And we arrive, the grand reawakening is upon us!
That sounds too haughty... Meh.
Anyways, I suppose without further ado, enjoy.
Chapter 59: Return to the Leaf
"Again!"
Naruto practically blinked forward.
His leg collided with Neji's arm, knocking the teen off balance. He smirked as his opponent grunted, and used that momentum to pivot mid-air, trying to drive a second kick down on his opponent's already injured arms.
Neji deflected the blow, causing Naruto's foot to impact the dirt training ground beneath them. It sunk in, which was all the time Neji needed to charge up one of his new abilities.
"Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm!"
Naruto barely managed to snake his way out of the technique's path, dislodging his leg as he began gathering chakra in his right hand for a Jutsu of his own.
"Rasengan!"
It was a weaker variant, the same as Neji's, which made sense given that they were A. in a spar, and B. exhausted as all hell. Still, in comparison to the young man beneath him, Naruto could still feel some energy coursing through his veins.
It was their fifteenth set of spars that day, and while everyone else was running out of juice, he still had quite a bit of gas in the tank. He was finally getting to show more of what he could do in longer engagements.
He pushed his ball of chakra into Neji's abdomen, and watched with some small semblance of glee as it launched him back into the snowy grass just beyond them.
"Winner by ring-out," The Hyuga who'd been put in charge of their lessons today pointed towards him. "Naruto."
He pumped his fist.
That was his seventh victory in a row.
"Ah…" Kiba groaned as he leaned forward, panting harshly even as Akamaru collapsed down behind him, giving the beast-master something to lean against. "Can we be done for the day? It's bullshit having to fight the human-battery this many times."
Naruto snickered at the nickname. He was quite fond of it if he were being honest, but still, not like Kiba was getting away with that without some mockery.
"What's the matter, Kiba?" He turned to look at the boy, blinking daintily like a sweet summer maiden. "Is someone afwaid to fight widdle-old-me?"
Kiba glared as Shino, Neji, and Hinata laughed quietly.
"Akamaru?"
The dog barked back in question.
"We're taking his head."
He barked once more in assurance.
Naruto cracked his knuckles, 'heh-hehing' under his breath as his soon-to-be opponent stepped up to the proverbial plate. Unfortunately for him, another, more important Hyuga walked over, and placed a hand on Naruto's shoulder, ripping his enthusiasm out from under him.
"I'm afraid that's all for today." Hiashi shot them down calmly. "It wouldn't do to overwork yourselves. You've been at this for hours, and that's after training this morning."
Naruto and Kiba both moaned out in complaint, but there would be no stopping the Hyuga's leader, given that he owned the place, and could quite easily kick them the hell out.
"Still, I must say," The man smiled at them, looking over the five present with a proud grin. "It's undeniable that all of you have grown strong. Even those absent today have proven their strength."
Naruto almost blushed at the honest praise, especially coming from Hiashi Hyuga of all people. The rest of his group was much the same, but none more than Hinata, whose smile Naruto was fairly sure could part the gray clouds hanging above them on this crisp winter afternoon.
Hiashi had really mellowed out. It'd taken some time, sure, but he'd come to accept Hinata, come to apologize profusely, even going so far as to bow his head to her. He'd done it in complete isolation, of course, to Hinata and Hinata alone, but the girl had told Naruto of it in private, nearly bawling as she thanked him for helping her with her family problems.
Honestly, Naruto wasn't positive what he'd really done on that matter. Sure, he'd provided her comfort, but really, he was fairly sure she was still talking about their conversation from the Chuunin Exams.
It was crazy, the event felt like a lifetime ago.
He gazed across their group as well, noting the absences. TenTen and Lee were out on a mission, working underneath a certain other ninja…
One he was looking forward to seeing again. Their group had departed nearly a month ago now.
He smiled as he tuned back into the rest of the world, looking over at Hiashi as he placed a hand on his hip. His friends all crowded around him, slinging jokes around like weapons as they waited for him to finish his conversation. They'd promised to go for barbecue that night, and he had a personal rule to never refuse free food.
"Well, I'd hope so." He smiled as he glanced towards Kiba, who was waving him over, having grown impatient as Naruto idled on the training ground.
"It has been two years."
/-/
"I must say, even though it felt good to stretch my body, and test myself against real foes…!" Rock Lee let out a small sigh of exhaustion, his breath showing in the cold, winter weather as they dashed through the trees. "Having been away from the village for a whole month… I'm growing a bit tired."
Tenten murmured something in agreement, but it was muddled, buried beneath the scarf she'd wrapped around her neck to keep herself warm during their long hours spent in the wilderness. Their mission had been simple but important, to look around the Leaf's forests for any of Orochimaru's remaining bases.
In their month-long trek, they'd only found two.
And they'd already known about both of them, thanks to a certain duo traveling along with them.
"Yeah, that's our bad." Kin called to the rest of the group, tucking her hair back into her own scarf, even if it was a bit lighter in terms of material. "We really thought we'd be able to locate at least a few others. Dosu knows for a fact that there're two more in here somewhere…"
"But none of us ever got to visit any of those bases." Zaku concluded, moving some of his now longer hair out of his face. "Eh, it's not like Tsunade was expecting us to find anything. She said as much when we left."
They'd had a few long years to confirm what they'd already suspected. Orochimaru was well and truly dead. There'd been no activity, aside from some remnants from the sound village. Those were usually wiped out quickly, though, pointedly, not by the Leaf Village
Tsunade had guessed it was the Akatsuki tying up loose ends.
"Still…" Tenten shivered, teeth chattering as she rubbed up and down her sides with gloved hands. He wasn't sure about the logistics of such an idea when one's only real offense was summoning weapons, but he decided not to ask, given that the girl looked positively miserable. "I didn't want my first requested mission from Lady Tsunade to be a failure… ugh."
"It wasn't a failure."
The rest of the group turned to him. A small jitter of nervousness shot through him as that many eyes hit him at once, but he'd gotten quite good at ignoring those feelings. When he couldn't, he would let his hand drift to the blade on his back, a comforting presence whenever he found himself in a bind.
"We didn't fail." Sasuke reassured them. "We found more than a dozen valuable research documents, straight from Orochimaru's laboratories. Even if we'd known where they were, getting into his bases without getting caught in his traps and getting back out without any casualties… That's an accomplishment, is it not?"
It took a second, but his allies smiled at him, nodding as they faced forward once more. He did the same, focusing back in on the road ahead as they settled in for the long haul.
It was easier to maintain calm, as well, when he was the leader of the group. The only Chuunin present, it fell to him to dictate their movements, their paths through the old snake's lairs, and, ultimately, it'd been his decision to call off what he'd concluded was a meaningless search.
He'd taken to wearing a rather simple outfit, a long, blue robe, like some from the old Uchiha had. Over it was his Chuunin Vest, which he'd had specially emblazoned with the mark of his clan. His collar and coattails flapped in the harsh, snowy winds, though his vest kept him rather warm, for the most part. It helped that he'd outfitted it with a temperature regulator before the mission.
The others had opted for more… analogue options, scarves, mufflers, and gloves.
Honestly, he'd wished he had a pair of the latter more than a few times as they dug through inches of ice and snow to uncover one of Orochimaru's laboratories. That'd been hell, truly, and by the end, he'd sort of just assumed he'd be needing to get a few fingers amputated.
Luckily, his teammates had assured him he was just being overdramatic.
Still, he rubbed his hands together, trying to generate some heat as a particularly bad gust virtually froze him to the bone.
Just a few more hours. Sasuke mentally groaned out. Just a few more hours, and I'll get to see everyone…
A whole month without them hadn't been quite as difficult as he'd expected, and, really, he was fifteen years old now, he was probably expected to be able to distance himself just a bit from them without dying.
Still, not being able to see Naruto, or Ino, or Kakashi, or Yugao, or Hayate…
Or Sakura…
It was beginning to grow exhausting.
He pushed off hard on a particular branch and tried not to sigh out as it broke underneath him, sending him plummeting towards the forest floor below.
I hope Sakura's having a better day than I am.
/-/
"Well… it's the same as always."
She let out a bored noise of acknowledgement as the Hokage ran her hands up and down her neck, pushing her skin around like putty in a way that had once been incredibly painful. Now… well, she'd gotten used to it.
"It's been a while since you've used it, correct?"
"Outside of our sessions?" Sakura looked up at Tsunade. "I only ever use it here, nowadays. It's not really something I need to break out on missions. At least not normally."
"Yeah, I can see that. So, since you used it last month, you've left it entirely inactive?"
She nodded.
"That's… hmm. I'll have to run a few more tests there, because it's still giving off the same readings that it was when you'd used it only a day prior."
It made sense. The curse mark didn't really care whether or not she was inactive, because it certainly wasn't. She wasn't quite sure what to make of that, other than the usual 'probably not a good sign' sort of feeling.
Sakura was in the hospital for another of her monthly 'making sure your curse mark isn't killing you' check-ups, which, while a bit of a nuisance, couldn't be denied as nonetheless important. Tsunade always saw to both her and her master personally, which had helped her shake the woman's rather poor first impression.
"Alright, I'll analyze the data here, and get back to you when we meet again next month. Actually, hell, we can make a day of it, I'll have Sasuke come along too, test his skills with this stuff in an actual setting." The woman laughed, before she stilled slightly. "Though… that meeting might be pushed back a bit, quite honestly."
Oh?
"Something come up?"
"Yes, though probably not what you think." Tsunade smirked, before hitting her atop the head with a manila folder. "Alright, you're done. Head on out, I've got other patients to see."
She grumbled something under her breath as she slipped her coat back on. A warm brown in color, she'd picked the article of clothing up on a whim a week or two ago when the weather had hit freezing temperatures.
Honestly, with only the normal sleeveless outfit she wore underneath, she wasn't quite sure how she'd managed to avoid perishing last winter.
She noted idly as a flash of pink entered her vision that she should probably cut her hair here soon. It was growing… quite long, easily reaching down to the bottom of her spine. She'd resolved to get it trimmed a couple of times now, but every time she went to go…
Well, if she were being honest, she kind of liked the flair the longer locks brought.
She passed through the maze of hallways out of the hospital, waved to the receptionist who she'd grown to quite like, and stepped out into the cool winter air. Immediately, she buttoned her coat, and turned to the person waiting for her with a shivering "Hey".
"Yo." Anko called back, having, for once, buttoned up her own outfit. "Gods it's fucking freezing."
They walked side-by-side for a while, making their way back into the village proper, though, admittedly, they chatted about nothing of value for most of it.
"By the way, when's your next session?"
"You mean for my curse mark?" Anko asked, turning to her with a raised eyebrow. "Two weeks. Next next Thursday."
"Ah, cool."
There was a small bout of comfortable silence, before Anko cut into it with a snort.
"Still can't believe you ripped off my outfit." Anko scowled at her from out of the corner of her eye. "Like… you had to go with a trench coat? That's kind of my thing."
"And now it's our thing." Sakura turned, placing both hands over her heart and feigning innocence. "After all, I just wanted to get closer to my precious teacher!"
Anko stared at her for a good five seconds.
"It was on sale, wasn't it?"
"70% off."
"Ah."
"And it looked like yours, but a bit darker." She explained. "Jokes aside, I thought it'd be cool if we matched a bit."
Anko smiled ever-so-slightly, a gesture Sakura didn't miss before it warped into a teasing expression.
"How lame." The woman pretended not to like their analogous fashion. "My own student, cramping my style."
"What style?" She teased back. "You wear fishnets and a trench coat. That's not style, that's advertising your cheap hourly rates."
"Bite me."
"You'd like that, wouldn't you?"
/-/
"Did you just steal my cut!?"
"Didn't see your name on it anywhere, Naruto!"
"Kiba, you piece of-"
"Enough!" Neji erupted. "Eat like regular human beings or take your disagreement outside!"
Hinata giggled quietly, muffling the sound into her sleeve as the two spiky-haired boys glared at one another. Naruto harrumphed away, immediately lunging for another piece of meat as it finished cooking. This time, he got to it first, and laughed under his breath as their resident canine-controller bared his fangs.
Kiba was a lot less intimidating when he didn't have a dog the size of him backing him up, however. Akamaru wasn't exactly allowed inside a restaurant, especially not one which sold almost exclusively meats, so he'd been sent back to the Inuzuka compound early.
Which meant that Naruto had nothing to fear from the boy beside him.
Especially not when it came to snagging meats off the skillet. Cheap shots aside (which Kiba's blatant theft of his piece earlier had most certainly been) the boy didn't stand a chance of defeating him when it came to food.
He did envy Shino just a bit, though. The boy hadn't said a single word so far, instead, he'd quietly snagged all of the best cuts the moment they'd been finished. He wanted to be mad at that, but he simply couldn't help but respect the technique.
"Sho…" Hinata seemed to realize she was speaking while still chewing and took a moment to swallow. "Sasuke's coming back tonight, right?"
He found himself smiling.
"Yeah. In fact, he should be getting back into the village in a few hours, at least, that's what their last missive said."
"Mm" Hinata grabbed another piece, feeding into her surprising identity as a bit of a glutton. "It'll be good to see Tenten and Lee as well. It's been weird not having them around."
He could sort of see what the girl meant by that. They'd been training off and on as a group for a good two years, mainly at the Hyuga estate, though there had been a couple of times when Jiraiya had taken their group out a bit to train on more interesting tactics.
Why he bothered doing such a thing for him and the rest of his group, Naruto still didn't know. Apparently, it came down to whatever he and Hiashi had been hinting about all that time ago, when they'd first been let into the compound.
He'd still yet to find out just what that was.
He wasn't letting it keep him down, though. Instead, he was focusing on what he could do, namely, getting waaaaay better at hand-to-hand combat, and utilizing his Jutsu in more effective ways.
The Rasengan, mostly. It was a powerful tool, and one he'd gotten proficient enough at to use with a single hand. Well, not at full power. That, at least, still required a clone to do, but a less-tightly-wound Rasengan, meant for launching enemies backwards, he was more than capable of creating alone.
"So, wait," Kiba spoke as he inhaled a few cutlets. "Are you waiting for him here, or?"
"No? How would he know we made dinner plans?"
"Oh, good point." Kiba spoke as he reached down at the same time as Naruto. "Oi… that's my cut."
"Very funny." Naruto faked a laugh. "But seriously. Let go before you get hurt."
Neji grabbed both of their arms and sent a minuscule amount of chakra into both of them. Naruto winced as he shook the limb out, completely forgetting about the small piece of beef still left on the fryer.
It was swiped away by Hinata before he could so much as blink.
Both he and Kiba looked at the girl depressively.
"W…whaf?" The girl asked through a full mouth. "Dih I do sumfing wronh?"
They could only sigh.
/-/
Sakura was almost surprised to find Naruto waiting by the Village Gates as she arrived.
Almost.
"Hey!" She called out to him, watching as he turned and smiled over at her. "When'd you get here?"
"Came straight from dinner." He explained as she stepped in next to him, facing the gates. "Wanted to be able to greet them the moment they got in."
She breathed out a laugh.
"Same here."
They waited in silence after that, and the hours crested on slowly. The sun had long since set in the sky, and they were using a lantern they'd borrowed from Kotetsu and Izumo to light the bitter night. Snowflakes began to fall without any real fanfare, and it didn't take long for a real snowstorm to begin brewing.
"Well… he could end up being a no-show tonight." Naruto spoke the words neither of them wanted to hear. "It's not impossible, hell, it's honestly likely that they put themselves up for the night, rather than risk a blizzard or something else."
She acknowledged that statement, but still couldn't help letting out a small grumble as she sat down, placing the lantern in front of her.
"I take it we're not going anywhere?"
"You're free to." She responded with a cocked eyebrow.
"Yeah, I totally believe you wouldn't hold that over me." He sat down beside her, stretched his body, and let out a satisfied sigh as he settled in. "How long we stayin'?"
"We can leave once the hours hit single digits."
"Ouch, one o'clock?
"Don't tell me you'd try and leave earlier?"
"I wouldn't, just that it would be nice to have the option is all."
"Technically, you still have the option."
"Yeah, I'd appreciate if you'd face me when you say that, at least then I might have the tiniest modicum of belief."
"Hey, that's a big word for you, modicum."
He glared at her.
"Don't go all Sasuke on me. And…" Naruto actually blushed, forcing her to sit forward and take him seriously. "Don't tell him, but I've been studying."
"Really?"
"Yeah, I took some remedial lessons in between my training this month. Iruka sensei was real cool about it, didn't tell anyone or judge me."
She smiled at him, an honest smile to show she was genuine.
"I'm proud of you."
The teen blushed and looked away from her.
"Y-yeah, well, thanks." He smiled back, a bit too embarrassed to be one of his sunnier expressions, but she caught the underlying feelings. "Don't know if I ever told you, but I dig the longer hair."
She snorted.
"Why thank you, I've only had it a year now."
"Hey, better late than never!"
"I don't think you're the one who gets to say that."
"Well, I don't see why-"
She waited for him to continue. Instead, he stood.
"Hm, Naruto?"
"Well, well." He looked down to her and offered out his hand. "I think we should greet the new arrivals."
She turned towards the gates as she took his hand, and she saw the same as him. The black figures were hard to make out in the dark, especially given the small snowstorm that'd kicked up in the past half hour. Past that, though, they managed to cut a rather imposing figure, dashing along the pathway just outside.
Her face lit up as she stepped forward, Naruto hot on her heels.
They walked quickly, though they didn't quite run. She was fairly sure they lacked the energy for it, honestly.
The black figures closed in, and she found herself shouting out.
"Someone sure took his time!"
If Sasuke was surprised to see them, he didn't show it. Instead, the gentle smile he shot to the both of them was almost pristine, contrasted against the white snow falling all around them.
She had to say he was more gorgeous, though.
Naruto shot Sasuke a smile, but walked over towards Tenten and Lee, hugging the both of them as they recounted their tale. Sakura appreciated it, honestly. She wasn't going to waste having some brief alone time with Sasuke.
She leaned in close and watched with amusement as his face heated up.
Honestly, I don't get why you're shirking away. She thought as she pressed her lips against his. I'm just warming you up.
She loved the way he immediately surrendered to her. She'd never considered herself a particularly dominant person, but she'd realized a bit tentatively, around three months into their relationship, that Sasuke wasn't ever going to make a move on her of his own volition. That wasn't his fault, not really, because he was shy and socially inept.
And so, it had fallen to her to wear the pants in their relationship, and if that meant being a little more aggressive than she would've normally been, then so be it. It probably helped that Anko had been an influence in her life as well, the woman hadn't so much as altered her old, people-pleasing personality as she had taken a sledgehammer to it.
Which had perhaps had a hand in making Sakura just the tiniest bit more forward…
She parted from him a few seconds later and didn't miss the way Sasuke leant into her minutely, trying to recapture her lips with his own.
"So greedy." She flirted under her breath, loud enough for him to hear alone.
"S-sorry." He murmured quietly, looking away from her with rapidly reddening cheeks and causing the predator inside her to want to capture his lips once more. "It's just… been a while, I was…"
"It's fine, it's fine." She shook her head. "We'll have time later; I still want to say hi to everyone else."
He nodded to show he understood, before breaking off and saying hello to Naruto, hugging the boy and joking lightly with him. In the meantime, she walked over to two of her best friends these past few years.
She was proud to see the new headbands each of them wore just below their hairlines, each sporting the crest of the Leaf Village proudly.
"Hey, Sakura." Kin spoke, smiling widely as she brought her into a tight hug. "Heh, it's been a while. How was your check-up?"
"Same as ever." She went along with the small talk. "Tsunade poked and prodded, and said it probably wasn't healthy for me before she sent me on my way."
Zaku let out a laugh at that.
"Sounds like every other session."
"By the way, I forgot to ask last month," She stepped towards him, taking his right arm in her hand, and observing it carefully. "But was Tsunade able to remove the wind-tunnels? I know she said it was risky…"
The boy smirked, before he held up his hand to her. Where there had once been a hole, there was now flesh substitute. It was an ugly gray in color, certainly, but she couldn't deny the honest smile that came to her face.
The signs that you served Orochimaru… that he owned you…
"They're gone." She remarked with an almost tearful smile. "I'm so happy for you."
The teen blushed, rubbing the back of his neck underneath his longer hair, which reached to the end of his neck.
"Thanks." He seemed to find his words a few seconds later. "Can't say I'm thrilled, exactly, but… It does feel good. I had to practically force myself to take the anesthetic, but… For once, it turned out okay. " He smiled easily as he turned towards Kin. "Feels like we're real Leaf ninja now."
Zaku's teammate nodded back to him.
"By the way," Kin asked. "how've you been?"
"Eh… alright, I guess?" She shivered slightly. "OK, fine. Cold, tired, and crabby, if I'm being honest."
Kin and Zaku both laughed.
"I feel that." Zaku admitted. "I know we were out there a month, but it honestly felt more like a year. Thought it'd never end."
"Yeah, I think our whole group was feeling that by the end," A memory flashed through Kin's eyes. "Especially with that whole buzz-saw-trap-thing that we ran into, you remember?"
Zaku shivered, though, unlike her, she had a feeling it wasn't from the cold.
"For the love of all that is sacred… please don't remind me." Zaku groaned out. "Sasuke was healing my ass for I don't even know how long after that shit."
She found herself laughing as she looked back towards the remainder of the group, who were breaking off and heading back towards the Leaf Village. She wasn't surprised to find Naruto and Tenten walking back together, those who had always had an odd friendship, though she was a bit surprised to see Lee and Sasuke conversing.
She wasn't sure what those two would have to talk about, but she was honestly too exhausted to really care.
"Alright, I wasn't expecting to be this damned tired, but I am." She apologized. "I'm sorry to cut our reunion short, I feel a bit bad, but-"
"Honestly, don't." Zaku snickered. "I was about three sentences away from making a break for my bedroom."
"Same here." Kin exclaimed with a nod. "Go get some sleep. We can all talk more tomorrow."
She smiled as she drew her hands into her coat's pockets, stepping away from the old sound members and back towards the Village.
"Alright, I'll be seeing you, then."
"Likewise."
/-/
Naruto tried desperately to ignore the knocking on his door come the morning, but whoever was summoning him was both quite determined and reeeeaaaally annoying.
"Ugh, I'm coming!" He shouted in no particular direction as the incessant noise droned on. He barely even had the patience to slip on a pair of pants before he wrenched open his door, prepared to kill whoever was on the other side.
It was about who he'd expected.
"Yo." Jiraiya smirked at him, in a way that let Naruto know he'd definitely meant to annoy him. "Took you long enough."
He took a deep, meditative breath, and reminded himself that, if push came to shove, he'd probably lose if he tried to murder the man in front of him.
"What?" He instead asked about as politely as he could manage, which was to say he growled the words out.
"Tsunade wants you and your team to report to her." He gestured with his thumb towards the building that hung in the background. "Didn't say why, though I've got a pretty good idea."
He considered that for a moment, before sighing and heading back into his room, grabbing one of his normal orange and black jackets. He'd outgrown the blue, or, at least, Sakura had told him he'd outgrown the blue, and even if he agreed somewhat, he'd thought it was a bit stupid that she said nothing to her boyfriend, who wore almost exclusively that same color.
"So what's this about?"
"No clue."
He paused for a moment.
"You said you had a guess a minute ago."
"Yeah, I have a guess, but where's the fun in ruining the surprise."
He considered the logistics of strangling Jiraiya where he stood, but ultimately decided against it.
"Fine." He muttered quietly.
"I'm going."
/-/
He wasn't the only one yawning as he pulled into Tsunade's office. The rest of Team 7 was present, sans Kakashi, who'd been, apparently, on a fairly highly classified mission for a few weeks now.
It was early in the morning, the sun having barely risen over the horizon, and to Naruto, at least, that meant that whatever Tsunade was about to give them was probably something she wanted started today.
Which sucked. He had no energy at all.
"Thank you for coming, you three." Tsunade smiled at them, and just a bit of his annoyance at her evaporated. "I apologize for summoning you this early, but I've a fairly urgent task to give to the three of you."
He stood a bit straighter. It wasn't shocking news, given that Tsunade trusted Team 7 more than they had any real right to be trusted, but he quietly hoped it wasn't some super important secret mission, since their whole friend group had been planning to go out later that day.
"As you may well know, the last Chuunin Exams were held almost two and a half years ago now, right here in the Leaf Village."
They nodded. It'd been a pretty big event for all of them.
"At the time, it led to the destabilization of the Leaf for a long period. Luckily, both the Sand and the Sound Villages were too inconvenienced to really take advantage of that at the time. We were able to avoid an international incident by immediately signing a deal of alliance with the Sand as well, preventing us from being invaded by either the Stone or Cloud."
They nodded; a bit unsure as to why they were receiving a history lesson of all things.
"Well, it's been two years since then, and in that time, we've both managed to stabilize the Leaf, and make true steps towards peace with the Sand. A peace we are now looking to utilize, and show off to the world."
"A show of strength?" Sasuke questioned.
"And of unity." Tsunade added. "We're looking to hold a joint Leaf-Sand Chuunin Exams."
Naruto nodded, as did the rest of the group. It made sense, and it'd been quite a while since the last one.
Tsunade held her right hand out and pointed towards the three of them.
"And you're going to be some of the people in charge of organizing it."
There was a moment when Naruto turned to look behind him, because surely, he must've missed someone else in the room.
There was no one.
"I'm talking to you, Naruto."
He turned back around with breakneck speed, and did, in fact, almost injure his neck.
"WHAT!?" He shouted, pointing to himself rather incredulously. "Why me, or, why us!?"
"Actually, I can answer that rather easily." She reached over to the left side of her desk and pressed on a button. "Send them in."
Team 7 turned back towards the door, each with varying degrees of surprise. They waited a good fifteen seconds before they heard the knob turn, and in walked three figures, two of which Naruto hadn't seen in quite some time.
"I've brought them, Lady Tsunade." Shizune spoke as she crossed the room and stood beside her master.
"Thank you." The Hokage responded simply. "Now, back to your question. Why you, you asked?"
The new arrivals let out small bits of laughter.
"Because we were told to get people of at least Chuunin rank from the Leaf Village." Kankuro answered rather simply.
"And you three were the first to come to mind." Gaara finished, smiling gently.
"Gaara? Kankuro?" He was a bit surprised to see the red head and his brother, though both had certainly grown both taller and broader over the two years since he'd seen them last. "So… you guys are…?"
"We're the Exams committee, in a manner of speaking." Kankuro answered. "We're here on orders from the Suna council."
"Oh? I wasn't aware they could boss around the 'interim Kazekage's' like that." Tsunade voiced playfully.
"They can't, well, technically, but we don't have much say yet, so-"
"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait!" Naruto felt like his entire world view was exploding. "I-interim Kazekage? Who?"
"Myself, Kankuro, and Temari." Gaara explained. "With Temari acting as the current Kazekage."
He blanked.
"Huh?"
"It's complicated." Kankuro sighed out. "Basically, the title of Kazekage is an inherited one in the Sand Village. The moment our father died, there could only ever be three Kazekage's for this generation, Myself, Temari, or Gaara."
He nodded, still a bit dumbfounded. He decided not to think too hard on the lack of any real melancholy or guilt from either of the two before him as they mentioned their father's untimely demise.
"Temari volunteered for the position, ever since Gaara lost a bit of powers thanks to that Jiraiya guy sealing Shukaku away, she's been stepping in to try and keep him safe. She figured this was just a natural expansion of that, I guess. Added onto that, Gaara doesn't really want to be Kazekage."
Gaara nodded at that. At that moment, Naruto chose to ignore the way that made him feel.
"That's cool of her." Sakura spoke up. "She seemed to be the protective type back when we fought her in the forest."
"Weren't you passed out for, like… most of that?" Sasuke turned to her.
Sakura shushed him.
"Anyways, the problem with that is that the council wants Gaara as Kazekage. Even without all of Shukaku's powers, he still dwarfs me and Temari in raw strength. Not to mention he's the youngest, so they probably figure they can manipulate him a bit more than me, and especially Temari. Still, they can't just say that, political power-plays and what not, so instead, they've accepted all of us in as 'Interim Kazekage's' and are letting us all take turns with the position, in the hopes that they can eventually convince Gaara to accept it, while carefully denying my and Temari's attempts to do the same."
Naruto blinked.
"Sounds ridiculously complicated."
"It's even worse in person." Kankuro assured him. "Anyways, back to the topic at hand."
"We're here to gather the aid of Konoha's ninjas, in accordance with the joint exams." Gaara explained. "In short, we'll be setting up an exam that uses both the Leaf and the Sands territories as testing grounds. And when we were told to get some of you guys to help, we picked you. We've worked with you plenty of times in the past after all."
He recalled their escape from the Akatsuki, and Zabuza's death. They'd not parted on the best of terms the last time they'd seen one another, through no fault of theirs.
"Well, you'll be helping us with the exams, since this is more of a Sand peace offering than a Leaf set-up. We're handling most of the work, and most of the exams will be set up in Suna itself. You guys just need to handle the first section. You remember ours, presumably?"
It'd been a written test, and oh boy did Naruto remember it. He'd… very vaguely gotten some of the questions, but the tenth one… that'd been the doozy.
"We'd need to create our own test?" Sakura asked, looking just the slightest bit dismayed. "Shouldn't that kind of thing be left up to… like… Jonin?"
"Actually, it's usually left up to Tokubetsu Jonin, who specialize in different fields." Tsunade explained. "But this time, I thought that the three of you could handle it when they suggested you, so I went along with it."
Naruto nodded a bit dumbly.
"O…kay…"
"At the end of the day, though, it's up to you whether you take this on or not." Tsunade explained once more, leaning on her elbow as she gave them a once over. "So, to summarize." She cleared her throat as she addressed them officially. "Team 7… your mission will be to organize the first test of the joint Leaf-Sand Chuunin Exams. You will be holding that first test here in Konoha, and then traveling to Sunagakure with the rest of the proctor's to oversee the next stage of testing. You will be in command of a security unit and will be able to issue them orders as you see fit. When the exams have finished, you will return here."
Naruto gulped.
"Do the three of you accept?"
He turned towards the others, for really, this wasn't a decision he had any right to be making by himself. Despite what he'd pictured, however, he was met with reassuring expressions, even from Gaara and Kankuro.
"It's your goal to be Hokage, right?" Sasuke spoke, tilting his head. "In that case, we can't turn down leadership opportunities, then, can we?"
His mouth hung open slightly as Sakura giggled as well.
"No, I don't think we can. Well, Naruto, don't you have something to tell Lady Tsunade?"
He looked over at the woman, who was shooting him an expectant look over her crossed hands. She nodded, as if to say, 'go on'.
"I… no." Naruto shook his head, smiling. He looked back up and gave his best sun-filled smile.
"We accept!"
/-/
An Anbu stepped into the twelfth training ground without any ceremony.
His job today was rather simple, acting only as a messenger of the Hokage.
He traveled through a dark building constructed in the middle of the grounds, a rather simple set-up meant to emulate an assassination or infiltration situation. The lights were off, but he could hear the sounds of combat in the distance, proof enough that someone, somewhere was using the facility.
It was, presumably, who he'd been sent to find.
He followed the noise, using it to navigate through the tight and maze-like corridors. Eventually, the sounds of battle drew so close he could feel the clash of steel in his teeth. Finally, he stepped inside the doorway into a small isolated room, where a young adult stood silently, having cut down the last training dummy in the area. What he was training for wasn't exactly a mystery, to challenge another who wielded a blade tied to his.
To strike him down.
"Excuse me." He kneeled before him, despite outranking the man. "I come bearing orders from the Hokage."
The man at back of the chamber said nothing, but he did incline his head slightly. He was, seemingly, listening.
"You have been assigned to a security detail for the upcoming Leaf-Sand Chuunin Exams. You will be under the command of Chuunin Team 7, and your mission will be to guard both them, and the Chuunin hopefuls of the Leaf and Sand Villages from outside threats."
He finished, and looked up, hoping to hear the man's acceptance before he left.
"Those three, huh?"
He felt a flash of… something fill the space around them. It wasn't killing intent, nor, really, was it aggressive in any way. If he had to describe it… it would've been a chill down his spine.
A literal chill.
"I take it I'm being sent because, by placing two Jinchuuriki in the same place, they're expecting interference?"
"I wouldn't know." He answered honestly.
The man in front of him let out a mirthless chuckle.
He rose steadily, gripping onto the massive handle of the even more massive blade he wielded. He held the thing with one hand, a feat that seemed almost impossible as he dragged it out from the floor, even as it left a foot-long divot missing in the stone below.
He slung the blade along his shoulder, and the Anbu watching got his first good look at the thing. It was titanic in size, a good two meters in length. What it lacked in practicality, it more than made up for in intimidation. Ice ran up it's backside, culminating in a makeshift guard that resembled more of a spike than anything.
The man at the back of the room finally turned to face him as he latched the blade onto his back, and his cold amber eyes locked onto the Anbu's own, causing him to swallow on some spittle in his mouth.
"Understood." Haku Momochi called to him in a voice like chipped ice itself.
"Tell her I accept."
End Chapter 59
Yo!
So, big question out of the way, no, I didn't get the year wrong! We aren't at the start of Shippuden's canon yet, and it'll be another year before we arrive.
Before you worriedly say "Does that mean a year's worth of arcs before then!?", No! this is going to be the only arc before we head back to canon material. This is actually a filler arc from the anime, though I'd understand if you'd never watched it, given it comes during the war arc, seconds after Naruto and Sasuke actually fucking die.
So, y'know, one or two of you might not've watched the twenty or so episode arc that appears before you can go back to see what happens next.
It won't play out the same, obviously (In the anime, Shikamaru and Temari team up to plan this section of the exams, but as Shikamaru's a Genin, and Temari is the Kazekage (title pending) they sort of can't make that work), but I wanted to give you guys some time to relax a bit as well. Things have been hectic in this story for the last while, flowing from battlefield to battlefield. We should have a while before that starts up again... probably.
Not that the drama will be any easier to deal with. If anything, that'll be much worse.
Going to also say that a reworked version of my first chapter should be out now! It's replaced the old chapter 1. It's not so different, but it takes away all mentions of physical abuse, which, y'know, were dumb. If you wanna read that, jump back about 58 chapters.
See you all next week!