Naruto felt that there was something very wrong with his current situation.
Temari had stated in no uncertain terms that Itachi was to have nothing to do with food shopping, and as Kisame was unnecessarily conspicuous, this meant Naruto had the 'privilege' of helping her shop while Itachi was 'punished' by being 'forced' to sit around camp relaxing and playing his guitar.
Something very wrong indeed.
Not that he really minded shopping all that much, it just didn't seem quite fair how things had worked out.
"Hello?" A voice interrupted his thoughts, "can I help you?"
Naruto blinked at the fishmonger, "Uh…yeah, give me some of…that," he said, gesturing towards one of the many bins filled with various varieties of fish.
The man smiled, "Sure thing, lad. How much would you like?"
"Give me…two fishes worth, I guess"
Despite having spent some time in the town already, Naruto still jumped slightly when the monger pulled out two 4-foot knives. Kisame had warned him that people in the country of water tended towards larger utensils as well as weapons, but it still took some getting used to.
Just looking down the street, he could see a woman in a food stand cooking on a grill with a spatula longer than Naruto was tall. Across the street a man was eating with chopsticks longer than his arm and beside him a young boy eating with a 3-foot fork.
"Done!"
A bundle of brown paper was tossed to Naruto so he caught it with one hand and dropped it into his bag of foodstuffs before handing the monger some money. If he found their oversized tools slightly odd, he had to admit that they were incredibly efficient.
Now armed with fish, he had almost everything on his list, with only cheese remaining to be found. It was, however, his suspicion that his last quarry might be more difficult to track down at a reasonable price. He looked up at the sky and calculated that he had about an hour before he needed to be back at camp.
Nodding to himself, he set off in search of dairy.
In an alley just down the street, a young face peeked out from behind the wall and watched him as he made his way down the street. Seeing as how he was in a city filled with giant knives and swords, Naruto felt no concern wearing Seirei Kirite out in the open, but as a girl stepped out from the alley into the street her eyes were fixated on it, and she slowly clenched her fists.
/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/
Temari, being a kunoichi, was a very disciplined individual.
But here she found herself unwatched in a city of very nice clothes stores with money. A lot of money. Money that wasn't hers.
Her self-control was weakening.
Before she could give in, Temari started running back towards the outskirts of town and eventually camp, trying to distance herself from temptation. She would be early, arriving back long before she and Naruto had agreed, but she had nothing more to do in the city and could look forward to a nap before supper was prepared.
/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/
This, Naruto decided, was a great day.
Not only had he gotten cheese, but after letting a storekeeper admire his sword, he had gotten top quality cheese at half price!
He half-skipped down the street carrying his bag of food, and was sure that nothing could possibly ruin his day.
Unfortunately, he was wrong.
He had not gone two blocks when he felt that little tug in his mind that told him all was not as it should be.
As for his pursuer, she was quite sick of following this boy around as he apparently went shopping and had closed the gap considerably; being unaware she had been detected.
Not wanting to spook whoever it was, Naruto was careful not to look behind him, but sped up as he made his way through the crowd. He continued to feel that tug at his senses, and so he made a sudden turn onto a side street and sped up again.
As he got further away from the downtown throng, Naruto started to reach out with his senses while winding into more and more remote areas of the city. Eventually, he turned into a deserted alley and just stood, waiting for his unknown shadow to make a move.
Far above him she crouched on a rooftop. It was obvious she had been somehow discovered, but she wasn't about to let some common grave robber get the best of her. Running through some seals, she spoke at just above a whisper, "Kirigakure no Jutsu," and drew two oversized curved scimitars from sheathes on her back as the mist rolled in.
She hadn't seen the boy wearing a forehead protector, so he probably had no idea what kind of sword he had. Luckily for her, it also probably meant he wouldn't know how or even have the strength to wield it.
Taking a deep calming breath, she jumped silently down into the fog, landing a good thirty feet behind her prey. He wasn't moving, which she found odd, since most people tried to find their way out of the mist, but she wasn't going to be so easily unnerved.
She advanced cautiously as she had been trained, waiting for there to be movement, but there was none. She closed to within a few feet and heard for the first time the voice of her target.
Naruto was annoyed. He had gone out of his way, he was hungry, and his cheese wasn't going to stay fresh forever, "Enough of these games. What do you want?"
The response came in the sound of a young girls voice that came from all directions, obviously trained to use echoes to hide her location, "I'm not going to waste my voice ofon grave robbing scum like you. If you have any last words, say them now!"
Naruto set down his food carefully, "Well, I'm not sure who you are, but you seem quite determined, so come on then
Bristling at his arrogance, she lunged forward with a low crosscut, hoping to take out his hamstrings
Naruto allowed half a second to admire her technique, then his fighting instincts kicked in. He started to turn while tearing his sword out of its restraints and twisting to parry her thrust with a vertical up-slice.
They were deadlocked for a fraction of a second, allowing both combatants to get a look at each other, and Naruto was surprised to see that his opponent looked to be no older than himself and wore a mist forehead protector. Not being one to ponder such things, however, he let a bit of chakra leak out and pushed, breaking the deadlock, her swords, and sent his unfortunate assailant hurling backwards.
Hitting the ground and rolling to a rather painful stop, she stared at her shattered blades with combination of disbelief and horror. These were swords that had been passed down through three generations of her family and survived four wars, only to be casually shattered by some thug.
No, she amended as she pulled herself to her feet; he was more than a thug. She hadn't seen his swordplay, but its results were enough of a testament to his skill. She closed her eyes, "Before you kill me, tell me at least who you are. In all hidden mist no one but my uncle was able to control that sword"
Naruto walked out of the mist rolling his eyes, "Don't be melodramatic, I'm not going to kill you. I am however interested in what you said about your uncle. I didn't know Zabuza had any relatives"
This made her pause and her aura changed completely, "You knew uncle Zabu?"
For Naruto, it was a truly surreal moment. He was fully aware of the severity of the situation, but having this girl who had just tried to kill him speak so lightly while using a pet name for one of the most frightening men Naruto had ever met almost made him burst out laughing.
"You could say I knew him"
And so an awkward silence ensued.
"Um…I'm Mako…Momochi Mako, and um…"
"You're a genin?"
"Yes…"
Naruto scratched his head; "Consider this a free lesson then. Don't attack someone unless you have some idea of how powerful they are, otherwise you really will end up getting killed someday. Where's your teacher anyway? It's their job to stop you from doing stupid things like this"
She flushed, "We're on a B-rank mission, but it doesn't start until later tonight. I saw you carrying uncle Zabu's sword (Naruto again fought the urge to laugh) and since it was marking his grave last I saw, I knew you must have taken it and you had no forehead protector so I figured you'd come here to sell it on the black market"
Naruto went around collecting the shards of Mako's two scimitars while trying to make sense of her rambling, "To be correct, it's my sword, and I would sell my kidneys long before I'd think of selling Seirei Kirite"
"Spirit Cutter? You renamed it!"
"Actually, it kinda renamed itself"
"Huh?"
Naruto sighed, "VERY long story. Suffice it to say that I mean Zabuza-san no disrespect at all, quite the opposite in fact, but either way the sword is mine now, and I am late for dinner"
"Hey! You can't just beat me up, break my swords, then leave!"
He dropped the fragments on the ground in front of her, "You're kidding right? You attacked me, accept responsibility for your foolishness"
With that, he walked over, picked up his food bag, and started on his way, leaving a still somewhat flabbergasted Genin behind him.
"Hey! HEY! Get back here! Are you listening to me?"
Naruto looked back with exasperation, "No, I'm not, and what exactly are you going to do about it?"
"I'll follow until you talk to me"
"What's to say I won't just get annoyed and kill you first?"
"You don't seem to me to be the kind of person who would do that"
Naruto cursed silently, she was right, "Well then, what do you expect of me? Do you want money or something?"
Mako started to wring her hands, "Well…you seem pretty strong and I was wondering if you might help with our mission"
"Come again?"
"I'm serious! Our teacher is confident but I'm worried that this one might be more than we can handle"
"So naturally the obvious thing to do is ask a complete stranger for help" Naruto said with obvious sarcasm, "did it ever occur to you that I might be an enemy shinobi sent here on a mission or to spy?"
"………no"
And so another awkward silence ensued.
"Are you an enemy shinobi here on some secret mission?"
"NO!"
"Then why did you bring it up?"
Naruto's eyebrow started to twitch, "To make a point, it being that you have absolutely no idea who you're dealing with"
She crossed her arms, "You're at least as strong as a chuunin, so I really don't care who you are if you'll help me"
"How bout this, you can come with me back to my campsite, I can eat supper, and you tell me about this mission"
Mako immediately changed back to being happy, "Okay then!"
Naruto again started to walk, grumbling as he went, "at least as strong as a chuunin...sheesh"
/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/
Itachi was the first to sense Naruto's approach, but felt another's presence and jumped up to a tree branch to look.
His eye's widening slightly, he jumped back down and poked Kisame, "Hey, Naruto brought someone back, a mist-nin"
Temari looked from her nap, "So? maybe he made a friend"
Kisame was less calm, "WHAT! Is he crazy? I've gotta hide somewhere"
Itachi continued on, "And its a girl"
Kisame continued to look shaken, "How is that relevant? It's a mist nin!"
Temari, however, went rigid at this additional information, "WHAT THE HELL IS HE DOING?"
With now both Kisame and Temari in mild hysterics, Itachi smiled to himself. It was fun being him.
Looking around and seeing no places to hide at ground level, Kisame jumped up into the trees.
Only seconds later, Naruto emerged from the foliage and collapsed next to Itachi, followed closely by a far more energetic Mako.
The fox boy held out his bag of food, "Your turn to cook tonight, Weasel-man"
With a small sigh, Itachi took the foodstuffs, "Ok then, but I'm rather curious as to the identity of our guest"
Not the type of person to let herself be introduced, Mako jumped forward, "Don't mind me, Naruto-kun is helping me with a mission later tonight so I'm just passing the ti..." she stopped, re-examined the person she was speaking too, and her mouth formed an 'O', "your Uchiha Itachi, aren't you?"
Itachi almost dropped his bag of food, "How did you..."
She pointed behind him, leading everyone on the ground to follow her gaze to a tree upon which was leaned a half-wrapped Samehada
Violent swearing could be heard from above them and Kisame dropped down, "Dammit, Naruto! The least you could have done was give us some war..."
Kisame found himself faced with a set of huge sparkly star-filled eyes, "UWAAAAAAIIIII...IcantbelieveyourreallyheremynameisMakoanditsnicetomeetyouand...and...I'm your biggest fan!"
Temari had been quietly simmering, but she was the first one to sort out the jumble of words that Mako had just spewed. However, as said jumble of words had only the most marginal resemblance to an actual structured sentence, it took Itachi, Kisame and Naruto a few more seconds. The shark man just stood there looking stunned for a moment, then shook his head, "Excuse me?"
The girl was blushing red as a fire hydrant and looked slightly dizzy, and Kisame reached a hand to steady her, which she immediately appeared fascinated with, "Kisame-sama...is TOUCHING me"
THUNK
And she fainted dead away.
Kisame scratched his head, "Am I the only one who finds this situation really wierd"
The other three shook their heads slowly. Naruto looked around, "Sooooo, how about some supper? I got good cheese"
/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/
The smells coming from the tinfoil dinners cooking on the fire were slowly wafting through the air and drawing noses as close to the fire as they could go without being burnt. Naruto stared at what would be his dinner as if it held the secrets of the universe, "So, what exactly is this, Itachi?"
The Uchiha looked up from his re-arranging the coals, "I took whatever fish that was you bought"
"Salmon," Kisame interjected
"I took the," Itachi nodded in Kisame's direction, "Salmon, seasoned the inside with some herbs Temari bought, stuffed them with some of that cheese, spiced the outsides a little bit too, and wrapped them in tinfoil with some carrots and thinly sliced potatoes"
Naruto brightened, "Amazing. It's like something a chef would prepare"
Kisame grinned, "If you're going to have to make all your meals yourself, they may as well be good ones"
Temari looked up from her task with a look of mild irritation, "Why am I searching the girl, shouldn't Naruto be the one dealing with his guest?"
Since she could only see his back, Temari failed to notice when Kisame's grin became more sharky, "Are you saying you'd want Naruto to search an unconscious girl who's only wearing what I must say is quite a form fitting ninja uniform?"
The sand girl examined what Mako was wearing, blushed, balled up her hands into fists, blushed deeper, and under her breath told Kisame to do various things that would be excruciatingly painful if even physically possible.
Through all this, the shark man continued to grin, "I thought not"
And so Temari went about her searching while everyone else stared at the food. One would initially think that Temari got the short end of the stick in this situation, but her search soon revealed something far more interesting than even Itachi's masterfully prepared cuisine.
"Ok, people, you have to see this"
Dragging themselves away from the succulent scent of cooking fish, Naruto and Kisame went and looked over Temari's shoulder at what she held in her hand.
It was a picture of Kisame torn from what looked to be a bingo book. Someone had drawn a flower border on it. Naruto snickered while Kisame paled.
Continuing to dig, Temari emerged moments later with a small pocket book entitled: Who's who in the seven swordsmen of the mist. Flipping through the book, there were notes on almost every page.
Zabuza's page had the title Zabuza: Demon of the Mist crossed out and Uncle Zabu written in a flowing cursive, causing both Temari and Kisame to snicker, at least until they reached Kisame's page, which had yet another full color picture, this one covered in comments such as: Well toned muscles, perfect height, cute ass
The list went on, but Naruto and Temari found themselves rather hung up on the cute ass comment. Kisame looked back at the Uchiha tending to the fire pit, leaned over and whispered, "I will give you anything to not show Itachi these"
Itachi having much better hearing than Kisame gave him credit for was, of course, immediately interested, "Not show me what?"
Jumping almost a foot in the air, Kisame rushed to grab the offending material but knocked into the sleeping Mako by accident, causing her to stir and slowly rejoin the land of the waking.
For the second time that day, Kisame found himself faced with huge sparkly eyes, "It wasn't a dream…Kisame-sama really is here"
Naruto tilted his head, "Your not going to faint again, are you?"
Itachi got up and started towards the huddle, "Not show me what!"
Mako looked she was about to answer Naruto when she noticed what Temari was holding and gasped, "AHH! How did you get those!"
Sensing that the group was teetering on the edge of chaos, Temari held up a hand, "Everybody STOP"
/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/
Ten minutes later, food was distributed and Kisame and Mako were far enough apart to prevent future incidents of fainting.
"I'm sorry I didn't recognize you, Mako-chan, but the last time I saw you would have been…"
Mako looked at the ground, "When I was six. I went to a dinner hosted by the Mizukage with Uncle Zabu and sat next to you"
Kisame suddenly laughed, "I remember, you were the one who choked on her milk during the Mizukage's speech"
Listening to the conversation, Itachi and Temari finally caught on. The Uchiha nodded slowly, "So your Zabuza's niece…and I suppose you want help with this mission later because…"
Mako crossed her arms and huffed, "Naruto took one of the most legendary relics of my family and broke two others, the least he can do is help me with one measly mission"
"For the record," Naruto semi-growled, "your swords broke when you tried to sneak-attack me! Besides, can't you get them re-forged?"
"Still…they'll never be as good as they were originally"
Kisame picked up one of the pieces and examined it, "Wrong there, little girl. These are decent weapons, but not extraordinary. Particularly not since Naruto broke them as easily as he did. Even I could do a better job than this if I put my mind to it…"
Kisame trailed off as he realized from Naruto's facial expression that he had said something rather foolish.
"Oh no…"
"Why not?" Naruto inquired, "I'll drag Temari along on this mission tonight, leaving you and Itachi with plenty of free time"
"Yes but…"
"No buts. Think of it as a chance to pay back an admirer" Naruto smirked, "an admirer who thinks you have a cute ass"
Mako's face looked like a tomato, "I wrote that when I was ten years old! Can't a girl keep her childhood crushes to herself"
"So…Naruto, how are Mako's sword skills?" Kisame said in an obvious attempt to change the subject
Naruto leaned back and stretched, "Hmm…she's pretty fast, but her actions are as predictable as Itachi's in a candy store"
Hearing this, Itachi grabbed some Pocky and started to munch, "Some day I'll get you all back for making fun of me…"
"…As I was saying, her actions are too predictable," he turned to the mist girl, "though you might be happy know that the parry I used on you was one of the ones Kisame taught me, or rather, that he used on me and I learned. It worked as well on me as it did on you, except that my sword is stronger than yours were"
Mako started to pout; "Still…I got beaten so easily by someone barely older than me"
Finishing his fish, Kisame joined Naruto in reclining and looked at the sky, "So Mako, when do you have to meet your team for this supposedly dangerous B-rank mission?"
"Pretty soon actually, I should brief Naruto and Temari-san," she looked at them, "If you don't mind?"
/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/
The two Nukenin had the mission explained to them as they walked towards the south edge of the city.
"It's really a pretty simple mission," Mako said with a sigh, "there is a group of bandits who make their base and operate far too close to the city. We were hired by the Poohbah in control of this area to eliminate them"
"Poohbah?" Temari asked
"Oh…I keep forgetting you two aren't from around here. Poohbah, or 'Pooh' for short is the title given to the lesser officials who run the cities and rural areas. The one who hired us is named Vincent, and he really is a pretty decent ruler if you can get passed his weirdness"
Mako shook her head, "But anyway, the band who we were assigned to eliminate has no known shinobi affiliated with it but contains over seventy men and is well armed, trained and equipped, which is why the local guard haven't been able to do anything about them"
"So essentially," Naruto said, "You just want our support in case your team gets in over your heads?"
Mako smiled, "Right! I'm still a bit worried, but I'll feel much better if I know you're nearby in case something goes wrong"
They stopped as they neared their destination and Mako ran ahead of the other two, "I need to go meet my team now, so if you two could take up positions now, that'd be great. It won't be hard to find the bandits, and we'll be there soon. Hopefully, you two will never have to reveal yourselves"
With that, the mist girl bounded off into the city.
/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/
Kisame examined the shattered swords with a frown, "Ne, Itachi, I hope your well rested, cause I'm gonna need some of that fire you throw so well"
Itachi looked up from his guitar, "The Amaterasu is not for forging swords. Don't you know any fire jutsus?"
"None that I can use without the risk of burning the forest down. Controlling fire jutsus isn't something I've ever really practiced. Come to think of it, I haven't really practiced my weapon smithing recently either"
Itachi set down his instrument, "So really, we're just making it up as we go along?"
"Yeah, pretty much"
The Sharingan user let out a slow breath, "Ok then, let's get started"
/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/
Mako stared at her teacher in shock, "What!"
"You heard me," He said slowly, "after further consideration, your fears have some merit to them, so were going to hold off the attack and call for another team or two"
"But…we can't…I mean…"
The jounin sighed, "You're the one who suggested it, so don't complain when we follow your advice!"
Mako fell to her knees, "No…way," she took a breath and started to mumble to herself, "still…they should be able to handle themselves and they'll soon notice that we're not coming as long as they don't reveal their location"
/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/
South of the city in the bandit camp, Naruto and Temari sat in a cage.
Naruto leaned against the bars, "Somehow, I just knew this was going to be one of those days…"
"Well, it's our fault for being detected, we shouldn't have underestimated them"
"Still…we could have fought back a little…" Naruto mumbled, only to be smacked on the head
"If we put up any major resistance we would have put them on high alert and made Mako's mission that much more difficult. Besides, this cage is probably more comfortable than wherever else we'd be hiding and as an added bonus, we don't have to worry about being seen"
A guard walked over and banged on the bars, knocking Naruto over, "Hey! Prisoner's who want to stay alive shouldn't talk"
Naruto could see Seirei Kirite only ten feet away and fought very hard to not let the Kyuubi just tear the guard to shreds, finally cooling his head as the man went back to his post.
Time passed and the two Nukenin were just starting to wonder what had happened to Mako and her team when the annoying guard came back, "Alrighty, brats. The boss said he wants to see you one at a time," the guard looked between them, his eyes settling lecherously on Temari.
For the second time that day, Naruto almost killed the bastard, but Temari grabbed his arm firmly and whispered in his ear, "I can deal with any situations that come up, so promise you'll control yourself"
Naruto gave her a look that suggested he would do no such thing, but again calmed himself down, allowing the guards to handcuff Temari and lead her out of the cage towards a ring of tents where the elite of the bandits lived. She was half pulled along until finally they reached the largest tent of them all and she was pushed inside.
"Hello, pretty lady!"
Temari looked at the…creature…in front of her, "Why do I always meet such bizarre people?"
The king of the bandits stroked his beard thoughtfully, "Having just met you, I don't really know"
As the man moved, he jingled. The man's clothes might as well have been made of bells, since his clothes were so covered in them she could barely see any fabric at all.
"Do you always dress that way?"
"Why yes, I do. I'm just the kind of guy who likes to be noticed"
"A bandit who likes to be noticed?"
"A bandit king" he corrected her, "and for a bandit king, one's reputation is as or more important than one's fighting ability"
"I suppose…"
"Anyway, you've put me in quite a pickle, your friend and you. I really can't allow you to live after trespassing with such weapons as you had"
Temari dropped and sat cross legged on the floor, "From your perspective, I guess that's true"
The king nodded resolutely, "So I suppose all I can do is ask for your forgiveness for what I must do. I'll at least try to make it quick for you"
While he was talking, Temari was starting to think she might have to break free, but she still wanted to give Mako a chance to act, "Ne, mister bandit king, you could at least let me live a little while couldn't you? Let me have something good to eat first?"
The bandit pondered for a moment, "Sure, why not?"
He walked over to the door of the tent and opened it slightly, changing his countenance completely and saying in an exaggeratedly dark voice, "Fetch me food, WORM! I have to…entertain our beautiful guest…HA HA HA HA HA!"
Closing the tent flap, he smiled uneasily at her, "Sorry, but I have to keep up the appearance that I'm doing all kinds of unspeakable things to you, so if you could holler like your in horrible pain once in a while during dinner I'd really appreciate it"
"You're planning to kill me later!"
"It's not like particularly I want to, and at least I'm treating you civilly"
Temari slowly tuned out the rambling bandit king as something itched at the back her mind and she suddenly went rigid, "Your men think that you're doing, as you said, 'unspeakable' things to me?"
"Hmm? Oh, yeah. I talk like that, again, to boost my rep"
"So the news will be traveling around your camp?"
"Well, yeah. Gossip is a bandits best friend, though I'm slightly sorry that your friend will have to go through thinking about what might be happening to you, but I'll tell him the truth before I kill him so he can rest in peace"
Suddenly noticing Temari's unresponsiveness, he leaned toward her, "Are you feeling alright?"
When she looked up at him, the man found himself stunned at how her gaze seemed to pity him, and even more so when she spoke, "The men in your band…they're the worst of people, right?"
The bandit king was only slightly taken aback, "Pretty much. Even I have problems dealing with them sometimes." He nodded to himself, "too many in this profession forget that there should be honor among thieves, why do you ask?"
Temari spoke with a soft and solemn voice, "These unspeakable things you're supposedly doing to me…Naruto will have heard about them by now…"
As if cued by her voice, the air was suddenly filled with the sounds of mayhem.
/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/
Kisame jumped as he was singed by Ameterasu, "Shit! Itachi, Be more careful!"
The Uchiha leaned against a log breathing heavily, "Do you have ANY idea how strenuous this is?"
"Come on, stop being a baby. We're already done one the swords, so we may as well do the other"
Itachi dragged himself to his feet, "Naruto is a bad influence on me. A year ago I would have killed you by now for being so annoying"
Kisame rolled his eyes, "Whatever you say, you're still being a baby"
/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/
Mako stood in the office of Poohbah Vincent along with her team, nervously awaiting the report of a scout who had been deployed to check on the bandit's camp.
The doors slammed open and two city guards helped the young man into the room, as skin was white as chalk and his legs appeared shaky.
The Poohbah stood up and slammed his hands on the desk, "What's the meaning of this, what did you see!"
The scout looked up with vacant eyes, "Dead…all of them…dead…"
Mako's jounin teacher almost had a heart attack, "HOW! BY WHO!"
The scout shook his head, "Couldn't see…mist…didn't hang around"
The Poohbah looked around the room slowly, "There is an unknown force in my territory capable of wiping out that powerful of a group without so much as a whisper…I want to know who they are. NOW!"
Advisers and city guardsmen sprung into motion along with pretty much everyone in the room except Mako, who was staring blankly into space
They couldn't have…it's not possible…two people…that young…no older than meShe continued to repeat these mantras in her head, but her memory kept going back to when Naruto had countered her attack with what she was now realizing was terrifying ease.
/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/
The man formerly known as the bandit king stood among the ruble that had formerly been his tent and looked around at what had formerly been his group of bandits.
Many were dead, and those who weren't were dragging themselves to their feet and running away as fast as conceivably possible. The stench of blood was in the air and the occasional groan could be heard.
And in the middle of it, sat a girl. Lying down with his head in her lap was a boy, with his eyes closed and his body covered with small cuts and bruises.
The man watched them silently, his brain still not quite caught up to the reality surrounding him. As his thoughts slowly lined up in something resembling logical order, he slowly took a few steps towards the pair and noted that the boy appeared to be sleeping, his chest rising and falling slowly.
"Do you know what you have there?" He asked the girl in a quiet voice
"A boy" was the response
The man turned slowly to get the full picture of his surroundings and then refocused on the pair, "One with great power"
"Yes"
"He cares about you very much"
"I…hope so"
The man considered his surroundings again, then shook his head slowly, "I don't think you completely understand what it is that's laying with it's head in your lap"
The girl looked up at him and laughed softly, "That's probably true, but I can do my best to understand him"
"He must lead a very sad life"
"Once he did, but I'd like to think his life is improving"
The man turned and started to slowly walk away when he suddenly stopped, "You have there a person there who would wipe out a city to make you happy…"
There was silence for a moment as the man considered his next words.
"You need to guard your emotions and take responsibility for all your actions, or someday he might"
The girl watched as the man walked away, his bells jingling softly, slowly disappearing until he could no longer be seen. She looked up at the sky and rested her hand on the boy's forehead, stroking his hair softly as he slept among the dead.
/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/
Late that night, Mako slowly found her way back to where Itachi and Kisame sat packing.
Kisame looked up as she approached, "Have you seen Naruto and Temari?"
The mist girl eyes filled with tears, "I'm sorry! My teacher decided to postpone the mission and then the bandit camp was destroyed and no one knows what happened…and…and"
Kisame was about to reach forward to hold her shoulder, but remembered a certain fainting incident and his hands formed sign language,
Itachi! You should comfort her!
The Uchiha signed in response, Why me? I don't do the 'comforting' thing
Well I can't touch her!
Too bad then
Kisame gave up and tried to just talk her through it, "You worry too much, those two can handle anything the world can throw at them" then the shark man grinned and reached into his bag, "and…we finished your swords! Nothing near the quality of my brother's work, but hey, still not bad"
Like magic, the girl forgot about her concerns and snatched the swords, "…Hand forged by Kisame-sama himself…" her eyes again became starry, "I'll cherish them forever!"
The shark man sweat dropped, "Itachi helped some too"
The still chakra drained Itachi's glare bored into the back of Kisame's head
"Ok, maybe Itachi helped a lot…"
Mako stopped her cuddling of her new swords for one minute and dug through her pocket, withdrawing a business card, "Our mission was completed, but we're getting no payment since we didn't do anything. Here's the card of the Poohbah, and if you guys are subtle, he might pay you a little money under the table"
Itachi took the card, "Okay…thanks, I guess"
Kisame rubbed his head, "Um…you're not going to tell anyone I'm back in the country of water, are you? Cause that would really be a pain and…"
Mako looked horrified at the very prospect, but then smiled at him, "I'm loyal to my village, but I'm also loyal to my idols, and I don't think the two have to be mutually exclusive"
Kisame smirked, "Don't get killed, brat"
"I won't and…tell Naruto my uncle would be proud to have someone of such skill hold his sword"
She turned and ran back towards the city, bringing her hand up to her face to hide the beginnings of tears.
The two watched until she was out of earshot, then Itachi suddenly looked shifty eyed, "Are you going to tell Naruto what she said?"
Kisame snorted, "Hell no, the kid doesn't need a bigger ego than he already has"
"I think you're jealous…"
"Shut up, Itachi"
/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/
Naruto took a deep breath and jumped, falling straight down for ten feet or so and hitting the water with a violent splash. He felt his muscles lose some of their tension and opened his eyes to see the water around him turn red from the blood on his body and on the stained clothes he still wore.
Or rather, what was left of the clothes he still wore. Standing above him on the cliff, Temari's humility and desire to be clean were having a fierce battle, but one that her humility was destined to lose.
Diving into the water with significantly more grace than Naruto had done, she burst out of it giddily. "He he…so much water…water EVERYWHERE"
Naruto looked at her strangely, "Well, we are in the country of water, so one would assume that there would be a lot of water here"
"There is probably more water in this lake than there was within a hundred miles of hidden sand, so I'm allowed to enjoy it"
Ignoring her excessive enjoyment of the water, Naruto started to examine his various wounds, and Temari noticed him doing so, "How'd you get so beat up, anyway? It's not like you"
Naruto poked at his cut and bruises, "For the first little while, I was fighting armed soldiers with just my," he looked down at his hands, "claws"
"Why didn't you grab your sword? It was right there next to the cage"
" I wasn't really thinking straight at the time" At that point, his face was unreadable, but she heard something in his voice that sent a shiver down her spine
She sunk lower into the water and looked away, "I told you I could handle myself, why didn't you trust me?"
"I trusted you to act when you thought the situation was getting out of hand. I acted when the guard told me that the bandit king liked to have his dinner while forcing female prisoners to do a striptease, which was when I viewed the situation as being out of hand"
"Still…"
"In my defense, with the exception of our guard, whom I took great pleasure in killing, I didn't hurt anyone who didn't attack me first. In actual fact, despite the mess I made of the camp, more people escaped than died, and if placed in the situation again, I would do exactly the same as I did the first time"
Temari tensed as the bandit kings words echoed in her mind, "You have there a person there who would wipe out a city to make you happy…"
Unfortunately, her tension caused her muscles to cramp, the immediate and obvious result of this being her sinking like a rock.
"And anyway, Temari" Naruto looked behind him, "Temari? Hello?"
/-/-/-/Two and a Half Minutes Later/-/-/-/
Naruto did a backstroke, "You really do like the water, don't you?"
Catching her breath in the shallows, Temari glared, "Ha ha…very funny"
"Well, I thought so"
Naruto relaxed and started to float on his back in the water, "Ne, Temari, do you ever wonder what it would be like to be…normal?"
"How do you mean?"
"You know, normal. Learn math and language at school rather than killing techniques, work at jobs rather than go on missions, that kind of thing"
"Um…no, not really. Though it seems obvious you have"
"Sometimes I do, and I try to imagine people around me as well. What would Itachi be like if he had never been given a Kunai? Would he have become a scientist? Or maybe a banker? Would Kisame have become a sword smith or would he have become something like a teacher?"
Temari laughed lightly, "You really think about things like that?"
"…Do you remember when we first met? Not when we first saw each other, but when we met"
"If your referring to when you used a potent psychological attack on me, knocked me out and tied me up then yes, I do"
"Now see, whether or not you ever think about it, you score much better than average when it comes to looks, and so I like to imagine that if we lived regular lives and I had just seen you walking down the street I would think, 'Hey, that's a cute girl,' as compared to, 'crap, she's seen my face but I can't kill her', which is what I actually thought that day as you blasted away my concealing mist"
Temari was yet again blushing while cursing herself for being embarrassed over such a simple compliment, "Why would that be so different?"
"Well…we would be able to do normal things. Go to movies, hang out with friends, go for long walks on the beach…the usual stupid things teenagers do"
"I think you're looking at your life all wrong"
Naruto felt her re-enter the water, "How do you mean?"
Temari slid through the water and hugged him from behind, "Simple. First, we're going to deal with this issue you have where you only allow non-violent contact human if you're either emotionally disturbed or asleep, so I expect you to give at least three hugs a day and to try to stop avoiding touching people like you usually do now"
"Ok…"
"And secondly, this Saturday, you and I are going to a movie"
"But…"
"We'll leave Itachi and Kisame to do whatever it is they do, and I'm not taking no for an answer on this"
"So I guess I should just be quiet then?"
She rested her chin on his shoulder, "Exactly"
/-/-/-/-/-/-/Author's Notes/-/-/-/-/-/-/
This chapter is rather longer than usual, but somehow, it just seemed like splitting it up would have ruined some of the flow.
I personally thought I did some of my better work on this one, and like to think of it as a sign that I may be improving, or just that I'm becoming more easily amused (You'll have to decide for yourself)
In the last week I watched the Fullmetal Alchemist anime for the second time, and then decided to read the manga (which, for the record, is as different from the anime as NCT is from the Naruto anime. I kid you not)
Next Chapter: Naruto and Temari go to a movie and meet Vincent, Poohbah of Rivercity