Watch What Happens
If I was going to summarise the entire trip, to the island where we were going to hide the Jinchuriki at, in one word, I would say weird. Not that it was particularly surprising with Naruto involved. Apparently, the kid hadn't had a single mission over D-rank go the way it was supposed to. Still, after a fight with a giant squid, we had finally arrived at our destination and met the remaining Jinchuriki in the process. Kumo's Killer Bee, the Jinchuriki of the Hachibi. He was an odd one. 'Maybe it's a Jinchuriki thing?' I wondered briefly as we were shown to our rooms for the visit. With Naruto chasing after Killer Bee trying to convince the older Jinchuriki to train him, the rest of us were free to plan how to do this mission without alerting Naruto's suspicion.
"Okay guys, Weasel is here as my guard and as you know, I'm not allowed to fight for another three days. Therefore, the task of watching over Naruto mostly falls on you guys." I started the meeting with a slight smirk. I loved Naruto, really, I did. But very few were able to keep up with his energy and awesomeness. So obviously, I found great joy in making other people try to keep up with him. "Of course, that means that there will be less rest for all of you. Yamato will be watching over him if he needs to use the Kyubi chakra. Naruto knows that he's not allowed to train without Yamato Weasel or myself, so I assume he'll contact him the second he gets the opportunity to practice how to use it. That means the rest of you will have to work out the rest of the shifts yourself."
"That plan is most youthful, my rival's flower!" Gai said with his usual enthusiasm. He had been a part of the escort squad, but was one of the nins leaving for the war once the next squad arrived. His skills were needed in the war rather than on the island.
"Good, then you guys plan the rest among yourself. I need to start getting back in shape." I smiled sweetly and dragged Itachi out of the room. "Now my dear underling, let's get back in shape."
"You shouldn't disrespect your seniors, imouto." Itachi shot back, easily wiping the smile off my face.
"I'm your senior Captain, though." I sing-song, easily slipping a smile back on my face. "Not to mention your superior!"
"Yes, so you should set a good example by not disrespecting your elders." I could feel that bastard smirking behind his weasel mask.
"Seriously, it's one day! Not to mention that said elder should set an example for their youngers by respecting their superiors." I shot back with a matching smirk.
"I win again!" I said in a sing-song tone while Itachi dusted off his trousers. We had just finished a small Weapon Accuracy competition, and I had won by one point. "That makes our total score 298-297, so I'm in the lead."
"Hn. For now, at least." Itachi stated, though I could see the way his shoulders tensed. He was going to demand another challenge. Neither of us could let the competitions stop unless we were at a stalemate, mostly because both of us hated to lose. "I believe it's my turn to challenge?"
"Dear Kami, what's it going to be?" I asked with a slight frown.
"Shogi." Itachi smiled innocently and I glared fiercely. Now, I was by no means a bad player. But I could never beat Itachi. He was simply better than I was at planning based on the other players patterns.
"Fine." I groaned.
"How did I do that?" I asked in shock as I looked at the finished Shogi game. "I never beat you!"
"Huh, I suppose all that training you've had as both ANBU Commander and Hokage pays off." Itachi shrugged as if he didn't really care. "Let's spar, no ninjutsu or genjutsu."
"You're getting desperate, Tachi." I somehow managed to say, still looking at the board in shock. 'But he always knows what I'm going to do, but somehow I was the one who knew what he was going to do? I'm not the tactician among us!' I ranted mentally, still wondering how the hell I won that match.
"Akira, can't you just acknowledge that you're actually a good tactician and that the last time we played was before I… left Konoha." Itachi asked with a chuckle. "You've been an ANBU Commander for years, of course your tactician skills are going to improve."
"You just wanted to see how much I had improved and, in the process, force me to recognize it as well." I realized and looked up to him with a smile. "I think I needed that. Thank you."
"Hn, I know you well. You always hide your fears and insecurities behind smiles and pranks, but you know that I can see through it." Itachi grabbed my hand and helped me up on my feet. "But now that we're done with that, I'm going to crush your remaining confidence in our spar."
"Dude, that's like totally ruining all my effort to beat you in Shogi…" I complained but couldn't help but smile at him.
"You'll live."
At the end of the day, we finished with a score off 300-300, with Itachi beating me in both our spar and our dango eating contest. Needless to say, we were both in rather bad shape when we returned to our accommodations. 'Still, I'm glad we did it. I really needed our rivalry back again.' I smiled before plumping down on my bed and falling asleep instantly.
At breakfast the next day, Naruto was babbling excitedly about how he was going to learn how to use the Kyubi's chakra from Killer Bee. Apparently, Naruto had convinced him with some epic rapping and a battle against a giant squid. Needless to say, I was feeling slightly confused. But I had learned by now to just go with the flow and let Naruto say what Naruto wanted to say.
"That's great, Naru-chan." I smiled sweetly and ruffled his hair. He had gotten so tall that he needed to sit down for me to reach the top of his head. 'You've really grown a whole lot, Naru-chan.' I thought with a smile. "With your current level of awesomeness, you'll have it down quickly!"
"Believe it!" Naruto called out loudly and I chuckled happily. "Hey, nee-chan! Are you starting to train again as well? I heard Yamato-taicho mention that you were training with that ANBU dude?"
"Yeah, gotta get back to my normal level of awesomeness." I said factually. "Not that I ever lost any of my awesomeness, just need to refresh it a bit."
"You are the ever-awesome Nakamaru Akira after all." Naruto nodded his head seriously.
"Oh, you've grown up so well, Naru-chan!" I awed at him and pinched his cheek happily. "Now introduce me to that teacher of yours!"
If I were to describe Killer Bee in one word, I would say eccentric. He was a large, tan, blond man with sunglasses and typical Kumo clothes. On his back was the great shark-sword, Samehade, along with his other eight swords. I would admit that choosing eight swords as the Jinchuriki of the Hachibi was a brilliant idea. 'Though I suppose with Samehade, it's nine now…'
"Yo, Mister Nine-O! You brough a hottie, gotta put on my cool face!" he rapped rather badly. He did have a nice presence though.
"Oi! Don't call my nee-chan a hottie!" Naruto whined and took a step in-front of me, earning an eye roll from me. "She's engaged!"
"How did you know that?" I wondered out loud, Naruto was rather dense after all, so I hadn't expected him to pick up on it.
"Kaka-sensei bragged about it all day before we left." Naruto responded, earning a twitch from me.
"Anyways… Nice to meet you, Bee. I'm the ever-awesome Nakamaru Akira!" I greeted the older Kumo in cheerily. "I, along with Yamato here and my subordinate will be taking turns watching over Naruto's training."
"Hope it's alright with you, Bee-san." Yamato added politely to my cheerful introduction.
"It cool, fool, ya fool." Was Bee's response in rap form.
"Of course it is! My awesome presence always makes thing cool!" I smiled brightly as we started walking to where Naruto was going to train.
"Hottie got swag, Mister Nine, you should learn some!" Killer Bee rapped. Soon enough we reached the end of the hall filled with headless statues. On the wall, a statue of a gaping tiger was looking back at us. At Killer Bee's instructions, Naruto stuck his head inside the statue, of course completely ignoring the warning that he might lose his head. In typical awesomeness-style, Naruto pretended to do so, much to Yamato's distress.
"Lade Hokage, tell him not to do stupid pranks!" Yamato pleaded me, as if he actually expected me to do something about this. Being the awesome Hokage I am, I instead chose to give Naruto a high-five.
"Excellent quick thinking, my adorable minion." I smiled happily. "I'm proud of you."
"But… Hokage-sama…" Yamato whined, and I raised a challenging eyebrow.
"Yes, minion?" I smiled sweetly.
"… It's nothing."
Sometimes, I cursed my luck. Or rather lack-there-off. Itachi, Yamato and I had been taking turns watching over Naruto train, so that we'd always have one person with the capabilities of stopping the Kyubi present. But of course, all of the excitement happened on my days off. The first time being when Naruto achieved what he called the Nine-Tails Chakra Mode, he then discovered Kisame hiding inside of Samehade, leading to a chase all around the Island, ultimately ending with Kisame dead, but all the intel he had gathered, sent to the Akatsuki. The second time, I was sleeping in and ended up missing Kabuto and some reanimated Shinobi attacking, ending with Yamato being kidnapped. Seriously, I managed to sleep through all of it. Needless to say, I was both extremely frustrated and disappointed in myself. Itachi claimed I was being too hard on myself, after all, both of the cases had been after long hours of working and training. Had either of the cases happened closer to my room, the chakra would likely have woken me up. Still, it annoyed me a lot. With Yamato kidnapped, Itachi and I were working a lot more than earlier. This, of course, earned Naruto's suspicion. It wasn't a exactly well-crafted lie, and the more time spent on the Island, the more Naruto started noticing the flaws in the lie. Both Itachi and I knew it would be long until he figured it out, and even with the back-up Tsunade sent, neither of us had any desire to fight Naruto once he did. The two of us would undoubtedly win, but with Naruto's current strength, we would have to fight hard to do so, and could easily hurt Naruto in the process. Neither of us wanted that. So, we made our own plan. Should Naruto find out and rush into the war, we would protect him by fight by his side. 'Yeah, we've had better and more thought through plans before… Still, after the Yamato-situation, we aren't getting any information about what's happening to avoid the enemy getting any of us and what information we might have. One can't plan an attack without information.' I told myself with a frown. Then I felt it. A flare of the Kyubi's chakra. 'And of course it happens during Itachi's shift… Nothing fun happens during my shifts…'
"Dear Kami, I guess that means it's time to go…"
