Jiraiya frowned as he walked into the Hokage's office and noted that there was no one else there. He slipped in through the window and let his feet hang down as he took a seat on the sill.
"Well, old man," he said. "You came out of that all right."
"Hmph," Hiruzen said with a laugh. "I don't think it is as simple as that."
The two men remained silent for a moment longer.
"I need to find a replacement, Jiraiya," the older said. "I can't defend the village as a Hokage should as I am now."
"We've been down this conversation before," Jiraiya said.
"It is an emergency situation," Hiruzen responded.
"I am not the one that needs to be Hokage," Jiraiya said. "I am not the correct choice."
"And who would you suggest instead?" Hiruzen asked.
"You're already looking for her, aren't you?" Jiraiya asked.
"Oh, Tsunade," the old man who'd once been called the God of Ninjutsu said. "She might be a very good choice, but you know as well as I that she's not likely to accept."
"Let me see about convincing her," Jiraiya said. "I'll take the boy with me."
"Naruto?" his old mentor repeated with a smirk. "I assume you're how he's come to be able to control the Kyuubi's chakra already?"
"I may have had something to do with it," the Toad Sage said with his own smile. "It seemed time to handle that."
There was another long period of silence between the master and the student.
"Is there a time?" he asked.
"Nothing definite," the Hokage said seriously. "But I am already less than the Hokage needs to be. This needs to be taken care of soon, Jiraiya. If you can't find Tsunade or convince her to take the office, it will have to be you."
Jiraiya nodded at that and sighed.
"Do you have the files on the boy and his team?" Jiraiya asked.
"Right here," the Hokage said, turning toward his desk and taking up the files in question to hand them over.
"An Uchiha," the Toad Sage said nodding as he looked over Sasuke's file. "And chi use?"
"Recent development apparently," the older man said.
"That could be very useful," Jiraiya said. "Itachi is a part of these Akatsuki I've been sending you reports on."
"The ones looking into the jinchuriki," Hiruzen said, frowning. "I received that report."
"It gives this Sasuke a common foe with Naruto," Jiraiya noted.
"There is the curse mark to be concerned with," the old man warned.
"And that is a very big deal," Jiraiya agreed. "And this Saotome...Kishu Osore?"
Hiruzen nodded and looked up at the tone of Jiraiya's voice.
"Does that mean something to you?" he asked.
"Orochimaru looked into the Kishu jutsu at one point," Jiraiya said with a frown.
Temari looked about the apartment she'd been given by the leaf. It was fairly small compared to what she'd lived in as the daughter of the Kazekage, and her few personal items that she'd brought with her before the invasion were already in the room as she sat down on the bed.
This...this was apparently her new home.
The blonde knew she'd be here probably for some time, unless she wanted to become a missing nin.
Her own people no longer trusted her as one of their own it seemed. In fact, they didn't seem to even think that she was trustworthy enough to even given her a chance to prove that she was still trustworthy. Her obvious mission of helping keep a flow of information between the Sand and the Leaf was the only option she had for proving herself that way.
On the other hand, through all the conversations she had with the Leaf Anbu, she hadn't given them but one other piece of information and all that was a blurted confirmation about the demon in her younger brother, which they'd already known by that point. Konoha was certain not to trust her.
It looked like she was going to be without a chance to use her skills now. She was going to end up a paper-shuffling bureaucrat.
A knock came to her door and she stood up to walk across to see who it was. Seeing her younger brother on the other side of the peep hole made her freeze in her place.
"Wh..what is he doing here?" she wondered nervously as she considered just standing very still until Gaara decided to leave.
Then her youngest brother's head turned to face her.
"Temari," he said. "I know you're there."
Swallowing, she opened the door hesitantly and stepped aside so that he could enter.
"This is a surprise," she said nervously.
"I'm not here to kill you," Gaara said simply as he looked around. "This is small."
"It is," Temari said, not commenting on the killing subject for fear of jinxing it. "What are you here for?"
"Sorry," Gaara said.
Temari blinked and shook her head.
"What did you say?" she wondered.
"Sorry," Gaara repeated.
Temari stared in something like shock.
"What happened to you?" she asked.
"They showed me I was wrong," Gaara said.
"Who, what?" Temari asked.
"Her and him," he said, pointing toward one of Temari's walls.
"Him?" Temari said, sitting down on her bed. "That blonde kid, Uzumaki."
"That's right," Gaara said. "He is strong. And he protects others. I tried that at one time."
Temari thought about her own conversation with Uzumaki, or at least one of his clones.
"I'm the one who should be sorry," she said quietly. "I'm your big sister, I should have been there for you."
Gaara turned to look at her quietly and piercingly.
"I have to leave soon," Gaara said. "I'll try to see you brought home soon."
"You'd have to be Kazekage to change a ruling of the Council," Temari said incredulously.
Gaara just nodded and turned to walk out of the room.
"Goodbye," he said. "Kankuro will probably be by to say farewell himself later."
"Right," Temari said as Gaara opened the door and walked out onto the walkway.
She followed him out and watched walk off with more than a little confusion. He walked to the corner of the apartment's balcony and started to turn a corner when someone else came around it and flinched aside into a stance.
"The hell? Gaara?" the individual snapped in surprise as the Suna shinobi walked past with only a basic nod in response.
Temari looked toward this new person and frowned as she recognized Naruto. This was someone she had no worries about telling off.
The blonde watched him move up the walkway, eyes still focused towards where Gaara had vanished.
"What the hell are..."
Temari froze as the blonde kid opened the next door over from the one that opened on her granted apartment.
Naruto turned around and saw the Sand girl that was standing in the open doorway of the til then empty apartment next door.
"Oh hell no!"
Two voices noted as Hinata came around the corner and saw Naruto pointing at Temari as the Sunagakure shinobi smacked the palm of her hand into her face.
Gaara was walking up toward the gathering of Suna and Konoha shinobi gathering to make the trip to sand. His brother wasn't yet with them, probably saying goodbye to Temari himself, but there was at least one person that seemed to have something to say as Gaara approached.
"You!" Ino snapped before marching down the street to intercept Gaara in front of everybody's eyes. "You're the one that gave my name for this thing aren't you?"
Behind her, the large boy that had been with her before stood next to the boy that had fought Temari in the finals. With them was an older ninja. They didn't look packed to go the way she was, so obviously they were here to see her off.
"Yes, I suggested you," Gaara noted.
"Why, so you can try to kill me again?" the blonde telepath demanded.
"No," Gaara said.
"Then why did you suggest my name?" Ino asked.
"You're suited to this mission for both your village's benefit and my own," Gaara said.
"And why's that?" Ino asked.
"Because your village will never let Naruto take such a role," he said. "And you're the next best thing."
Ino's jaw dropped at Gaara's response.
"Next best thing to...to...Naruto?" Ino repeated faintly.
"Lady Kiima," a winged man said, drawing attention as he flapped across the street and landed next to a woman with short, blue-black hair. "Shouldn't you be at the meeting with the Musk Qu..."
He stopped as the woman turned to face him and he took in her clothes. It was a rather modern sort of sundress modeled off traditional styles in the Land of Tea.
"Kiima's still here?" the woman said with a frown. "Think you can show me where she and Kodachi are?"
"Err, Mistress Saotome," the Phoenix said hesitantly. "We sent Mistress Tendo's message only a few days ago."
"We obviously got it," she said, crossing her arms. "Now, where's this meeting."
She arched an eyebrow and crossed her arms, fingers tapping against one of her arms.
"So, the Phoenix are going to sit out then?" Kurumi asked bitterly, staring at Kiima.
"We've already helped you grou..." Kiima started to say.
A cleared throat interrupted her and she looked over toward Mousse before settling down.
"The majority of the Musk strength is dealt with," Kiima said, turning pointedly to look at Kodachi. "You no longer need us."
Kodachi nodded in response, though the trace of a frown could be seen under the hair that came down over her face. She handed over a note to Mokya after tearing it out of the notebook in her hand.
"Mistress Kodachi is aware of your circumstances, Lady Kiima," Mokya said. "You've already helped more than she would have expected the Phoenix to risk."
"It had to be done," Kiima said. "Hops was risking the entire valley with this nonsense. People know about us now...many people."
"If the Musk raid had been even partially successful," Mousse noted. "Several ninja villages, great and small would have placed their eyes on the Valley."
"So it was self-preservation," Kiima asked.
"Tendo," Kiima said. "Twenty years ago, that...misunderstanding between my people and your sister and her husband left Lord Saffron unable to sustain our people for fifteen years, we barely survived."
"You had help," Mokya said, translating for Kodachi.
"And further entanglement with groundlings drew us into the war with that demon and his students," Kiima snapped. "We're hardly a shadow of what we were before Grandmaster Ranma defeated Lord Saffron. We could barely afford to bring three squads to this action.
She frowned and shuffled in her seat with a discomforted expression.
"It's only luck and timing that prevented much in the way of serious injury on our part when we found ourselves arriving in the close of a three way battle," Mousse finished for her.
Kodachi nodded and looked toward Kurumi nudging Mokya and handing her a note.
"The Musk are facing similar problems," Mokya read. "The best were killed in the treachery and now this. What about the Joketsuzoku?"
"After this," Mousse said. "They're probably the strongest in the Valley. But we all have the same problem..."
"Nobody has the numbers."
The voice sounded like that of Kiima's human disguise and people started to look at her before realizing that she hadn't been talking. Which was when the various masters in the room felt the subtle shift of the chi in the room and turned to look at a short-haired twin to Kiima's disguise.
"There are three living grandmasters, fifteen known true chi-masters," Akane said. "And maybe a hundred disciples. Perhaps twenty-five-hundred total initiates and students? All of us split across eight major chi-schools and a handful of family styles who, until twelve years ago, were at each others' throats. Chakra-wielders outnumber us ten-times over."
"Akane-nee," Kurumi said with a cheerful but sarcastic look. "Inheritance techniques aren't for showing off. I'm guessing Ranma is here, how about the Ka's?"
"We left Kaneda and Kasumi with Ukyou and Konatsu," Akane said. "Your message was talking war, so didn't think they should come."
Kodachi nudged Mokya and started to gesture.
"Mistress Kodachi is surprised that the merchant would take your children in so charitably," Kodachi noted.
"She's keeping a tab," Akane noted.
"That sounds more like her," Mokya translated for Kodachi.
Ryoko couldn't help but watch her brother as she walked beside him. She still couldn't feel much of a shift in the chi flows around him, though she knew, based on how easily he'd snuck up on her, that he had to be a great master like Kodachi-sensei said.
Mistress Kurumi was hard to feel as well, it was like the better a chi-adept was, the harder it was to tell they could do anything. It made sense given the way sloppy chi use was more visible and noticeable than efficient chi-use.
So...how did she tell between a master and a novice?
"How long have you been living here?" Ranma asked.
"T..two or th...three years," Ryoko said.
"How do you get stuff?" he asked. "Where do you get your money?"
"Oh, I am on a sh..shinobi team a...a...as a...umm..." she paused.
"You're a mercenary," Ranma reasoned. "I did that with my...our dad when I was your age too. How about you...our sister?"
"Sh...she is in the Konoha Academy," Ryoko noted.
"She's going to be a ninja?" the older Saotome asked, clearly surprised.
"Is th..that a problem?" Ryoko asked.
"No, just surprised," Ranma said. "She's learning chakra use then?"
"Hai," Ryoko said. "Kakashi-sensei and Ebisu-sensei are t...teaching m..me how to use ch..chakra as well."
"I heard you use both chi and chakra," Ranma said conversationally.
"H...hai," Ryoko said. "Shall I show you?"
"Let's meet your sister first," Ranma said with a smirk.
"Hai," Ryoko said. "Th..the Inuzuka clan home is u..up here."
She pointed up toward the building ahead and started to step ahead of her brother for the door until noting a small, blonde fox running past her feet.
"Imouto-chan!" Ryoko called out, turning to watch the fox running past. "What are you..."
And then a small pack of large, wolf-like dogs swarmed around where she was standing as Ryoko swiftly covered her head. As the dogs moved past her, she slowly lifted her head up in confusion.
"Ano..."
"Something wrong?" Ranma asked.
"M...most times there's a ru..running pack of dogs," she said. "I get kno...knocked down and..."
"Whoa!" a voice declared shortly before Kiba and Akamaru swung around the corner and slammed into her before they could stop.
Ranma looked down at the tangle of kids in front of him and shook his head.
"Oh damn it!" Kiba shouted standing up and helping Ryoko stand up as well while Akamaru barked around them. "Ryoko-chan are you okay?"
"I-itai," she said, shaking her head clear.
"Is this a common thing?" Ranma asked.
"Who the hell are you?" Kiba demanded.
"Kiba-kun, th..this is my brother," Ryoko said.
Kiba immediately stepped forward in between Ryoko and Ranma and frowned up at the elder Saotome, who smiled at the response for a moment.
"Don't worry kid, I'm safe," he said.
He pointed towards where the fox had gone.
"Ryoko, I heard you say 'imouto-chan'," he said. "The fox?"
"H...hai," Ryoko said. "Th..there is this pla..."
"Believe me on this one, I've been there," Ranma said. "And had to live with it."
"So what do you turn into then?" Kiba asked, still cautious.
"A woman," he said off-handedly. "Kiba...wouldn't that make you the 'genius' that Ryoko says she can't beat."
"Uh..." Kiba said, starting to lose his certainty. "Well..."
"You're living in Konoha," Akane said to Kodachi. "Have you thought about getting your eyes and tongue replaced? They have people here that can do that."
"We looked into it Aunt Akane," Mokya said. "But there's been six years since the injuries, we were told it would take someone of singular mastery to fix that."
Akane nodded and shook her head as Kodachi shrugged in confirmation.
She looked over her shoulder and listened to Kiima and Kurumi arguing in the next room.
"Kiima seems to have lightened up some," she said.
Kodachi twisted her hand about in response. Akane didn't need Mokya to translate the so-so message.
"Well, she isn't trying to kill or enslave any of us 'groundlings' and she married Mousse," Akane clarified.
Kodachi crossed her arms and nodded at that.
"That's a strange qualifier, Aunt Akane," Mokya said.
Tsume walked around the corner to what sounded like that Ryoko girl sparring. She shook her head, the girl couldn't have been fully recovered yet and she was already going at such heavy exertions.
The woman smirked as she came around to the back of the building toward the training ground and was surprised to see a man standing there about her own age and Kiba and Akamaru looking on from the sidelines.
She could smell the nervousness in her son from where she stood, but he held back.
Ryoko darted in toward her opponent and swung with her bokken.
Her opponent moved barely a foot inward and pushed the blade aside at the base simply. There was no hurry or anxiety in the man's bearing at all and as the girl passed by him he turned about to look toward Tsume and nod toward her before stepping aside an inch and dodging another attack by the girl and returning his attention to her.
The young girl slid across the ground as if it were ice and then came to a sudden stop as she twisted about, transferring the chi of that motion through her body and into her sword.
This time he caught the bokken and took it gently and swiftly out of her hand. She started to respond by twisting about into a kick, but the older man shut her down completely before her kick could rise much more than a foot off the ground.
Ryoko blinked as she found herself held in a firm but more or less painless grip with one arm twisted behind her in a way that put her off balance on her tip toes.
"Ano..." she said, confused as to what happened. "What...what just happened?"
"That's about it, ki..." the older man paused and frowned a moment. "Sis, you've got some injuries you still need to recover from before you get that serious."
He let her go so that she gained back her balance and brushed off her shoulders.
"Sorry about the intrusion, Ma'am," Ranma said to Tsume with a wave. "I'll be over there in a moment. Gotta talk to her a bit first."
"Not a problem," Tsume said watching the stranger with unconcealed caution.
"So, I see Pop and Kodachi in your form," he said. "You've got some basic Kuno-Ryu kendo in there. Has she introduced Rhythmic Gymnastics yet?"
"Ano..." Ryoko said. "I h..have only been studying under Kodachi-sensei f...for two months."
"So all she's had time to do then is correct Pops' mistakes," Ranma reasoned.
"Father was an ex..excellent teacher," Ryoko protested.
Ranma looked to her thoughtfully and looked toward Kiba and noting the boy's tension at that subject.
"He ever explain something to you first? Or just make you do it?" Ranma asked.
"H...he did not need to do s...such," Ryoko said. "He was ab..able to teach me without n..needing to explain..."
"Sounds more like you're a good learner than he's a good teacher," Tsume said quietly to herself so as not to interrupt the obvious lesson.
"That ain't teaching," Ranma said, shaking his head. "Trust me on this, I've seen a couple of teaching methods an' his are pretty haphazard. Sink or swim. Short-sighted."
Ranma sat down on the ground then and cupped his chin.
"Sit down, Ryoko," he said then. "Relax, let your body heal."
Ryoko frowned for a moment, but slowly sat down and moved into seiza provoking Ranma to shake his head and roll his eyes.
"Is she like this all the time?" he asked, looking toward Kiba and Tsume.
"I don't trust you yet," Kiba said.
"Yeah," Ranma said, looking over his shoulder to look for some of the visible damage from the recent invasion. "I can see why."
"There was some sort of problem with the girl's mother a couple of days ago," Tsume said. "None of the kids are being specific, but..."
"I heard," Ranma said grimly. "One of my friends was there for most of it."
He shook his head and took a breath as he slapped his knees and stood up to turn toward Tsume.
"Anyway, I've been talking long enough without saying who I am," the man explained. "I'm Ranma Saotome Grandmaster of the Redeemed School of Martial Arts. Ryoko and I have the same parents."
"Tsume Inuzuka," Tsume said. "Clan leader and jonin of Konohagakure."
Ranma nodded respectfully.
"So...when is this other sister I'm supposed to have going to be finished getting chased by dogs?" Ranma asked.
"How close behind her were they?" Tsume asked.
"They had her in sight," Kiba answered before Ranma could, drawing a glare from his mother.
"Then she'll be getting rounded up pretty soon," Tsume said.
"I'm guessing you aren't her teacher," Ranma said, pointing toward Ryoko who blinked in surprise.
"What makes you say that?" Tsume asked, curiously.
"There's none of your motion in hers," Ranma said casually with a shrug.
The Inuzuka woman blinked at that comment, wondering if he'd really analyzed her motion enough to make such a statement or if he was just guessing.
Kiima poured the hot water over herself after being handed the bottle and shifted into the full glory of her Phoenix tribe body, wings talons and all.
"We'll carry your messages to Matriarch Xian Pu," she said, handing the bottle back to Kodachi. "But likely that will be the end of our involvement in this."
Kodachi nodded.
"She understands," Mokya said.
"We'd like to do more," Mousse said as his wife gave a supporting but not to enthusiastic nod.
Kiima looked past Akane and Kodachi down the street to where she saw Sasuke Uchiha and Kakashi Hatake walking down the street and frowned.
"You're leaving now?" the ninja said casually. "Without giving the Hokage a farewell?"
Kiima frowned deeper and then nodded.
"Indeed, The Saotomes and I have certainly neglected such manners," Kiima noted pointedly.
"My apologies," Akane said, turning toward Kakashi. "We came in through the gate and gave our names and business. I almost destroyed one perverted Hyuuga, but that was about it."
Kiima turned to look at Akane.
"You actually reported at the gate?" she asked.
"That's the way your supposed to do things," Akane said.
Behind her Kurumi and Kodachi agreed.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Naruto demanded of the older blonde.
"I'm living here now," she said in a forced tone of voice as she folded her arms.
"Next door to me?" Naruto said loudly.
Hinata was approaching from behind a bit quickly, eye brows arched nervously.
"Naruto-kun," she said. "Please, I'm sure there's no reason to be concerned."
"Yeah," the stubborn blonde said. "I've already beaten her once after all."
"Why you little brat!" Temari snapped. "You played a damn trick on me and ran off while I fought your clones."
"Uhh, Temari-san..." Hinata said. "Isn't neutralizing an enemy with little loss to yourself the most effective way to victory?"
"That's right," Naruto said proudly. "Thanks Hinata-chan."
"Y..your welcome, Naruto-kun," Hinata said nervously, turning toward the door.
Temari's eyebrow twitched as she turned to look at the Hyuuga.
"Uhh...sorry?" Hinata said. "Perhaps we should just go to our separate apart..." she gasped and turned beat red as she realized what she had just said.
"Ehh?" Naruto asked, turning to look at her. "Our what?"
"Oh, nothing, Naruto-kun," Hinata said swiftly and turning toward the door to start to play with the knob as Naruto looked on, still a bit confused.
For her part, the Sand genin's eyebrow twitched as the display of a childish crush simply aggravated her more.
Realistically, Temari knew that even if she was willing to start a real fight, her chances against the two of these genin together in one place already within five feet of her, was slim.
Especially since her weapons were still apparently being "processed" and hadn't yet been returned to her.
Why a fan and the other standard equipment she had would take more than a week to "process" was beyond her.
Save the obvious political reasons of course.
"Can you at least tell me what the foul odor coming in through the window is?" Temari asked irritably. "So I can report it?"
Naruto blinked a bit confusion. What smell was she talking about? There wasn't a smell coming in through the window.
At least there wasn't the last time he was home which was...
And then Hinata opened the door to Naruto's apartment.
The smell of expired milk and other things flowed out of the apartment, no longer restrained by the door, and washed over the three genin on the landing.
The flushes of embarrassment or anger was suddenly replaced by the slightly green tinge of nausea as the three scattered away from the open door.
"How much of a slob are you?" Temari demanded.
"Hey, I cleaned up before I left town," Naruto protested. "I think."
"The food went bad," Hinata said, covering her mouth as the free flowing air worked to cleanse out the lingering stench.
"That happens when you're not home for more than a month," a new voice said drawing attention down the walkway toward where Shikamaru was walking up.
He looked over toward Temari and nodded at her.
"Everybody's getting ready to head off to Sunagakure," he said. "Didn't see you there. Damn, I just got a whiff of that, what do you keep in your house, Naruto?"
Temari didn't respond to the other ninja's comment about her not seeing off her country men. She assumed a lot of the twelve or so others being left behind were likewise avoiding the issue mostly.
"I think that's expired milk," Naruto said weakly.
"You mean this happens enough that you can actually recognize the smell?" Temari demanded.
"It's usually pretty clean!" Naruto protested. "Really."
"That's true," Hinata said. "Naruto-kun spends a lot of his spare time cleaning."
She paused for a moment, flushed brightly and then continued.
"N...not that I've been watching at all," she said quickly. "Th...that would be a little...strange?"