landed on top of him as well, taking care that even the last bit of oxygen was squeezed out of his lungs.

As he had finished coughing, he looked up to his rescuer, who seemed almost as exhausted as he himself was, until he croaked in a very hoarse and distorted voice: "Why'd you safe me?"

Panting heavily, Sayuri gazed down into his eyes, needing a second to recollect herself before she answered with a thin and breathless voice: "Can't let you die just yet… you might still be of use…"

Expecting something like that, the auburn-haired man closed his eyes, while he grinned deviously, unable to bite back a snappy reply, even though every word leaving his throat, made him feel like he'd regurgitate a bunch of tacks. "Tze – just admit that you fancy me."

'There he is again…' Sayuri thought rolling her eyes, but all she answered was: "Whatever" – and after these words she erected herself again and pulled the wounded man up as well, when the sudden noise of shattering ice that suddenly drowned out every other sound, made her look up and gape at the sight that was presented to her.

The whole air was filled with tiny, bluish-sparkling ice-crystals, which threw their light into all directions and gave the whole scene a dream-like quality. The glittering ice-flakes were fluttering down and covered each and every surface they came in contact with, until the whole throne hall was sparkling like a huge Christmas ball. As she still stood their open-mouthed, turning her head in slow, almost reverent circles in the glitter-rain, Sayuri soon caught sight of numerous Narutos who came flying out of a clear blue sky and shattered the icicles into pieces. One of them landed right next to her and eyed the girl and their captive with a worried expression, before he took Yuudai out of her arms and asked: "Are you okay?"

"Uh-huh" Sayuri nodded and looked to the side as another bunshin appeared right next to her and linked arms with her, earning a confused glance from his team-mate.

"I'm okay. Really." She stated, giving him an askant look, while the other clone and Yuudai had already vanished, but 'her' clone just shrugged: "So what? - Let's go."

He pulled her upwards and they both jumped over the now blunt leftovers of the icicles, until they came to a halt in one of the window frames that had suffered pretty badly from the explosions before.

"Gotta go!" Naruto saluted, before he jumped back down and joined the other clones that had started to carry the people that were still left in the ice-maze, outside into safety.

Meanwhile, the two men in the thick grey cloaks had stopped their attack and were now as well standing on two of the icicles, they had created themselves, while a bunch of Narutos were surrounding them – however they seemed relatively unimpressed by their great number, that's what their body language expressed at least, since their faces were entirely hidden by their hoods.

As if they were a single person, all Narutos started simultaneously throwing Shuriken at their opponents, however they were able to repel them by raising more icicles around them, which shielded them from all the attacks. Once again, Naruto used his Rasengan to break through the ice-peaks, but as soon as he had managed to burn a hole into them, an ice-tiger jumped at him and caused the shadow-clone he had hit to vanish before he launched at the next one.

By using Kunai and Shuriken, Naruto and his Shadow clones had soon managed to eliminate the tiger, however as soon as they had, a whole pack of new ones came running towards them, while the two enemy-shinobis just stood there and watched their tigers do their work.

While the ice-beasts dashed against every single person they could get at, neither them nor the two ninjas noticed, that the real Naruto was standing, hidden in the shadows of some ice-peaks in a far away corner of the room, staring at his enemies with an intent expression on his face, before he bid into his thumb and pressed it to the now ice-covered marble floor, murmuring:

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu"

Two huge toads: a yellow one with a somewhat inane expression and a dark orange one appeared right next to him and quacked in salutation.

"Hey Naruto – got some snacks?" Gamatatsu asked hopefully, completely disregarding the chaos around him, but his big brother rebuked him: "No snacks for you before you did something – so what's the matter Naruto?" Gamakichi asked as he eyed the fortress made of icicles looming right in front of them.

"I need your help Gamatatsu – you'll get your snacks when we're back in Konoha."

"What?! No snacks now?" The yellow toad sulked and just turned around, giving the blonde the cold shoulder.

"You'll get your snacks Gamatatsu-" His brother started, but Naruto cut in, trying to sound as persuasive as he could manage, since they were running out of time: "And a whole lot of them!"

He could see how the toad perked up his ears, but still didn't turn around, so Gamakichi, who had understood the gravity of the situation carried on: "And when you do well, you'll get a little pretaste once we get back…I promise"

"All right big bro" The yellow toad finally turned around and Naruto jumped onto its back at once, concentrating his wind-chakra into his arms.

"Mold your chakra in your stomach and breathe in through your nose." Gamakichi advised him, paying attention that his brother did everything properly. "Now hold it back and let everything out at once."
Once Naruto felt the time was ready, he combined his wind manipulated chakra with Gamatatsu's water-chakra, by pressing his hands onto the toads back, while murmuring:

"Futon, Gamateppô."

The second he had finished talking, the yellow toad let out a huge yet of water that darted with an enormous pressure and velocity towards the wall of icicles their enemy's were hiding behind, destroying it, as well as the ice-tigers and Naruto's shadow clones the instant it came in contact with them.

"Well done!" Naruto cheered as he jumped off the toad's back and thanked them again.

"Yay, we did it! Let's go and get snacks big bro." Gamatatsu demanded, so after that they vanished and Naruto turned cautiously towards the spot their enemies had been standing at.

Everything that was left of the massive ice-peaks was some debris and a new layer of the glittering ice-crystals that were covering everything in the entire room, but he couldn't catch sight of his two opponents so he warily walked towards the ruins, searching through the rubble until he finally found them. They looked rather worn out; dirt and ice-splinters were covering almost every visible piece of their skin and their clothes were fairly battered, so Naruto was finally able to catch a glimpse of the men's faces and was pretty surprised to find them looking completely alike each other: they had the same bold and kind of square heads, no eyebrows and a pointed nose, their eyes were closed so he couldn't see their colours, but he was sure it would be identical. There was no doubt that they were twins – it would be way too unlikely to find two unrelated people, who looked equally revolting at the very same place… anyway they were out of it and that was all that mattered, the blonde thought and created some shadow clones to keep watch on them, before he, joined the others that were still waiting outside and were provisionally treated by Sayuri, who looked up as soon as she heard her team-mate approach.

"Naruto-kun are you okay?" She asked anxiously, as she looked at the slightly battered boy, but the smile that lit up his face made her relax again.

"Of course – everything went fine – they are done for…" He crossed his arms behind his head and leaned against a wall, pretending to be completely unaffected by the fight before, even though his exhausted face gave away his actual condition pretty well.

"That fast? – you're awesome" Sayuri was truly impressed by her team-mate, who had more or less handled things all by himself here, not needing her help at all.

"Ah, that was nothing – piece of cake…" The blonde proudly rubbed a finger under his nose, but was then hit by an abrupt wave of dizziness, so he leant back against the wall and slowly sank down to the ground, realizing that he was apparently way more exhausted than he had thought.

Alarmed by Naruto's unexpected collapse, Sayuri rose up from the ground and walked towards the blonde, anxiously laying a hand on the boy's forehead and running her healing Chakra through it, while Naruto let out a worn-out moan and looked quite miserable.

The violet-haired girl frowned slightly, unable to find the reason for Naruto's sudden breakdown, since he had, against expectation, still a lot of Chakra left, when a growling noise made things clear.

Stiffening up, Naruto tried to suppress the unmistakable sound his entirely empty stomach was emitting, with a mortified grimace on his face, but failed completely, while Sayuri just let out an embarrassed sigh, as she realized that she had been worried for nothing.

"Uhm…" Naruto muttered, scratching his head sheepishly, before he looked up, as he found the people around him laughing at him.

"Hey!" He voiced his indignation with a sulky face, but then joined their laughter in relief that everything was over now.

"You think it's safe to get Jousuke and Tomomi here now?" The violet-haired Kunoichi, who had joined in the laughter as well, asked after a while, bringing her team-mate down to earth while doing so.

"Of course! I'll tell my Bunshins to get them here!" He exclaimed with new energy, but cringed together again to grip for his stomach that felt as if it was shrivelling.

…

…

Half an hour later Tomomi, Jousuke and Hideki, framed by two of Naruto's shadow clones, arrived on the grounds of the huge Kihimi mansion. The clones looked rather stressed out and exhausted while Tomomi was clearly furious and Jousuke looked as if he'd just taken a good flogging. As soon as they were among the crowd, Naruto's Bunshins dissolved and Jousuke took the first chance he could get, to hide himself behind his subordinates, however that didn't do him any good, since they backed away the second Tomomi approached them and carried on striking at her husband like a vixen.

Hideki, who had apparently witnessed this spectacle for the best part of the last hour didn't bother any longer to help his Lord out of this precarious situation and just stood in a corner as grim as usually, until he lifted his head and announced that someone was approaching them.

Everyone raised their heads and turned into the direction Hideki was pointing to, clearly tense since they were afraid of having to face yet more enemies, now that they were still exhausted from the first encounters. Naruto and Sayuri rose up as well, already preparing themselves mentally for another fight, even though they knew they weren't ready for it, however as the small group of people came closer and their silhouettes became clearer, they soon realized who they were.

"Phew… it's them" Sayuri heaved a sigh of relieve, dropping to her knees again and resting her hands in her lap, while Naruto let himself fall back to the ground as well, keeping his upper body erect by supporting himself with his arms.

"That took some time!" Naruto flashed a broad and yet exhausted smile, as the rest of his team came in earshot.

"Oh!" Sakura exhaled as she came to a stop right in front of the blonde boy. "What happened to you? – You look so… glamorous…" The pinkette raised an eyebrow as she sized the Uzumaki up, clearly puzzled.

"Why, that's the look of victory!" Naruto concluded, not really knowing what she was driving at, but the Haruno corrected him.

"No, no, I mean like, you're sparkling…" Sakura pointed at him, before she looked around and realized that everyone was about looking the same way as the blonde did.

"What?!" Naruto shrieked and looked down at himself, noticing the tiny twinkling ice-crystals that still stuck to his clothes, since those were cold enough not to make them melt.

"How are things going here?" Kakashi asked them, bringing the conversation back to the mission, while he observed the ruins of the formerly splendid building, until his eyes travelled to their client who was still busy with getting beaten by his young wife.

"Everything's fine." Naruto answered, while he inconspicuously brushed the ice-crystals off his clothes: "Who's that?" The blonde pointed at the man, standing beside Sasuke. He wasn't bound or anything, but there still didn't seem to be any danger of him running away, since the Uchiha's deadly glare kept him in place.

"Is that Takume Nobunaga?" Sayuri asked astounded, receiving a nod from the grey-haired man.

"What?!" Jousuke had finally succeeded in bringing some distance between him and his wife and now approached them hastily as he heard the name of his rival.

"Haha haha!" The head of the Kihimi-clan laughed like a maniac, as he caught sight of his now captivated rival and started to perform some kind of victory dance in front of the elder man, who just turned his head to the side in disgust, trying to ignore the disgraceful and above all childish behaviour of the Kihimi.

Rolling her eyes, Sakura averted her gaze from the two men and turned to her Sensei: "Does that mean we're done now?"

Eight questioning eyes turned to the Hatake; however that one just sighed and shook his head: "Not yet, the main part of our mission is to quell the riots – we are not done before we've accomplished that."

"But how can we possible lay down riots, when they are based on personal aversions?" Sayuri enquired, clearly fatigued and Naruto added: "Right – and what about Tomomi?"

"Hmm…" The Hatake sighed looking around as he searched for a solution, but then just dropped his shoulders and answered: "I don't know yet – we should rest first and then take our time to think things over."

This suggestion earned consenting nods from his worn out students that had neither slept, nor eaten anything in the last 20 somewhat hours, just as him, too, so after taking care of the unpostponable matters, the five Konoha-nins retreated into their chambers and recovered from the past events.
…

…

It was about as warm as it could possibly get in winter in Yuki-Gakure, which means not warm at all. The temperature was still far below zero, but at least the sky had cleared up a little and the low afternoon-sun throwing it's light over the crowded town-centre, at least gave the impression of a nice, sunny day and should have been able to lift the mood of the attendant people, however those were so enraged, that they apparently couldn't care less whether the sun was shining or it rained cats and dogs, all they wanted was to give vent to their anger – and they held a lot of anger.

Nervously peeking through the white silk-curtains, covering the balcony door of the house situated in the centre of the small town that was now surrounded by an upset mob, Jousuke couldn't help but to feel intimidated, so he asked, for about the tenth time in this hour: "Do I really have to do this?"

"You damn wimp – you brought yourself into this situation, now see how you get out of it again." Tomomi grouched in an intonation that didn't really seem to fit to her neat and dainty appearance, while she rose up from her boyfriend's lap, who was sitting in a cozy leather armchair in a corner of the small room.

"But is there no other way to do this?" The Kihimi turned pleadingly towards the Konoha-nins, who had split up to stand at the windows, which looked over the balcony and the wooden entrance door as well, before he started to wipe the perspiration from his forehead.

"No." Kakashi finally muttered, annoyed by his clients repeated questions. "You'll do just as we've discussed and everything will be fine." He assured him again, shaking his head as he observed how the Kihimi again gripped for the curtain, shaking like a leave, to look at his citizens, he had requested to come here for a talk, or rather he had been forced to invite… It was astounding, how a person could turn from a haughty, arrogant boaster into a whining, jittering picture of misery in practically no time…

A splashing sound was heard and Jousuke backed away from the window at once, leaning his back against the wall and closing his eyes while murmuring: "They are throwing tomatoes… they are throwing tomatoes at me… Where did they get those damn tomatoes from?"

He repeated this like a mantra, while his nervousness seemed to go sky high, but the Hatake brought him back to reality: "It's about time now." The grey-haired Jounin reminded his client, not showing any mercy for his momentary condition, but the Kihimi's eyes just widened and he started to stutter: "No… please… I can't do this… they'll kill me… they'll tomato me to death! Please don't make me…" He pleaded in a bleating voice; it was clearly visible that he was losing it, so Tomomi did what she thought was right: she slapped his face, more often than necessary and with obvious pleasure, but once she had started she just couldn't stop again.

"Tze you damn coward – how about you stand your ground and take responsibility for the things you did – and if they end up killing you that's exactly what you deserve!" She barked at him, still not stopping to flog him.

"St-stop it! Ouch – hey! I could need some help here!" Jousuke turned towards the shinobi he had hired to guard him, while he tried to shield his face from Tomomi's punches.

"Enough now, Tomomi…" Sakura turned half-heartedly to the young woman and gripped for her arms to hold her back.

"Tze… you know he deserved that…" She mumbled before she went back to Masao and gripped for his hand, the grimace on her face vanishing at once and a beaming smile took its place, as soon as she looked into her lover's eyes.

Watching this scene, Jousuke just rolled his eyes and observed with growing uneasiness how the five shinobi approached him and placed themselves around him, ready to guide him out to the balcony, but he didn't show the slightest inclination to move any time soon, so Naruto, who was more than just annoyed by the Kihimi's cowardly behaviour, gave him a not exactly gentle push, causing Jousuke almost to bump against the door, if Sayuri hadn't reacted in time and pushed it open, so instead of knocking against the door, what he'd have preferred, he just stumbled onto the balcony and crashed against the rusty iron balustrade, staring wide-eyed at his citizens that had fallen silent the second he had come into view.

"That's him – get him!" Some screams were uttered by the upset crowd and some more foul tomatoes came flying at the leader of the Kihimi-clan, who threw his arms over his head and crouched down, anticipating the rotten vegetables to hit him, but they didn't.

"Come up." Kakashi nudged his shoulder, causing the Kihimi to look up at him "You do your job and we'll take care they won't hit you." He assured his client, who observed how the blonde boy was just fending off a few tomatoes with a dagger, before he swallowed hard and rose to his feet again, trying to radiate as much self-assurance as possible, however he wasn't able to hide his anxiety, especially as he finally started to commence his speech in a shaky voice.

"Citizen of Yuki-Gakure" He started, but broke off again as the crowd started to boo him.

"Go ahead" Naruto prompted him, before he turned to the front again and shouted: "Shut up and listen to him!" However the crowd didn't seem to be too impressed by his request.

"The past month had been marked by many frictions that all go back to some deep misunderstandings on both your and my side." He carried on, but was again interrupted by some scornful laughter and further catcalls, rising from the people, but he tried not to let them get to him.

"I'm not trying to shift the blame on you – I know that I did things that aren't easy to be forgotten or to be excused – however all I'm trying to say is that both you and I have been manipulated by no one else than Takume Nobunaga."

Some disbelieving shrieks arose form the crowd, but they at least stopped throwing things at him and fell comparatively silent, apparently curious after all about what he had to say.

"Admittedly, my marriage to Tomomi gave the impetus to everything that happened, however I want you to know that I never married her, with the ulterior motive of publicly disgracing the Takume family. Everything that happened after that was controlled by Nobunaga: he hired foreign-ninjas and made them attack his own districts, to give the impression they were working for me, however I can assure you that I never lifted a hand or gave the order to physically harm anyone of my folk or their properties. However I cannot deny that the withdrawal of all your food-supplies was an idea that had its origin in me - it was a knee-jerk reaction to your sudden aversion towards me and the assassination attempt that had taken place shortly before that and upset me so much that I was tempted into giving these harsh orders and I can't tell you often enough how much I regret it and seek a reconciliation with you. I know it is hard for you to believe me after everything that happened, but I assure you that I told you nothing but the truth and I've invited someone, who is more in your confidence than I am to confirm everything to you"

After this statement, the balcony door swung open again and Masao walked onto the balcony, demonstratively placing himself beside Jousuke, while a hushed murmur went through the mass at the reappearance of the lost son of the Takume-family.

"It is true, my father – no…" He interrupted himself and shook his head, before the blonde man placed his arms on the rusty balustrade to support himself and carried on: "- the man who claims to be my father has been successful in fooling every one of us, using us to accomplish whatever he aimed for. He has kept me locked away all this time so I won't interfere in his plans, until those five ninjas here saved me, freed Tomomi and on top of that captured my father and defeated the ninjas he had hired. We all owe them a lot and this is our chance to start anew and even though I on my part haven't forgiven Jousuke for his actions yet, you should nevertheless listen to him and give him the chance to make up for what has happened – after all he is still the man you have elected to govern your country. Moreover, as of today I, as the new head of the Takume family announce, that the Takumes will withdraw from all political activity. That's everything." He concluded before he went back into the small room they had all stayed in before, where he joined Tomomi again, while the Konoha ninjas and the Kihimi let their eyes wander over the unsettled crowd that seemed to be entangled in numerous discussions, trying to digest what they'd just heard. Jousuke cast an uneasy look towards the grey-haired Jounin at his side, but that one just nodded encouragingly and caused the Kihimi to look ahead again, facing the still fickle and unconvinced crowd, before he started with his least favourite part of the speech they had prepared – the one containing the amends: "I know it will be hard for you to ever forgive me for what happened and yet I am here, asking you to try it at least. It's not a modest request, I am well aware of that, but I will do my best to rise in your estimation again and maybe if you won't let old grudges blind your view and restrict your mind, maybe one day you will be able to condone me."

He paused at that point and closed his eyes reverently before he carried on: "My first action will be to remove the trade barrier and customize the food supplies again. On top of that, everyone will receive approximately the amount of food he would have consumed in the time it was being withheld, for free. Furthermore I will bear all the costs to make up for the damage that had been caused by the attacks of the Takume's to your property and take care that they will be settled as soon as possible…" He recited these words almost mechanically, it was clear that he hadn't come up with them himself and now his mouth formed a thin line as he pressed his lips tight against each other, unwilling to let out the last part of his speech, but Sakura already purred in his ear: "And…?"

"And…" He repeated, his voice failing after that word, so he swallowed hard and carried on: "And I will release Tomomi from our marriage and arrange new elections in three months – so I have some time to prove myself to you, before you think things over…" He rattled off and looked into the faces of some of the people that were standing in front of him. To his surprise they didn't look angry any longer – not too avid either, but at least they seemed to be more or less agreeing to what he'd just said – he hadn't expected that.

He turned around again and looked at the ninjas he had hired, before he walked, again surrounded by them, back into the small room and let himself fall into the chair Masao, who had left by now, had been sitting in a couple of minutes ago.

"I can't believe that really worked - they seriously bought that!" Jousuke started laughing boastfully, his sweaty-hair now the only thing that reminded of his former churned up and panicky condition.

The five Konoha-nins sighed simultaneously and Naruto smacked his hand against his forehead in frustration before he muttered: "You know if you start breaking your promises again, the riots will just rise once more and no one is going to re-elect you the next time…"

"As if I wouldn't know that… but they'll sure elect me again, I mean did you see them? I had them wrapped around my finger the entire time… there was no need for me to come up with new elections and divorce… I shouldn't have listened to you!"

He grimaced as he got up again and walked towards the door: "Anyway, I'll just make some deductions to your fee for that and everything will be fine – now get me back home and I'll declare your mission as completed." He finished and walked haughtily out of the room, while the five shinobi just exchanged disbelieving glances and Naruto muttered: "Can I hit him, once we get what is left of our actual wages?"

"Our mission is over by then, so you no longer have to ask for my permission…" The Hatake muttered casually, before he followed after their soon-to-be ex-client.

"Yosh" The blonde jumped up enthusiastically and looked to the side as he heard Sayuri raise her voice: "You think it's ethically justifiable to unleash him on the citizens of Yuki-Gakure again?"

"Well… if they are anything alike the people we've met here thus far, they really deserve him!" Naruto grinned sheepishly and after that the two of them joined the rest of their team, who had already started to follow the Kihimi outside, eager to finally leave this unfriendly country, all it's inhabitants and especially the freezing temperatures behind.

…

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