Author: Um... *shifts guiltily* Sorry. I know, I know, it's been more than a whole freaking month! I've been prepping for a trip and I had to catch up on a lot of classes and get the house ready for my cousin to come... Though I finished a class! Done with History until around September. Updates will be irregular and I'm only posting this chapter because it's a part that my favorite editor and co-author, Elements1999, edited before. I will be posting, but they will most likely be omakes of the story, as my editor needs to have time to edit the rest of the story. I might not be able to post any real parts of this story until after I get back.
Inner!Author: Well, since I'm not the Serious!me, you could always bake a cake!
Author: ...that has absolutely nothing to do with this story. I don't own Naruto. Oh, and the story's done, it just needs one last lookover. :D Flames will be used to power Itachi-sama's Amaterasu~!
-Inner!angelslaugh
~angelslaugh
~:~
The bunshin of Naruto that fled tapped her leg lightly as she worried over the fate of her original.
"Relax, I'm sure she's fine," Michy said with a small smile. Naruto frowned.
"It shouldn't take this long for her to come back." Never mind the fact that we're fighting against a jounin, and Jiraiya specifically said to keep my Hiraishina secret after the whole debacle of getting banned from the Daimyo Court for two years. I can't use too many jutsu, or else I'll end up in the Bingo Book and be targeted, and I'm already a target because of the Chuunin Exams. Naruto worried her lip.
Then a small flare of chakra made Naruto-the-clone jolt up and overturn the chair she was sitting on. Several snowflakes were displaced and Naruto-the-original stood there.
Naruto-the-original stumbled, and Kurama's voice sounded in their heads.
Naruto, you can't keep using my chakra like that. It's putting a serious toll on your body. Kurama sounded genuinely worried.
But we've never had this issue before!
You never get that angry-or, you don't let it leak out, usually. Kurama was right.
"Real-me, are you all right?" Naruto-bunshin bit her lip.
"I can't believe that my clones are worried for me," Naruto replied with a breathless laugh. "Yeah, fine, just in a little pain from using too much of his chakra, -ttebayo."
Naruto coughed a little. Thankfully, no blood came out.
Koyuki stepped up. "I apologize for what I said earlier. Thank you for stopping those men."
Real-Naruto turned to Koyuki. "He's after the necklace, lady. Oh, and your life."
There was a pause. "Huh?" Everyone apart from the mission-asker and the princess asked with shock.
"I'm done pretending I don't know. Your secret has just upgraded this to an A-Rank, at the very least. Three jounin just tried to kill me to get to you…Kazahana Koyuki-sama." Real-Naruto tilted her head at the older princess. "I have every right to quit this mission. However I won't."
"What?" Koyuki asked.
Bunshin-Naruto knew what Naruto was thinking.
"It isn't logical for a country that could, in one way or another, possibly benefit Konoha." Her words made Koyuki's eyes widen. Bunshin-Naruto then shrugged and abandoned logic. "Plus, I have experience of liberating a country. Remember Wave, me?"
Real-Naruto chuckled. "We got a bridge named after us."
The Great Naruto Bridge.
"Yeah, that was fun." Both Narutos shared matching mischievous grins. Literally.
"In other words, you'll do it because you feel like it?" asked Michy.
Both Narutos tilted their heads. "Yeah," Naruto said as one.
Then the bunshin-Naruto hugged Naruto.
"I'll see you later," the bunshin said. "Thanks for not abusing us clones, -ttebayo. We're you, so we know what you desire."
She smiled. The she dispelled herself, adding her feelings to Naruto, and adding her memories to the collection of bunshin-memories inside Naruto's mind.
~:~
Naruto smiled a little bit. Her clones really were awesome.
She frowned a little. She was going to be liberating a country by herself with nothing but a handful of jutsus. She was certain this Daimyo had jutsus of his own, in case his guards failed, but that armor…
Naruto gasped. She hadn't made a scratch on that armor.
She shoved that in the back of her mind and turned to Koyuki.
"Koyuki-hime, do you have a smithy and a library in your country?"
Koyuki blinked. "Yes, I have both."
"Good, I might need them later on. That way, I won't tell Tsunade-sama of it becoming an A-Rank." She shuddered to think what Tsunade would do if she found out she was on an A-Rank without any backup.
~:~
"Hey, Baa-san! Can I talk to you?"
Tsunade looked up to see one of her four students. Naruko stood there, looking hesitant.
"Come in." Tsunade had been using Kage Bunshin, but today Shizune had bribed her with a special kind of sake to actually be signing papers physically. "What's wrong?"
"Promise you won't kill Jiraiya?" pleaded the copy of her granddaughter.
"Promise," Tsunade said, crossing her toes.
"Well…you know that mission to Yuki no Kuni I'm currently on? Well, instead of it being just an escort/bodyguard mission with Jiraiya, it's turned into an A-Rank, as three jounin are trying to hand over the princess to Kazahana Dotou and I fought all three of them."
Tsunade sighed. "Tell your other half she better get Jiraiya to help her."
Naruko winced. Tsunade knew something was wrong.
"Er…that's one of the reasons I'm telling you…one would be Kyuu told me to tell you…" Naruto chuckled nervously.
"And the other?" Tsunade let her bangs shadow her eyes.
"Well…Jiraiya's…not there?" squeaked the Ketsueki clone.
"WHAT?!"