Yo yo! Welcome back! This is chapter 7 of Konoha's Orange Comet! As always, the responses to your reviews are down below and I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. Also, I am really sorry for the long wait for this chapter. I had finals going on, work was kicking my ass and then after all of that ended…I got some writer's block. :|
Amaterasu53: As always, thanks for your review. And thanks for letting me know how I did with the fighting scenes; at some points they were pretty difficult to write.
Guest: Thanks, and sorry for not updating sooner!
Engineer4Ever: I'm glad that someone understood my flash reference! And you got the right idea with the seals and Namiko's speed.
Skorpina18: New ability? You'll have to wait and see XD. Will it keep them safe during the Chunin Exams? We'll find out soon enough.
Tf330129: Thanks!
Anyway, Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Konoha's Orange Comet!
Arc: The Land of Frost.
Chapter 7: A Side Quest?!
Shikamaru absolutely hated the feeling of headaches. As per, he found them troublesome but that was the least of it. He was and had always been an analytical person, which meant that even when he wasn't trying, his brain was always active…albeit, lazily attempting to process whatever information it came across both consciously and unconsciously. And the more your brain was stressed with information, and stressed with processing that information, the more likely headaches were to occur.
The headache he was experiencing now, however; was unlike any he had ever felt before. For him, headaches were just a nuisance in terms of pain. They had never hurt him in a great deal, but that fact that they were short and constant pains had made him come to despise them. This headache on the other hand…it felt as if someone was stabbing his brain with a dull kunai.
The Nara tried to open his eyes but quickly shut them and winced in pain when they were met with the sight of the rising sun. And to add insult to injury, the rising sun made his brain start to analyze and come up with solutions as to why the sun was rising when he had just been in battle while it had been in the middle of the night.
This was when the proceedings of the day before started to flood Shikamaru's mind, causing him to groan in pain as his headache worsened. The last thing he had remembered seeing was Namiko grabbing the paper bomb off of his chest and throwing it away right before it detonated. And as thankful of her as he was, his gratefulness was overshadowed by what he had seen just before she had…appeared in front of him.
He had heard her call his name and glanced at her only to see her…glowing…or at least her hair was. Then, in what he could only describe as a flash, she had appeared in front of him and performed the action that saved his life. While she would be getting his thanks for saving his life whenever he figured out what was going on, she would definitely have to answer some questions.
Luckily, for the Nara, it would be a lot sooner than he had thought.
Shikamaru was finally able to open his eyes slightly to try and pick up his surroundings. He noticed that he was nowhere near where he had been during the fight, meaning that paper bomb had a lot more kick to it than a standard one.
At this point, the Nara noticed that his backpack had 'come along for the ride' and wasn't too far from his person, as well as there were dark spots littering the crisp white snow he had been laying on. Shikamaru's eyes followed the dark spots until his eyes involuntarily widened.
Laying a few feet from him was an unconscious Namiko. His eyes took note of the stab wound in her thigh, it had healed for the most part, but it was still pretty clear that she was wounded in that area, and it seemed as though the explosion they had recently encountered affect her worse than him, as the young Nara could see a trail of blood running from his former classmate's ear.
Quickly pushing his own pain to the side, Shikamaru made his way over to Namiko and knelt by her side, trying to distinguish what kind of shape she was in. He of course, knew that she had an uncanny ability to heal fast, something he had witnessed first-hand back in the academy, but he would rather be safe than sorry.
Using the little medical knowledge, he possessed, he attempted to determine if any of her injuries would hinder her in the long run and he breathed a sigh of relief when his brief examination returned satisfying results.
He then proceeded to tend to her wounds. Shikamaru tore a portion of his winter cloak which he still wore – albeit while it was singed to the bottom – and used it to tie her thigh. If she were to stress the stab wound there was a possibility it could reopen and cause her discomfort.
The Nara then turned to blonde-haired genin's ears and grimaced with a hint of disgust, at himself. He chided himself that he couldn't move fast enough to get out of the situation himself. Instead, Namiko had to come to his rescue and here she was laying in the cold snow with a stabbed thigh and possibly ruptured ear drums.
Shikamaru clenched his fist in anger as he glared into the snow-covered ground. He didn't know what had come over him. He was usually such a composed and collected individual, but for him, seeing Namiko laying there like a lifeless corpse triggered an anger in him he didn't know he possessed.
He was about to hit the floor in anger when a groan snapped him out of his state. He turned to Namiko who was slowly opening her eyes, trying to blink away the obvious pain she felt.
"Shikamaru…did we make it?" She asked, but before he could muster a response she continued. "Or did we both die?"
The Nara genin found it in himself to offer her a light chuckle. Even as she was, she still had the ability to bring light to the atmosphere.
"Somehow…we both made it," Shikamaru said with a small smile. "Though, you could have been better off." He said, gesturing to her thigh and ears. The fact that she seemed to be able to hear him was a good sign that her eardrums were still intact.
Namiko tilted her head at him in confusion before reaching to her airs and feeling dried blood. She then proceeded to examine her thigh and to Shikamaru's surprise, she shrugged it off. "I'm fine, I'm usually a pretty fast healer, which is why I'm surprised that my thigh isn't healed one hundred percent yet." Shikamaru looked at her slightly quizzically, she had said that last part as if she was talking to someone else as well. But given the circumstances, and already mounting questions he had, he decided to push that to the side for now.
"Can you walk?" He asked.
Namiko shook her head in negation before Shikamaru sighed. He took up his backpack and hung it in front of him before he stooped down with his back facing her. "Hop on." He said and Namiko was glad he wasn't facing her, or else he would be able to see her face turn the brightest shade of pink possible.
"Huh?"
"Well, you can't walk, and we need to first of all get cleaned up and, and secondly we have to find Kakashi-sensei and the rest of your team," He explained. "As banged up as we are, we still have a mission to finish…plus, we could use the body heat to warm up."
"Ri…right." She said before swallowing the lump in her throat and climbing onto Shikamaru's back. It was Shikamaru's turn to blush as he could feel her warm breath hit the nape of his neck, and two orbs pressing into his back. Once they were both ready to get a move on, Namiko voiced a concern. "Which way do we go?"
Shikamaru was quiet in thought for a while before he spoke. "Well, we were originally heading East towards the Daimyo's residence, so I think it's best we continue that way. We can only hope that Kakashi was able to deal with our two attackers and figure something out." He explained to which she nodded.
Shikamaru readied himself and began trekking East. They walked in silence for quite a bit before Shikamaru decided he needed to bring forth a topic.
"Hey, Namiko."
The blonde haired kunoichi had seeminly been lost in her thoughts but snapped out of it when she heard Shikamaru's voice.
"Yea?" She asked in reply.
"Thank you."
Namiko's face grew a look of confusion.
"Huh?" She asked for the second time today.
"Thank you for saving me…if you hadn't done what you did, I'd probably be a goner right now."
She chuckled lightly. "Anytime!" She grinned.
Silence engulfed them as they continued their trek.
Not long after, however, Shikamaru broke it.
"I also wanted to ask about what happened before you tore the exploding tag off of my chest," He said and when she didn't respond he decided to continue with what he was saying. "When you screamed my name, I took a glance at you and your hair was not only glowing but defying the basic laws of physics." He said matter-of-factly. "What exactly was happening?"
Namiko took a moment to gather her thoughts before she provided Shikamaru with an answer to his very valid question. The Uzumaki herself had a variety of questions she needed answers to as well. Those questions ranged from why her thigh injury had yet to be healed while the injury to her ears had been resolved, to why she couldn't communicate with the Kyubi. A temporary situation she hoped. Then there was also the 'thing' she had seen when she was meditating back at the river in the Land of Fire.
For the moment however, she pushed those issues to the side and instead focused on the one at hand. Should she come out and tell Shikamaru about what he saw? About her Jinton? She also knew that Shikamaru had the ability to figure out practically anything he put his mind to. With a deep sigh following an internal debate, Namiko spoke to Shikamaru.
"That was…my Kekkai Genkai…"
Shikamaru stopped dead in his tracks and his eyes widened. As far as he knew, Namiko was an orphan that had no clan attachment. So, for her to say that she had a Kekkai Genkai came as quite the surprise to him. The Nara readied himself once again and started to walk once again, the silence beckoning for Namiko to explain more.
"The only people who know about my Kekkai Genkai are my team, Kakashi-sensei, Old Man Hokage and some guy named Jiraiya, so what I'm about to tell you has to stay between us, okay?"
Shikamaru's only response was a firm nod. He often had talks with his father about being privy with information, so keeping this to himself would be no challenge.
"It's called the Swift Release, and it allows me to send a lot of chakra to my limbs, more chakra than any ninja should be able to handle. And that in turn allows me to move extremely fast." She explained to Shikamaru.
The Team Ten genin took in the information and processed it before responding to Namiko. "So, I'm guessing there is an Uzumaki clan? Because as far as I know…or anyone knows for that matter, Kekkai Genkai are passed down through clan blood."
"Well, that's partially right," She admitted. "While there is an Uzumaki clan, there's no recollection of them possessing an ability quite like mine, and as a matter of fact, an ability like mines has never been recorded before. So, practically, I'm the first one to have this ability." She explained to her friend.
Shikamaru was quiet as he processed what was told to him. After a few moments of silence, Namiko let out a chuckle as a sigh of 'troublesome blonde' escaped her shogi partner's lips.
"Well, I appreciate the confidence in you telling me and as bothersome as it might be, I'd like to see and learn more of your Jinton at some later time, if it's alright with you of course." Shikamaru said as he glanced at her over his shoulder.
The blonde in return offered him an ear-to-ear grin as she nodded.
Silence engulfed them once again as they continued their trek eastward, hoping they bumped into some familiar faces.
"Raiden! (Lightning Transmission!)"
Kakashi, as well as his shadow clone, both created Lightning Blade's in parallel hands and began charging at Fushin's tornado that spun violently. Once they connected, the Lightning Blades cut through the tornado, dissipating it into nothingness. Fushin cursed and was about to reach for one of his special kunai but was stopped by Kakashi's shadow clone who charged at him.
As the clone engaged in a furious Taijutsu battle with Fushin, the original Kakashi had his Sharingan eye spinning furiously trying to analyze his opponent's fighting style and deduce a course of action that would see him return to his genin pronto.
Finding an opening that suited him, Kakashi in turn launched himself at the man so that him and his clone could double team him into submission. And as they battled, Fushin began to pick up what Kakashi was attempting to do and cursed. Taijutsu had never particularly been his forte and now he was battling one of Konoha's strongest. He needed a plan that would see him leave this either victorious, or not dead.
Fushin quickly clapped his hands together and a gust of wind barreled towards Kakashi, and as it turned out, it was strong enough to knock him off his feet. Before Kakashi could regain himself and attack Fushin, the green haired man launched another wind attack and took off in the direction of his partner, the Daimyo and his aide, and Kakashi's Genin.
Kakashi was one of Konoha's fastest ninjas and was able to launch himself in a path to cut off Fushin, which he did successfully.
"Out of my way, Copy Ninja."
Kakashi groaned in irritation slightly. "It feels like you're a broken record," the Sharingan wielder withdrew a kunai and twirled it in his hands before launching it towards his opponent. "And it's getting annoying."
Fushin let an irritated look cloud his features as he deflected the kunai, only for it to start sizzling.
"Huh?"
The rogue ninja took his eyes of Kakashi for a split second and glanced towards the kunai to see an exploding tag attached to it, wrapped around the blade, hiding its presence all too well. By the time he had taken his eyes off the tag and turned to Kakashi, the Konoha jonin was nowhere to be seen as the exploding note wrapped kunai detonated.
A few dozen yards away, Kakashi watched the event unfold over his shoulder as he made his way over to where he had left his students. He knew that the exploding tag wasn't enough to stop a shinobi of Fushin's quality, especially considering that he had a kekkai genkai of sorts, but at the moment, his students and their client was of more priority than fighting the ninja. As strong as he was, even he knew when to retreat.
Turning his attention, the Hatake came upon a scene he wished could have been avoided. Both Sakura and Sasuke were unconscious, as well as the Daimyo, while Namiko, Shikamaru and the Daimyo's aide were nowhere to be scene. The Hatake cursed before creating two shadow clones, a feat that left him with little chakra. He had one shadow clone pick up the Daimyo, while he himself picked up Sasuke and Sakura under each of his arms while he ordered the last shadow clone to search for Namiko and Shikamaru, and by extension, the Daimyo's aide.
Once that shadow clone dashed off to attempt to accomplish its task, the original Kakashi began running towards the direction of the Daimyo's compound. To Kakashi, it had seemed as though the Lightning Group, as they had called themselves had gotten what they came for and he hoped that that would be enough for them to leave the Konoha ninja alone…for the time being at least.
To continue battling after they had succeeded in their goal would be pointless, and he oh so hoped that – considering he was handicapped by carrying two of his genin, while the other two were missing in action – the Lightning Group felt the same way.
"I think there's a village coming up." There was a hint of relief in Shikamaru's voice as he voiced his observation. While he was a shinobi with survival training to deal with the roughest of weather conditions, as well as strength training to deal with the physical necessity his job held, he had to admit that carrying Namiko on his back for the past four hours was beginning to take a toll on him. However, Namiko was a woman…a blonde-haired, and short-tempered woman at that too, he'd never mention anything regarding her weight to her, much less he be skinned alive.
What was that saying? Hell, hath no fury like a woman scorned?
"Finally," Namiko groaned in exasperation. At that, Shikamaru deadpanned considering she had just been on his back their entire trip but chose not to say anything. "I am starving."
Shikamaru chuckled at her antics before turning to a more serious matter. "How's your leg?"
Namiko took a moment to flex the muscles in her leg and realized that it was much better than before, not fully healed but something close. It seemed as though her advanced healing from the Kyubi was working, but at a slow pace, and she would need to meet with the Kyubi as soon as possible. However, her mindscape connection with the great Tailed Beast was non-existent at the moment, and not by choice either.
"It's getting better, I think I'll be fine after I get some food," she admitted with a smile. "I also think I can walk now, if you're getting tired of carrying me." She followed with.
Shikamaru stopped for a moment, but before Namiko could dismount the Nara used his forearms, which were under Namiko's thighs for support to readjust her, before he started walking again.
"It's fine, we're almost there and it'd be troublesome if I put you down and you're still not able to walk." He said to which Namiko smiled.
"I appreciate this Shikamaru," she said as they continued their journey. "Lunch on me at the village, okay?"
Shikamaru only nodded in understanding as they continued to the village.
Their walk into the village was uneventful, to say the least. Though, what could be said is that the village had an extremely solemn and downtrodden feeling in the atmosphere, and they couldn't exactly tell why. While they walked through the village, searching for an inn where they could get some proper rest and maybe even some food to quench their growling stomach, they couldn't help but notice the strange looks they were getting from the village's people. Most likely due to their headbands which they still wore.
For Shikamaru, he hated all this attention that was on the pair. Attention usually led to troublesome things that he didn't, or rather couldn't, deal with now. As for his blonde-haired teammate, she was in awe of the fact that the stares she was getting now was nothing like the one's in Konoha. Back home, every single stare was filled with either disgust, regret or hatred. Here now, in the village in the Land of Snow, the stares were simply just curious ones.
Their walk quickly came to an end as they came upon a small inn at just about the center of the village. It was at this time that Shikamaru decided to put Namiko down. And true to her words before, she was able to walk. She took a moment to put some weight on her injured leg to test it and grinned in satisfaction when she realized that she was all good to go.
"See, I told ya I could walk," Namiko said excitedly towards Shikamaru. The Nara offered her a small smile but before he could offer some words her stomach growled loudly, interrupting his train of thought. The Nara then offered a laugh as Namiko's face turned red from embarrassment as she wished the Earth would open up and swallow her whole. "Sorry…" She apologized sheepishly.
Shikamaru waved it off as his laughter died down. "Don't worry about it, I feel the same way," He said as he stretched his limbs. "Let's see if we can get some rooms at this inn, get some food and then figure out what to do next." He suggested and she nodded in agreement as Shikamaru held the door open for her.
"Aww, such a gentleman…"She thought to herself.
She entered the inn and Shikamaru followed. The establishment's lobby was quite quaint, a few chairs and tables as well as a couple winter plants for decoration and at the center, a small reception desk where a brittle old lady sat reading a magazine. The woman heard them enter and set her reading down before looking up at them.
"Good morning," her voice was soft and befitting of an old lady. "My name is Osaka. How may I help you two today?" She asked.
"Uh, good morning to you to, Osaka-san…we'd just like a couple rooms and a good recommendation for a place to eat." Namiko spoke.
"Of course," the woman then picked up a booked that the two genin assumed was a ledger and turned a few pages. "How long would your stay be?" She inquired.
"Most likely just until tomorrow," Shikamaru answered. "We just want to get a good night's rest and restore our energy before we get on our way to the Daimyo's residence." He explained and the woman nodded, albeit a little sagely.
"Two rooms for the night would be ten thousand ryo each," Osaka explained and the two genin nodded before reaching into their pouches and withdrawing their wallets. Shikamaru withdrew his ten thousand ryo from a simple leather wallet in his backpack before replacing it and handing Osaka the money. Namiko on the other hand paled as she opened her beloved gama-chan which she took out from her ninja pouch. While she had more than enough money to cover the room, spending money always hurt. She gave the ten thousand ryo to Osaka as well as a few hundred ryo to Shikamaru for food before putting her gama-chan where it belonged. Osaka then withdrew two keys. "Room number 307 and room number 309. They're opposite each other on the third floor, as for food, there is a café down the road on the left-hand side with great food."
The Konoha genin offered their thanks with a smile as they turned to each other.
"You can go get settled in your room, I'll head to the café and get some food…I'm assuming if they have ramen that's what you want?" Shikamaru said, as he knew about her frequent visits to the ramen spot in Konoha and wasn't surprised when Namiko began shaking her head excitedly. The Nara then turned back to the old lady. "Thank you, Osaka-san."
The elderly woman offered them a smile as she returned to her magazine. The genin once again looked at each other and nodded before Shikamaru walked out of the inn and made his way towards the café while Namiko made her way to the stairs that would lead her to her room.
First, she was going to take a shower and get cleaned up. Then, she had to figure out what the hell was going on with her Tailed Beast.
"I'm sorry Hatake-san, but no other ninja has come here."
Kakashi mentally cursed as he spoke to one of the guards at the Daimyo's mansion. When he had first arrived in the wee hours of the morning, he had put Sasuke and Sakura in proper beds to rest before dropping down onto a bed himself. When he had awoken, he had received the memories of his shadow clone who had run out of chakra before it could locate Namiko and Shikamaru.
"Thank you." He thanked the guard and began making his way back to their quarters, hopefully his other two genin were awake and would be able to tell him what had transpired when they had been separated by the Lightning Group.
He had assumed that Namiko and Shikamaru, if they had not been taken by Fushin's partner, would make their way to the Daimyo's mansion. The fact that they weren't here either meant that they had been captured, they hadn't thought of coming to the mansion, they were held up somewhere or worse yet, they were dead. It was a situation with too many variables, so the son of Konoha's White Fang couldn't accurately deduce a reasonable outcome on his own.
The jonin made his way back to where Sasuke and Sakura were resting and was relieved to see that Sasuke had awoken. The team leader wasted no time and sat across from Sasuke. Once he had made sure that Sasuke was alright and wasn't suffering from any injuries, he told him to relay what had happened during their fight with the man named Karyu.
And so, the Uchiha spent the next ten or so minutes reliving the ass kicking that the man named Karyu had bestowed upon the genin. When he was done, Kakashi sat back and let out a deep sigh. He assumed that, given what Sasuke had told him, Namiko and Shikamaru hadn't been captured but probably blasted away by the explosion.
On one side of the spectrum, if his remaining genin had not been captured or seriously hurt by the explosion, he assumed that with Shikamaru, Namiko hopefully wouldn't get herself into trouble…but then again Namiko was a wildcard to which trouble tended to gravitate towards.
Before Kakashi could move forward, however, one of the Daimyo's guards entered the room.
"Apologies for interrupting Hatake-san, but Daimyo-sama requests your presence." After Kakashi nodded in understanding he turned to Sasuke and gave him a reassuring nod before he took a glance at Sakura, who was still sound asleep then walked off with the Daimyo's guard.
Kakashi followed the guard for a few minutes before he was guided into an office, where the Frost Daimyo was seated drinking a cup of tea. The Daimyo smiled at the silver-haired jonin and gestured for him to have a seat, to which he obliged.
"You wished to see me, Daimyo-sama?"
The Daimyo of Frost Country placed his teacup on the wooden table in front of him and cleared his throat. "Yes, Kakashi-san. First and foremost, I would like to extend my thanks to you for escorting me safely to my residence." The Daimyo said.
"While I am pleased with your thanks, in my books this mission was much more a failure than it was a success," Kakashi began explaining. "We were attacked, and you were robbed, as well as two of my students and your aide are missing." Kakashi finished.
The Daimyo took a second to clear his throat. "It is quite more complicated than that, Kakashi-san."
At this declaration, Kakashi looked at the Daimyo quizzically.
"Allow me to explain; After your blonde-haired and pineapple-haired students were blasted away from the scene, and your other two students were incapacitated, my aide then proceeded to take what the thieves were after from me himself." At this statement, Kakashi's lone visible eye widened.
"What?" Were his only words.
"Yes, it seems as though my aide was in collusion with the so called 'Lightning Group'," the Daimyo explained solemnly. "Kenzo has been my aide for almost five years, to think that he would be an accomplice to a theft on my belongings," the Daimyo shook his head sadly before returning his gaze to the Konoha jonin. "Please accept my apologies and extend my apologies to your village for getting your students hurt." The Daimyo bowed his head slightly to Kakashi.
Kakashi gave the Frost Lord one of his signatory eye smiles. "No need to apologies Daimyo-sama, you had no idea that your aide would turn on you like that."
The Daimyo nodded at Kakashi's words. "You and your team are relieved of your duties, you can report this mission a success to your Kage, and if you require Frost Country's assistance to locate your genin, please note that my guards are at your disposal." The Daimyo explained.
"What about the matter with your aide and your belongings that were taken?" Kakashi asked.
"That will be dealt with as an internal matter. Believe me when I say that Frost Country will take care of that problem on our own." The Daimyo said.
Kakashi then stood and bowed to Daimyo. "Thank you once again Daimyo-sama, and if you'll excuse me." The Daimyo nodded and Kakashi exited the office, before making his way back towards the room where Sasuke and Sakura were resting.
The jonin made his mind on staying at the Daimyo's residence for a few more days, giving Shikamaru and Namiko time to make their way there before him, Sasuke and Sakura would depart and search for them. In the meantime, the former Anbu crossed his fingers and watched as two shadow clones came into existence before dashing off, beginning a search for his missing students.
"You baka-kitsune! Do you know how long I've been trying to get into contact with you?!"
The Kyubi grew a visible tick mark as it listened to Namiko's chiding. It had just woken up from one of the most pleasant naps in its entire existence, and the first thing it heard was the blonde loudmouth yelling.
"Not long enough it seems." The fox rebuked sarcastically.
"You think you're funny, huh?" Namiko asked the fox as she glared at it, hands on hips for added effect. "What happened?"
The fox mentally rolled it's eyes at its jinchuriki.
"I was healing you, baka," Kurama explained. "When you saved the pineapple headed mortal from death, you used more of the Jinton than your body could handle, and I had to save you…again." Namiko was taken aback by the kitsune's remarks. "You used so much of the Jinton's power in your emotional state that you started to tear your muscles and the ligaments that connects your bones. It took quite of bit of my power to heal you, and after that I went to sleep and didn't want to be disturbed."
"Huh?! So, you locked me out of my mindscape?! Can you even do that?!"
The fox chuckled darkly. "Have you forgotten who I am? The Grea–"
"Yeah, yeah, the great Nine Tailed Fox, yadda, yadda." Namiko rolled her eyes.
The Kyubi grew another tick mark before it sighed. "In this domain we call your mindscape, my power is extremely limited," Kurama admitted. "After I succeeded in healing your torn muscles and damaged ligaments, I attempted to heal the stab wound in your thigh, I was able to cauterize the wound, but I couldn't heal it completely until recently." Kurama finished its explanation.
"Huh…so does that mean that my healing ability which I get from your has its limits?" She asked to which the fox responded with a hesitant nod.
"It's more complicated than that, it all depends on the severity of the wound and what kind of wound it is. It also has quite a bit to do with your body's natural healing, as my powers simply speeds up the process of your wounds healing. So, simply put…the better your body's health and immunity, the better my powers can help you heal."
Namiko nodded in understanding at Kurama's explanation before stretching. "Well, I'm glad that you're okay…I had actually gotten a little worried when you didn't answer me…and as always, thanks for your help in healing me." Namiko smiled at the fox before spinning on her heals and begin to walk out of her mind scape before she stopped and refaced the fox.
"What is it?"
"Is there anything you can tell me about what happened when I used the Jinton to save Shikamaru…? It seemed as though everything was in slow motion when it had activated."
The fox was quiet for a while before placing its head on its paws. "Since we have discovered your ability, we've worked with the theory of sending chakra to your arms and legs…I believe that in your poignant state, you sent your chakra everywhere." Namiko looked at the fox in slight confusion before it continued. "Instead of speeding up your arms, legs and the necessary joints to deal with the Jinton, it seems as though you sped up your entire body, which made it seems as though things around you were moving extremely slow, when it was just you who was moving extremely fast."
"Wow…" Was her only response. Who knew that was possible? "But like you said, it's dangerous right?"
The fox nodded shrewdly. "Your body is years too early to handle that kind of physical stress, and even if it was, using something like that for extended periods of time would destroy your body from the inside out."
"Noted." She said. "Thanks again, Kurama."
The fox only grunted in acknowledgement as Namiko faded from her mindscape, just in time to hear a knock come from the door to her room. The Uzumaki, who was now clothed in a fresh set of warms clothes hopped of the bed and looked through the peephole to see Shikamaru holding food.
She hurriedly opened the door with a shit-eating grin spread across her face. She stepped to the side and allowed the Nara heir to enter the room. Within a few minutes, both were sitting across each other on the bed eating their respective foods in relative silence. Namiko; a few bowls of miso ramen Shikamaru had gotten from the café while the Nara himself, was eating a dish consisting of grilled mackerel with various provisions.
When she was done, Namiko fell back onto the bed with a deep sigh.
"Oh man, that hit the spot!" She exclaimed.
The Nara sitting across from her chuckled lightly as he too finished his dish.
"Can't argue with that statement." He replied with a little smirk.
The Uzumaki jinchuriki then sat up with a stretch.
"So…what's the plan?" She asked and for a few seconds, Shikamaru was quiet.
"Well, first and foremost we need to get some rest," he said as he scratched his chin. "Then we can always head out for the Daimyo's residence at first light in the morning…there isn't much to it, but we have to hope that Kakashi-sensei was able to make it their safely with the others." He explained.
"And if they didn't?" She asked skeptically.
"Well, worst case scenario we get to the residence, and they aren't there, we'll just have to go out and look for them, unfortunately there are only two of us, so it'll take us longer times to cover ground."
Namiko thought in silence for a while before she spoke. "Not necessarily, we can always use my shadow clones to increase our numbers and help with the search." She explained.
A rare feature, confusion, spread across Shikamaru's face. "Shadow clones…right, the physical copies of yourself that can transmit their memories back to you," Shikamaru repeated the explanation she had given him previously regarding the clones. "Where'd you learn that jutsu anyway?" He asked.
At that question, Namiko gulped and turned her head away, beads of sweat rolling down her forehead.
"Uh…it's complicated." She said with an uneasy smile.
"You know what, never mind…I don't wanna know." Shikamaru said as he stood up.
"Let me guess…too troublesome?"
Shikamaru offered the blonde a smirk as he began striding towards the door. "You got that right," he said as he opened the door to Namiko's room, intending on going to his own quarters. "I'm going to take a shower and get a change of clothes, after that we should probably do some recon in the village. It'd be troublesome if we were to be caught off guard by any surprises." He explained, to which the Uzumaki nodded her head.
Namiko then proceeded to meditate in her room while she waited for Shikamaru and after a while, there was a knock at her door. Ready to explore the village they had come across, Namiko got off her bed and opened the door.
"Should we go with our headbands?" She asked her teammate.
Shikamaru thought for a while before shrugging. "We might as well, we came into the village with them, and word probably already spread about Konoha ninja in the village, just keep in mind we have to be careful." He chided.
She strapped her hitai-ate onto her forehead and nodded. "Got it."
The two genin then made their way onto the streets of the village and began taking in both the sights and – as Shikamaru put it – anything that would turn out to be too troublesome to deal with.
As they walked, they were suddenly cut off in their tracks by a little girl with dirty blonde hair and light brown eyes.
"Ex..excuse me, are you ni…ninja?" She asked quietly.
Shikamaru and Namiko turned to each other with raised eyebrows before Namiko stooped to meet the girl's eye level.
"Yes, we are, why do you ask?"
"Can you…can you save my tou-chan?!"
At this exclamation, both Konoha genin were shocked.
"Akina! Leave those ninjas alone."
Suddenly, a woman of average height with hair and eyes that bore resemblance to the little girl appeared and picked up the girl, apparently named Akina in her arms.
"But kaa-chan!"
"No buts Aki-chan, they are probably busy and don't have time for our problems, now apologize."
The little girl looked at her mother with puppy eyes before turning back to Namiko and Shikamaru.
"I'm sorry, mister and miss ninja." She said and something about the way she said it made Namiko's heart swell.
"It's quite alright," the blonde then turned to the man. "What happened to your husband, miss?"
The woman was hesitant for a while before she spoke. "It isn't just my husband, it's quite a few villagers," she began explaining. "This village is pretty secluded, and the only way for us villagers to get usable water in the colder months is a spring up in those mountains over there," the woman pointed in the direction of a mountain range not too far from the village. "However, recently, whenever a villager takes the trip to get water, they never return…and my husband has been the most recent villager to not return.
"How long has this been going on?" Namiko asked.
"For a few months now, the trip usually takes half a day, one day at most but my husband has been gone for two weeks…we just…we just want to know what happened to our loved ones." She said, a small tear gathering in the corner of her eye.
"What about the Shimogakure shinobi?" Was Shikamaru's question.
"Their exact words were, 'we don't have time for problems like that', Shimo is a struggling shinobi village at the moment, and they choose to only take on missions that pay a tremendous amount of funds, funds this village does not have." She finished explaining.
"What about the Daimyo? Can't you take the situation to him so he can do something about it?" Namiko asked. "Maybe he can get the Shimo nin to investigate?"
"We've tried that…he seems to care more about his wealth and public image more than his people. He'd rather we suffer than plead with Shimogakure to help us."
At this, both Namiko and Shikamaru looked at each other with frowns. What this woman had just said about the Daimyo, matched up with what the Lightning Group had accused him of.
Silence engulfed the group for a while, allowing Namiko's eyes to meet the eyes of the little girl whose father was missing. Namiko herself did not know her father, but what she did know was that if the roles were reversed, she would want someone to help her.
"I'll help you, free of charge."
At this declaration, the little girl, Akina, gave a happy squeal while the mother and Shikamaru had wide eyes.
"Oye! Namiko!" Shikamaru said and looked at his friend incredulously. The Nara then pulled Namiko to the side and spoke in a hushed tone. "Don't forget we're on a mission ourselves already!"
"I know that Shikamaru, but Kakashi-sensei and the others can handle themselves…do you know who can't handle themselves? The villagers here. Do you know who can't handle themselves…that little girl in her mother's arms." Namiko explained to Shikamaru. "Kakashi-sensei once told my team and I that those who break the rules are scum…but those who abandon their friends are worse than scum…and I know it may seem like I'm abandoning my team to help some strangers right now but that's not what I'm doing. Sometimes…" The Uzumaki's eyes met with the Nara's. "Sometimes the right thing to do, isn't always the right thing."
Dammit! When did she become such a prophet?
Shikamaru averted his eyes from Namiko's blue orbs. While on the surface level, what she had said didn't make much sense, he understood clearly what she was trying to say. As ninja, they were though that the mission came before anything else, but here Namiko was…trying to put their mission on pause to help a village full of strangers.
Shikamaru looked at the little girl in her mother's arms. He then turned back to the jinchuriki.
"But Namiko, we can't just–"
He was cut off by Namiko.
"You're right, we can't, but I will," she said determinedly. "How about we split up, I investigate this, and you try to find Kakashi-sensei and the others." She offered.
Shikamaru was quiet for a while before he groaned. "I can't just leave you to do that alone, you'll probably only make things worse on your own."
"So, you'll help me get to the bottom of this?" She asked, with a grin plastering her face.
Shikamaru let out a deep, and long sigh. "Yes, I'll help but if this turns out to be more than we can handle, promise me we'll leave it alone for those more capable." He said and she grinned even wider, something he didn't know was possible.
"No promises!" She exclaimed as she walked back towards the mother and her daughter to get any more information they could give.
Another sigh left the dark-haired shinobi's lips.
"Troublesome blonde…"
Allow me to apologies deeply for taking so long to get this chapter out. I've been super busy, and I'm going to try and get back on the right track of posting chapters, so please forgive me. In terms of the fanfic, I'm pretty much on track and the next chapter should wrap up this arc before we move on the Chunin Exams which I'm really excited for so please, stay tuned.
As always, read, review and please share your thoughts.
-AlphaZulu99
