Chapter Fifty-One: Bijuu Around Konoha
'Good thing I can talk to them out of that office. Here I can be comfortable instead of professional. Nee-chan sure is lucky she got out of the clan and could live by her own set of rules.' Hanabi thought as she went to her sister's house. It was early in the morning but neither Naruto or Hinata had to be at work at this point. Best way to describe it was a hokage half-day, which had to be allowed every once in a while to allow the hokage to train and spend time with family.
'Though I wonder why they wanted to see me. It better be careful, since I don't want to hurt Akane-chan's chances of becoming chuunin anymore than they do.' She told herself, knocking on the door. She got no answer. 'Heh, I wonder what people would think if they knew we were actually wanting the great and terrible kyuubi to become stronger.' She chuckled at the idea. 'Well too bad, when I think of Akane-chan I don't think of the fox. I think of the little hellraiser that keeps this village on its toes and does a damn good job of it. She deserves to be chuunin as far as I'm considered, though as her aunt I admit I could be biased.'
She knocked again, and still got no answer. "Nee-chan, put your pants back on and open this door!" She shouted, more amused than angered by the wait.
A few more minutes later and Hinata opened the door, wearing a robe and looking rather sweaty. "H... Hi Hanabi. Were you waiting long?"
"Let's just say I clearly came before you did." Hanabi joked then stepped inside. "Boy, Nii-san must really be something. You couldn't even henge yourself to look presentable."
Hinata blushed but played along and shrugged. "What can I say? My husband knows how to make me happy."
"I can tell, your hickey's showing." Hanabi added, forcing Hinata to cover a blotch on her neck. "Oh don't bother, it's not like that's the worst thing I've seen him give you. I once walked on you two in the office remember?"
"Yeah, how could I forget?" Hinata replied, blushing up a storm at that memory.
"As weird as it was, I gotta say congrats on having such an active sex life. I hear by now most couples slow down the pace, not keep it up." Hanabi added, then got a wicked idea for a joke. "Hey, mind if I have a turn with him?"
If Hinata had been drinking something she would have done a spit-take right then. "WHAT?"
"Oh come on, half the time I see you you're either about to have sex or already did. You had to know sooner or later I'd get curious about how good he is. Besides, men love the idea of having two sisters together. Or any two girls together period."
Hinata stomped her foot. "No! He's mine and mine alone! It was hard enough for me to let Shion have his baby, and I only did that for the sake of my husband's psyche. I'm not about to share him in my own bed. You want a threesome? Go try with the boy who's dating you and another girl at the same time."
Hanabi shrugged. "Who says we haven't?"
Hinata silently gasped. "You're joking right?"
Hanabi ignored her. "In all seriousness, why did you two want to see me again? Or should I wait for the stud to finish recovering?"
"I can tell you. In fact I think Naruto would prefer it if I did." Hinata said, sitting down on the couch while Hanabi sat next to her, brushing some hair out of her face with her hand. "You remember how when you suggested how you intended to handle your team's training for this month? And how we insisted that you personally handle Akane-chan next week?"
"Yeah. What about it?"
"We had a specific reason for that, one we didn't want to say in front of your teammates."
"Ah, does it involve Akane-chan's... heritage?"
"Sort of. It's more a... natural thing."
"Natural thing?" The younger sister repeated, unsure what the reference was, but then it clicked in her mind, making her gasp. "Oh, you don't mean...?" Hinata nodded. "Well, no wonder you didn't want to admit it to Kin'ichiro and Ayumu. There's no way they'd be able to handle this."
"No, which is why we're trusting you to keep Akane-chan under control during that week."
"What exactly is so special about that week? I mean, I've been around her for months and she's never acted up in those times."
Hinata looked to her sister. "And didn't you find it odd? Almost as if something was missing?"
"Enough with the implications sis. Just come out and say it." Hanabi insisted.
"I will, but before I do, I must warn you we suspect this might happen to the other bijuu girls in Konoha in the same week. We can't exactly consult their senseis since we can't confirm which ones are aware of their student's true natures or not, so I just hope that they aren't doing anything they shouldn't while they're here."
"How bad could it be?" Hanabi asked, not seeing the need for alarm.
Out in the village, people were going about their daily business. Those that didn't live there though had to find something to do instead.
'This should do well back home.' Shukaku thought as she knelt down in a park by a river, trying to seal up some water to take back to Suna with her. 'Konoha's not going to miss this, and technically this is public property so I'm not stealing. And after I'm done here I'm going to go check out that bakery I saw. Those sweets smelled delicious.'
Satisfied she had enough water, she packed up and went back into town. 'Nice, but it's no Suna.' She thought while walking down the streets, keeping to the less crowded ones as was her preference. 'Though I'd rather be here than in Kiri. Having a lot of water is nice, but not so much that I want to keep my sand armor off all the time. I feel naked without it.'
Using her nose, Shukaku had no trouble finding a bakery. Whether or not it was the one she intended to find didn't matter to her, she just wanted to see what they had. "See anything you like miss?" The baker asked from behind the counter.
"Yep, the hard part is making up my mind." Shukaku replied, not tearing her eyes away from the counter containing cookies, her personal favorite.
"You look familiar. Have you been here before?" The baker asked.
"No, never. But I'm the daughter of the kazekage, maybe that's why you think you know me." Shukaku told him.
"Ah yeah, you have the same eye rings."
Shukaku shook her head. "No, mine are thicker than his. And I think I'll take four of these." She added, pointing to a couple of sugar cookies that had frosting and sprinkles, her favorite type of cookie. Back in Suna, sugar cookies were common since they were simple to make, but frosting was uncommon, so to her this was a treat.
"Here you go." The baker said, handing her the cookies after she paid. "Have a nice day."
Shukaku left the shop, munching on the first cookie right away. 'What do I do now? Mushi's off doing her own thing and Tanto's repairing his puppet. I've got no gardens to work on, and I can play with my sand only so much before that gets boring.' She shrugged for a moment to herself. 'Eh, might as well see what one of my cousins are doing. If not I might have nothing to do except sleep all day.'
Finishing her cookie, a scent came into her nose. 'Hmm... one of my cousins is nearby, might as well see what she's doing.'
"Hey, Ichi-kun!"
The dark-haired Root reject was on a break from training and doing a little shopping for his sister when he heard someone call for him. "Oh, hello Yugiko-chan. How are you?"
"Not bad, finally got a break from training."
"The same is true for me."
"Well then, since we both have some free time, why not spend it together?" She suggested, with a look in her eyes that Ichi was unfamiliar with but suspected she had something in mind.
"How so?" He asked, mostly to test her.
"Ichi-kun!" Another girl's voice called out, and as soon as they both looked, they saw someone practically rush up to them, specifically the boy.
"Masumi-san?" Ichi said. "What brings you here?"
"You know her?" Yugiko asked.
"She's my neighbor. We live in the same apartment building." He told her.
Yugiko began to size up the new girl, and she could tell right away she was being sized up in return. 'A civilian girl judging by her chakra level, and judging from her scent she's around a lot of flowers. Her figure's got nothing on mine, but I don't need extra-strong senses to pick up on the fact she's got the hots for Ichi-kun, and likely sees me as a threat. Heh, with my body and charm, I'd see me as a threat if I were as plain as her.'
"I was just done making a delivery for Yamanaka-sama when I saw you. I heard you're in the chuunin exam finals, is that true?" Masumi asked kindly, blushing a bit while looking at the dark-haired boy.
"Yeah I am. Honestly I'm surprised I even got in that far. It wasn't easy." He replied.
Yugiko smirked. "Tell me about it. Ichi-kun had to defeat two of my cousins at once. Of course neither is as strong as I am but no one has ever defeated two of us at once before." The part about strength was an exaggeration, since as the Nibi she was arguably one of the weaker of the nine girls, but Masumi didn't need to know that.
Masumi caught the hidden message, since as her mother liked to say she spoke female fluently, and frowned a bit, losing her blush. "Like I once said, if Akane-sama doesn't become Hokage, Ichi-kun will."
"Oh no, that's not the job for me. I'm more a strategist than a leader." He denied.
"That's nonsense, you'd be perfect for it." Masumi claimed, eyes sparkling a bit.
Ichi shook his head. "No, let Akane-san have the job. I'm content to just be normal."
"Can ninja ever really be normal?" Yugiko asked, unaware one of her cousins had just walked past her.
'I wonder why Shukaku was just staring from the corner.' Shinbou thought as she went on her way, passing Yugiko chatting with Ichi and seeing Shukaku watching them. 'Oh well, I'm not interested in eavesdropping. Time to do what I really got out of bed for.'
Ignoring her cousins, Shinbou went for something she had wanted since arriving in Konoha. 'Hmm... Akane said it should be around here. I must be close, I can feel the moisture from here. Or maybe that's just my imagination.'
It didn't take her long to find what she was looking for, Akane's favorite lake. "I'm glad she told me about this. A month without swimming? Not for me." The blue-haired girl said to herself, pausing to enjoy the view of the water, sunlight glittering across the surface like a crystal. "I've seen bigger, but luckily this one's deeper than it looks so I won't be stuck in the shallow end."
Shinbou looked around, wondering if anyone else was nearby. Not seeing or hearing anything, she began to take off her kimono and her other garments. Once they were off the only thing left on was a blue bikini. Out of all her cousins, Shinbou had what was plainly the least developed body among them. Apparently she was the late bloomer of the group, and she wore a bikini to give her some semblance of sex appeal.
Ignoring her issues with her appearance, the blue-haired girl dove into the water, letting it put her at peace. 'Let's see how deep this one is.' She told herself, trying to reach the bottom. Fortunately she had really good vision underwater so even with what little light there was down there she could see it, and with a superb talent for holding her breath she could reach it too.
She stopped at the bottom and looked up. 'Hmm... I'd say maybe four meters to the surface. Yeah, this will suffice while I'm away from home.'
After a moment longer she rushed to the surface and breached it, making the water burst around her before she fell forward and floated on her stomach. In no hurry to do anything she allowed herself to merely float, looking at the Hokage Monument from where she was.
'I wish this wasn't the only mountain in the area.' Kyouko complained as she partook in one of her hobbies, mountain-climbing. Unfortunately the only place around where she could do that was the sides of the Hokage Monument. If she tried leaving for the mountains in the distance it would raise an awful lot of red flags over her actions.
"Hey!" Someone called from down below her.
'I should be too high to hear anyone from the ground. Is someone climbing too?' Kyouko thought before turning her body around on the mountain surface to look downwards. Luckily she used chakra rather than civilian equipment to stick to the side so this was easy for her.
Below her was another girl, climbing the surface just like her with her chakra, and like Kyouko using all four limbs rather than just walk up the mountain. She had long black hair being blown to the side by the wind but held together by a white tie near the end, and she was wearing something green at her shoulders but from this angle Kyouko couldn't see more of her apparel.
"What's wrong Mika?" Gai asked as he walked up to her, actually walking on the surface instead of climbing.
"Nothing Gai-sensei, I was just unaware someone else was joining us."
Gai looked up and saw Kyouko. "Oh hi, I take it you saw today was a good day for this sort of exercise?"
"Sort of. Was I not supposed to be here?"
"Oh no, this is public property. And who am I to try and hinder someone's desire to strengthen the flames of their youth?"
Mika slipped for a moment but reaffirmed her chakra grip. "This is tougher than it used to be, but I can make it to the top."
"That's the spirit Mika." Gai praised.
Kyouko shrugged and turned around to face upward again and continued her long climb up to the top. 'Nice view of the village from here.' She thought, pausing to check out Konoha from this altitude. 'I can see the Hokage Tower, Akane's house, and I think I can see the bathhouse too. At least I hope so, or that building's producing far too much steam. Like Fuzei.' She chuckled at her little joke.
"Isn't this nice?"
Fuzei shrugged. "I dunno. I mean, how is this different than the hot springs back home Mida?"
"That's not the point. The point is we can be in one here too."
Two of the three Iwa kunoichi were spending some time in Konoha's bathhouse hot spring letting themselves enjoy the guilty pleasure of the warm water. Other women were using the spring too, none of them familiar to either Fuzei or Mida. Most of them were keeping their distance.
'Just because we're from Iwa doesn't mean we're going to kill you on sight you know.' Fuzei thought but didn't dare say. "Hey why are you wearing your headband?"
"Why not? It's not like my gold can rust or anything."
One of the female owners of the bathhouse came out and stood by the water. "I'm afraid that one of our pumps is malfunctioning, so everyone will be asked to leave. We'll compensate for this by giving you all free admission just once when the machines are repaired."
Fuzei stood up in the water. "I can take a look at it if you want."
"You can?" The owner asked.
Fuzei nodded. "Yeah, I actually work as a mechanic on the side. A busted pump is nothing to me."
"If you can that would be great, and cheaper than hiring another mechanic."
"Wait here Mida." Fuzei advised before she left the spring and quickly used her steam chakra to dry herself off before getting dressed. From her equipment pouch she withdrew a kunai that had a wrench at the opposite end. "Show me the problem." She said with a smile.
Next to the bathhouse was a restaurant owned by the Akimichi clan, the location good for people who were in the mood to relax. Sitting down inside helping herself to a large meal was Misao.
"Wow, and here I thought only members of my clan could eat this much." Naomi, working as a waitress, commented as she came to the table with her refilled drink.
Misao took the drink and had a little before returning to her food, which consisted of a large steak with some biscuits, orange slices, a salad, and a bowl of soup. She was already finished with the soup and salad and was halfway done with the steak, with no signs of stopping despite the fact it was big enough to stand on top of comfortably when she started.
The pink-purple-haired girl just shrugged. "Worrying about weight is for other girls. I personally need to eat a lot. My special ability leaves me really hungry after I'm done." Her slime jutsus did dehydrate her a bit as well as deplete her fat stores not unlike an Akimichi so she was often the hungriest of all the bijuu.
"You're preaching to the choir sister." Naomi stated. "I can't afford to diet either, but at least I don't need to eat as much as the men in my clan for my techniques. Though if I wanted to I could outeat them all, even you."
Misao arched an eyebrow and finished chewing her current morsel. "Care to test that out?"
"Not now, I'm on duty. But maybe tomorrow we can have a little contest." Naomi said then got a teasing gleam in her eyes. "I gotta warn you though, I've only seen one girl outside my clan beat me, and that was the Hokage's daughter when we ate ramen."
"Yeah, that's one thing I can never even hope to top her at. Mainly because I can't ever eat ramen. Far too salty." Misao mentioned.
"There is a low-sodium version you know." Naomi pointed out.
Misao shook her head. "Not enough. I've got a strict no salt diet policy. No salt whatsoever." As a slug, eating salt would be little different than eating poison to her.
"Well then, you up for a contest tomorrow when we're not training?" Naomi challenged.
Misao ingested another portion of her steak. "Anytime."
Passing the restaurant was Mushi on a normal walk. Actually it wasn't exactly normal, she was on a small errand at Naruto's request, which was rather strange since as a Suna kunoichi one would assume he'd never go to her for any kind of work. However this particular assignment was right up her alley.
"When can I see Nee-chan again?" Jiraiya asked, walking alongside the reborn Nanabi. Naruto had asked her to watch him for an hour or two to help get his mind off Akane's absence. And unknown to her, get him out of the house for a little bit so they could enjoy some alone time, something they rarely ever had in the entire marriage. She was chosen mainly because she was the one Rai-chan liked most after Akane.
"Soon Rai-chan, soon. And she'll put on quite a show for you when you do see her." she told the young boy.
"What you mean show?" The young boy asked.
"You'll see." She teased. "Hey, want to get some candy?"
"Candy!" He yelled happily, confusion over what his sister was doing already forgotten.
"And after that, maybe something fun if you're a good boy." She added.
He nodded eagerly. "I be good."
Using her insect sense of smell, it was more than easy for Mushi to locate an abundant source of sugar. As well as the Aburame district, but that wasn't where she wanted to go. She headed for a local candy shop and bought Jiraiya a small chocolate bar which she broke into chunks for easier chewing for him, and some honey jellies for herself.
"Now we have fun?" He asked when he finished, some chocolate smeared around his lips.
After wiping his mouth clean with her thumb, Mushi nodded. "Yep, but you have to promise not to be loud. No shouting, okay?" He nodded. "Alright, follow me."
The purple-haired kunoichi then led Jiraiya to one of the training grounds outside the village, away from onlookers. 'Don't want the village's security to overreact if they see this.' She thought before holding Jiraiya in her arms tightly. "Remember, don't yell and don't squirm."
"Kay."
Two wings came out of her back and starting beating rapidly, allowing Mushi to lift off into the air. Slower than normal for her, mostly because she was carrying some extra weight, but not enough to keep her grounded.
Jiraiya gasped and held onto Mushi tighter, not expecting to be flying right now. "Mushi?"
"You're safe Rai-chan." She reassured before getting higher at a slow pace to help him get used to being in the air. After a bit it looked like he wasn't panicking so much, so she went forward at a relaxed pace, allowing him to look around.
The fear was soon replaced by a sense of wonder and thrill. Jiraiya smiled and was strongly tempted to shout to the whole world that he was flying. Only Mushi's request kept him from doing so, and even a young Uzumaki knows the value of a promise.
Mushi kept her altitude low and her pace slow, mostly to prevent Jiraiya from getting scared and possibly falling from her arms, as well as avoid alerting any of Konoha's sentries of a potential flying threat outside its walls.
While Mushi was outside, she had unknowingly passed Kirako walking beside her sensei Kei. Kei was able to do something with her charge that in most other places of the world would be considered weird and possibly criminal, she was going to bring the twelve year old girl into a bar.
Like Hanabi had once told Akane, the rule 'Old enough to kill old enough to drink' did exist but wasn't quite that literal. Underage genin were not allowed to buy alcohol nor go inside bars by themselves, but they were allowed to enter with supervision and only allowed to have any drinks with supervision too, and even then they had to be weak drinks.
Kirako wasn't interested in any alcohol anyway, she just had nowhere else to go. This was more for her sensei anyway. Kei wasn't a habitual drinker like Tsunade, she was more interested in mingling with people, and what better place to do that than in a bar?
The two Kumo kunoichi went in, and right away Kirako perked up. "There's karaoke here?"
'Oh no.' Kei worried. While Kirako had a lot of enthusiasm for music, she was tone-deaf. She was improving, that was for certain, but for the time being Kirako kept sounding like a cow singing enka.
Fortunately there was already someone participating so Kirako couldn't go up on stage right away. "Let's have something to eat first Kirako." Kei told her, then pulled her gently to a table.
"Alright. I just hope they have something I like." The reborn hachibi said before sitting down.
After a moment someone came up to them with two menus. "Hi, welcome to... wait, aren't you one of Akane-san's distant relatives?"
Kirako looked to the waiter and was surprised herself. "Hey, you're the guy I'm supposed to fight in the finals. What are you doing here?"
"My name's Ryou and I work here. My family owns the bar." He said. Ino's flower shop wasn't the only business the Yamanaka clan owned in Konoha.
"Let's not talk combat right now." Kei said to prevent any possible scuffle these two might have before their official match. "Do you serve fish sandwiches?"
"Yes we do."
"We'll take one each and share a platter of fries." Kei told him, giving back the menus.
"Anything to drink?"
"I'll have some milk." Kirako requested.
"I'll take a cola." Kei added.
"Alright, it won't be long." Ryou told them then went back to tell the chefs.
'After this, beating him in the finals is going to be awkward.' Kirako thought, while Kei tried conversing with people in the table next to theirs.
