Balance of Power

By Aoluas Anminti

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AN: Someone did get the Tojo reference, but the reviewed with the answer instead of e-mailing. Ah, well. By the way, it was a reference to Hideki Tojo, WWII. I guess we just don't have any history freaks reading, huh? Apologies for the chapter begining so late, but things came up. Read on, and enjoy.

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-III- INTRODUCTIONS -III-

Uzumaki-sama, Hyuuga Hinata, and Masaoka-san

Sunlight filtered in through a high window onto a futon covered, strangely enough, in a bright orange blanket. From this protruded a man's sleeping, tanned face, topped by messy blond hair. Sitting on the edge of the bed was a demure-looking woman in a casually tied white robe with short black hair, who gently ran her palm over the contours of the man's face while she considered how long it would take to wake him up this morning. Shrugging the question off, she gently nudged his shoulder.

"Naruto-sama." She murmured.

"Mmmwakings….don' talk…shleep…" He said as he hid himself beneath his covers.

"Naruto-sama, you have a meeting with Masaoka-sama this morning,"

"It's not morning 'till m'awake… and, Hinata…" he trailed off.

Hinata waited patiently. Then, when after a minute or two he hadn't continued, she asked, "And what, Naruto-sama?"

A snore answered her.

She sighed, then smiled. "Naruto-sama, really, you'll be late," a light knock came at the door. She tied her robe more securely and knelt by it, opening it slightly. "Yes?"

Masaoka Akiyoshi poked his head inside, ignoring Hinata for the moment, and looked at Naruto. Then he looked down at Hinata and gave her a cursory bow. "He's still in bed, huh?" Akiyoshi grinned. "You tired him out that much?"

Hinata felt her face flush. "Masaoka-sama…"

"Yeah, I know. That was inappropriate. Sorry. But he's late, you know. I've told him about this. He won't earn anyone's respect by sleeping in 'till the sixth hour."

Hinata blinked, then glanced at the window. "Surely it can't be the sixth hour already…?"

Akiyoshi shrugged. "Third. Close enough."

"Please excuse me, but he's not late, then. Your meeting with him is on the fourth hour."

"Yeah, but I didn't hear the telltale crash of when he finally wakes up. I'll just meet with him in here now, then. I don't care if he's not dressed."

"But… Masaoka-sama…"

"It's fine, he won't care." He stepped into the room and, unintentionally, loomed over her. "Now go, eh? I'd like breakfast, you know."

Hinata bowed. "Yes, Masaoka-sama." She rose, stepped out of the room, and knelt by the door and began to close it. He put out his hand and stopped her, causing her to look up at him in askance. His expression was grim for a moment, then smoothed into his natural nonchalance. She knew he'd just stopped himself from saying something of importance.

"No eggs, eh? Just rice, and maybe some miso. But really, no more eggs. I hate eggs."

She bowed. "Yes, Masaoka-sama."

He hesitated, as if about to say something more, then waved her off. Obediently, she closed the door and left to the kitchens. Once she was gone he considered Naruto before plopping down on the side of the futon and letting his fist impact with Naruto's midsection.

"AHHHHH!" Naruto yelled as her curled in on himself, protecting his stomach too late. "What the – who the – oh, Akiyoshi, it's you." He scowled. "You punched me!"

Akiyoshi smiled back, guiltless. "Ohayou, old friend."

Naruto pouted. "Jerk."

"You weren't going to wake up otherwise. I had to." He produced several scrolls from the inner pockets of his kimono. "We can have the meeting right here. I don't want to wait for you to get dressed."

"Jerk."

"You said that already."

As Akiyoshi spread the scrolls out on the bed and unrolled one or two, Naruto sat grumbling. He hated being woken up abruptly. He liked the way Hinata woke him up much better, which was quite reasonable, really, since people generally would prefer being woken by a soft voice and tentative shoulder shaking rather than being punched in the gut. Speaking of Hinata… "Where's Hinata?"

"Breakfast." Akiyoshi answered distractedly. "Now these," he murmured as he unrolled another scroll, "are my spies' newest reports on what the Uchiha army is doing up north. Those over there," he pointed to another scroll that he'd unrolled earlier, "are details on what Hyuuga's doing in the southwest."

"Feh."

"Naruto, are you even listening to me?"

"Sure I am, sure." Naruto yawned and rubbed his eyes. "Did you tell Hinata that I want ramen today?"

Akiyoshi frowned. "How could I have known? You were asleep."

Naruto pursed his lips in what was almost a frown. "C'mon, Aki, you've known me long enough to know what…"

"So has she, so maybe she'll remember your damned ramen. Can we get back to work?"

Naruto frowned, furrowing his brows. "What crawled up your ass? It was just a question."

"Don't say 'ass,' it's not proper."

"You're such a girl. You cuss all the time anyway." Naruto stuck his tongue out, crossed his eyes, stuck his tongue out, and waggled his fingers, every so often making obscene hand gestures.

Aki grit his teeth. "Damn it, Naruto, grow up! Why can't you just…"

"So what did you tell her?" Naruto cut him off.

Aki blinked. "What?"

"About the food, stupid. About breakfast."

Aki sighed. "Eggs. Lots and lots of eggs."

"Oh…" Naruto looked deeply disappointed for a moment, then frowned again. "Hey, wait, you hate eggs! You couldn't've—" He stopped mid-sentence and lifted his nose into the air, sniffing. "I smell miso ramen!" He jumped out of bed and rushed to the door, sliding it open and taking the tray of food from Hinata before she was even within a meter of the entrance.

Akiyoshi sighed and rolled up the scrolls. Things would just have to wait; at the Uzumaki estate, whatever happened did so on Naruto's (somewhat erratic) schedule.

Approximately fifteen minutes later (Naruto had all but inhaled his rather large portions, and Aki never ate much in the mornings anyway), Akiyoshi was finally able to get Naruto to settle down to business.

"…got back to the Hyuuga estate yesterday, rumor has it with a new girl from one of the tribes on the border of Kazekoku."

Naruto huffed, slightly annoyed. "Aki, I'm not interested."

"You have to get over this obsession with Haruno. Uchiha will never sell, don't you get that? He'll keep her past her prime, just to be able to shove it in your face."

"Don't talk about her as if she's cattle. She's better than that."

"Yeah, yeah, you've ranted at me about that before. Anyway, Hyuuga probably won't sell to you – again – either. It's just a rumor." Aki waved his hand dismissively.

Naruto was displeased at his attitude, but set his mind back to business. "What are Aburame and Inuzuka up to in the southeast?"

"Nothing spreading north, so no worries there. However, your dad's pretty pissed at you."

"What?" Naruto squawked.

"You're expanding Uzumaki territory into the lands of other lords. What do you expect, huh? I keep telling you, this isn't the way to gain respect."

"They're all convinced that I've only got land because my father's the Hokage! I have to prove them wrong."

"Naruto," Aki said, giving him a dry look, "it was your father's land. The only reason you run it is because he moved into the Hokage's castle. They're right."

Naruto scratched the back of his head, almost embarrassed. "Well, yeah, but…"

"If you want respect, you could manage the land yourself and make it prosper, or expand into enemy territory – Raikoku up north – like I told you to from the beginning. Or, you could start fighting in the Arena again, and prove your worth as a ninja there. Why can't you do those things?"

"I have to do it my way, Aki."

"But…"

Naruto grinned. "It's my nindo, huh?"

Aki was tired of getting answers that didn't tell him anything. "Don't bullshit me, Naruto."

"Just trust me, okay?"

"Naruto…" Aki said warningly.

"Aki." Naruto's expression was pleading. "Trust me. Please."

Akiyoshi sighed. "Fine, Naru." He smiled wryly as he rolled up the various maps and plans. "You know what I think about it. But I'll trust you."

Kazekoku – "Wind Country"

Raikoku – "Thunder Country"

Hokage – DUH.

Ohayou – "Good morning."

Nindo – "ninja way," the personal rules and standards by which a ninja lives.

General Update: I had Fire Country as "Hikoku" before, but decided that we should probably base the name of the countries on the names of their kage's – Raikage, Kazekage, Dokage, Hokage, and Mizukage (I think that's how I remember it being in the manga), so "Hikoku" is now "Hokoku." It's a minor change, but I thought it might have been bothering some of you perfectionists out there. I know it bothered me.

End Author's Notes

I feel like I got Naruto completely out of character here. le sigh But I did my best, and if you do your best then you're a winner, right? Ha ha, that might have worked if I were still ten. Yare yare… please tell me what you think.

Finally, the last introduction. "Oh my God," you say, "what about everyone else?" They're here, or rather, they will be, so don't worry. But, you see, if I had an introduction for each set of people in each place, not only would there be some major spoilerage (it's not a word, but I like to use it anyway), but there would also be more than ten introduction chapters. And we think three prologues is enough, don't you? So, now I can finally begin to write the meat of the story (the chapters, that is). Naruto probably won't appear for a while… not because I don't like him or anything of that sort, but because he doesn't need to. His background is pretty much clear now. Sasuke, Neji, and Sakura, however, still need fleshing out. Illiatha does, as well, perhaps more so than the others, but I don't want to put too too much focus on her, for fear of the story (even temporarily) becoming entirely about her. Does that make sense? Even so, she will be gone into in more depth. People don't get their names into Introduction titles and then get ignored, now do they? By the way, do you all like her?

Next: Chapter I – Meeting at the Hyuuga Estate