Chapter Twenty-Eight
Thanks to the crowd of participants breaking up into separate teams again for the trip homeward, the return to Konoha went at varying paces. But thanks to Tomoko and Kato summoning their monkeys to carry Kaori, Karin, and Naruto, their group was able to make the journey in decent time.
Nights were spent with the Uzumakis getting to know each other better. Naruto was ecstatic to find out that Karin was only a year older than him. Tomoko mentioned that she would have to take a placement test to figure out what year of the Academy she would be enrolled in, but that would come later. Ken also promised to help Kaori enroll in classes for mainstream medical ninjutsu, for which she was grateful.
And when the kids were asleep, Ken told Kaori about Danzo Shimura and warned her not to trust him. He would do everything in his power to protect her and Karin as well as he did Naruto, and they had the Hokage's support on that front. The news unsettled Kaori, but she accepted it with surprising grace.
In a matter of days, they were all back in the Hidden Leaf. Naruto fell face down into the dirt and kissed it, spit some back up and then kissed it again before spitting again and rubbing his mouth, much to everyone's amusement. The Sarutobis led the way to the Uzumakis rental house, though everyone stopped in shock at what they found.
Blackened crevices scored the yard, the walls were covered with scorch marks, and the front door was smashed open and hanging from a single hinge.
"You've got to be kidding me," Ken snarled, racing forward to check in greater detail.
"I just realized," Tomoko noted, "that we totally forgot to tell Red about the break-in when he was gone."
"Yep, totally forgot," Naruto agreed. He grabbed Karin's hand and raced toward the house, ignoring her protests. When they crossed the threshold, everything was ransacked. Furniture was tipped over, cushions scattered. Their rooms were each a mess, clothing and possessions scattered without rhyme or reason. Even the kitchen had been torn apart, with smashed dishes and pans strewn everywhere.
"Weird," Naruto said. "It looks like nothing was taken."
"Correct," Ken called, reentering from the bathroom with a sealing parchment in his hand. He rolled it up and tucked it into his belt before flipping through a string of hand seals and clapping his palm to the floor. Sealing formulae spread outward and encompassed the room, flaring brightly with chakra for a few seconds before settling into a faint glow. "There, that will keep anyone from eavesdropping," Ken said, his voice tight.
"Eavesdropping?" Kaori asked. "Why?"
"This had to be Danzo," Ken said. "Nothing was taken except the iron chest I used to store a scroll of Uzumaki secrets." He grinned menacingly. "Or, at least, that's what anyone else would think." He placed the sealing paper on the ground and activated it, releasing a familiar large scroll bound in chains. "The chest was a decoy in case someone got past all of my security seals. The real containment seal was hidden where they would never think to look."
"Where?" Nauto asked.
"Under the bathroom sink," Ken shrugged.
There was a moment of stunned silence before Naruto, Tomoko, and Kato all busted out laughing. Karin looked at them all with wide eyes before addressing her mother. "Mama, were Uzumaki always this … crazy?"
"Yes, honey," she said with a faint smile. "They always were."
As she sobered up, Tomoko brushed a tear from her eye. "So what will happen to the chest when they open it?" she asked.
"How much longer?" Danzo asked his men. It had taken the full thirty days between the second and third phases of the Chunin Exams to craft enough disruption seals to trigger every outward defense that the Uzumaki had planted within that assigned house, and he had still lost several men to its defenses. But in spite of his growing impatience with the upstart, he had to admit some grudging respect for both his skill with seals and his paranoia.
His ROOT agents had ransacked the place until they found a large sealing array underneath Ken's bed, which they had triggered to reveal a massive iron chest bound in chains. It was all they had taken from the house, but it was promising. But the chest was protected by further sealwork that reinforced it against all manner of tampering. Finally, though, after days of work, his men were making progress in getting through it.
"Any moment now, Lord Danzo," the supervisor replied neutrally.
True to his word, the lid to the chest was released and swung up to reveal … another seal. One that was flaring dangerously. Danzo lurched backward as the seal script spread outward in a circle twenty feet across. And then a second later, everything within that circle disappeared, leaving the stone floor smooth as steel.
"Clever little bastard," Danzo growled.
"You're better off not knowing," Ken answered. Then he conjured a shadow clone and sent it off. "He'll go inform the Hokage about this. In the meantime, we should clean this place up."
"Well, I think I'll go grab Naruto's stuff from my place," Tomoko said, with a too-innocent smile. "See ya soon!"
"Yeah," Kato said, "and I'm gonna, uh … bye!" He bolted out the door, clearly hoping to avoid cleaning.
"With friends like these," Ken noted wryly. He conjured a dozen staggered shadow clones who began working like ants. "Shall we?" Everyone got to work.
Most of the work was collecting scattered possessions and returning them to their proper place, though some shattered dishes had to be swept up. With what amounted to fifteen people working, it didn't take all that long. And not five minutes had they been finished when Tomoko ducked back through the door.
"Got his stuff," she said brightly.
"All right!" Naruto cried, grabbing the bags and darting to his room.
"Naruto, hold up!" Ken called. When the boy looked back, Ken pointed to the ground in front of him. "We need to discuss sleeping arrangements in a two-bedroom house," he said. The children tilted their heads in confusion, while Kaori chuckled into her hand and Tomoko outright laughed.
"Now the way I see it," Ken said, "we can have the ladies share the master bedroom and Naruto and I will share the smaller. Or, the kids can have the master and Kaori has the smaller while I take the couch."
"Absolutely not," Kaori said sharply, in a very mother-like tone. "You'll be doing missions and you will need rest for that. And the children need their rest, too."
"Also, no one's staying here with the door broken," Tomoko pointed out, gesturing at the door hanging from a single hinge.
"There is that," Ken grumbled, a headache suddenly pulsing behind his eyes.
"So why don't all of you bunk with me tonight?" Tomoko asked. "Naruto seemed to have fun these last few weeks and you can bring the beds from this place. It should be enough to have you all sleep comfortably."
Ken pursed his lips at that. He'd already had Naruto staying with her for six weeks, and he felt like he was taking advantage of her hospitality. Then again, he had no better options with all of his defenses down.
"Kaori, what do you think?" he asked.
"I think that the offer is very gracious, Tomoko," Kaori replied with a smile.
"It's settled, then," Tomoko proclaimed. "Pack your stuff, boys. We're having a sleepover!"
"Sleepover!" Naruto shouted before running out the door. Ken smiled and felt his pockets for the storage scrolls containing his and Naruto's belongings before gesturing for Karin and Kaori to follow Tomoko as he stored the beds from their house in more scrolls.
As they all left, Ken closed the front door as best he could and conjured another shadow clone. "You know what to do," he whispered. The clone nodded and waited for everyone to leave the yard before he planted his feet and spawned a salvo of Adamantine Sealing Chains from his back to enter the ground and then surround the house. The chains interwove into a great sphere and locked to form an impenetrable barrier.
"No one's getting in this house tonight," the clone said grimly.
Tomoko welcomed everyone into her two-bedroom house and took charge of sleeping arrangements. She had Ken unseal a bed from the assigned house in each of the bedrooms before she revealed her couch had a fold-out bed of its own. "I'm glad I finally get to use it," she said with a grin. "Kaori and Karin can bunk together, I'll have Naruto in my room, and Ken can sleep out here."
Ken nodded and took the fold-out without another word. As he settled, he shot Tomoko a grateful look, which she returned with a soft smile before heading to bed herself.
It took a few days, during which the Uzumaki worked to repair or replace everything broken during the raid on their home, but eventually Ken was called before the Hokage and his advisory council. Lord Hiruzen was smiling warmly as he officially declared Ken a chunin of the Hidden Leaf and offered him his promotion certificate and a standard chunin flak jacket.
Ken was surprised to find that he'd also been assigned a voluntary partner, someone he already knew. He'd left the conference room to find Tomoko leaning against the wall with a smile. "Surprised?"
"Not particularly," Ken shrugged. "After all, I do know so few people in the village." Tomoko laughed and offered him a scroll for their first mission as a two-person team. Ken unfurled it and looked over the contents before raising an eyebrow.
He didn't know what he'd been expecting for a two-chunin team, but this was not it.
The doorbell to Tomoko's house sounded, and Kaori looked up from preparing lunch to answer it. She glanced through the window to find the children sparring outside, as per Ken's suggestion, and opened the door to find a young man, a chunin by the flak jacket, with a scar across the bridge of his nose. The chunin looked surprised and glanced around.
"Um, I'm sorry. I think I have the wrong house," he mumbled before glancing at a paper in his hand.
"Is this about Naruto?" Kaori asked, her mother's intuition acting up.
"Yes, it is," the chunin said with a relieved smile. "I'm Iruka Umino, Naruto's instructor. I came by with some study aides and homework for what he missed last week in class."
Kaori took a packet of papers Iruka handed her and looked them over with a kind smile. "Thank you, Instructor Iruka. That's very gracious." She silently added that none of Karin's teachers back in Hidden Grass would have gone out of their way to offer that kind of support. It seemed moving to Konoha really was a wise decision.
"You're very welcome, Miss, um …"
"Kaori Uzumaki," she offered.
Iruka's eyes widened. "Uzumaki? You're ... " He huffed a delighted chuckle. "Another one? That's wonderful."
"Two," Kaori corrected gently. "My daughter and I just relocated from Kusa. One of Ken's teammates found us and the Lord Hokage arranged for us to move to be with them. My daughter Karin will actually be enrolling in the Academy soon."
"Well, I'll be glad to welcome her," Iruka said, though his smile faded a bit. "Though if she's as avid a prankster as Naruto, I doubt the other faculty will."
Kaori chuckled behind her hand. "You're safe, I assure you. Thank you for the schoolwork. Have a nice day."
"You too, ma'am," Iruka replied, bowing and taking his leave.
Kaori checked over the meal preparations very quickly before calling to the children. "Karin, Naruto! Come inside! Naruto, your instructor just delivered schoolwork for the days you missed."
Naruto groaned dramatically, but made his way in alongside Karin. Kaori spread out his work on Tomoko's small dining table and suggested Karin help him along before resuming her food preparation. She idly listened to Karin going over the work with her new cousin, in between Naruto groaning and complaining about having to do it at all. She did notice that Naruto's grumbling was almost gone by the time she finished her work.
She finally turned around to find Karin explaining something to Naruto, who was diligently working. Kaori smiled with pride; her little girl had always been quite bright. It made her hopeful for Karin's time at this new Academy. After she passed out plates for herself and the kids, Kaori began looking over some informational forms to apply to the Konoha hospital. Lord Hiruzen had assured her that the Rejuvenating Bite would not be on the table for use without her own explicit approval, which she greatly appreciated. And she would be able to take classes in medical ninjutsu as well.
In less than an hour, Karin had helped Naruto finish all of his homework, after which he yelled in joy and ran out the door, calling to Karin to follow. Karin sighed affectionately, strangely unable to resist Naruto's enthusiasm, and followed at a more sedate pace to continue practicing their hand-to-hand combat.
Kaori chuckled and followed them with her paperwork. In the rare times she had been in any condition to watch, Kaori had always enjoyed watching her little girl practice her ninjutsu. It had not only been engaging to watch, it had given her hope that Karin would be able to handle herself. And now Karin had someone to practice with.
No doubt about it, it was the right choice coming here.
Kaori winced in sympathy when Naruto swept Karin's feet out from under her, sending her girl crashing to the ground. That seemed to be the last straw for Karin's temper and she launched herself at the blond in a screeching frenzy that left the boy screaming and running away. Kaori couldn't help it; she felt herself crying from laughing so hard.
It took two days, but Ken and Tomoko made it to their mission destination in the Land of Hot Springs. Their mission, a low-level B-rank, was to make contact with an agent of the Leaf to obtain intelligence scrolls and then bring them back to the village. As they finally approached the village, Ken took a deep breath of the smell of the hot springs and steam in the evening light bringing back memories.
"You seem to like it here," Tomoko noted, having dressed in a pastel pink sundress with a rose sash wrapped around her waist and her favored sandals to hide her shinobi status.
"I lived in this country with my grandfather until I was eight," Ken explained, himself "disguised" in a baby blue button-up shirt and dark slacks with leather loafers, his hair Transformed to appear brown. "He figured it would be safest for a child since it tries to keep out of conflict."
Tomoko shrugged, accepting the story and thel logic behind it, and followed Ken's lead to a specific, rather small, hot spring and inn. "The Boiling Squid," Ken read, the inn's sign depicting an octopus relaxing in a steaming cooking pot. "This is the place." They entered the resort cafe to find a few tables occupied, one in particular familiar to them both.
"Lord Jir-?" Ken started to ask before a pair of chopsticks nailed him in the forehead, carrying enough force to jerk his head back and make him stumble. Ken growled and rubbed his forehead before collecting the utensils and joining his teammate at their contact's table.
"Good evening, good sir," Tomoko said sweetly, perching her chin on woven fingers. "Do you mind if we join you? My fiance and I have never been to a hot spring before and were hoping you could give some advice." Ken's cheeks pinked at Tomoko's impromptu cover story for the intel drop.
Jiraiya — for it was Jiraiya, as that spiky white hair was unmistakable — chuckled and sipped his tea. "Lucky for you two, this place's spring is divided only by a paper screen; you can see the silhouettes of each side," he giggled, actually giggled, "and the water is supposed to be very good at managing stress. Probably nice for planning a wedding."
"You seem to know your hot springs," Ken commented, playing along with the ruse. "Must come with experience."
"Son, when you get to be my age, you learn to take the … pleasure, where you can ... uh, get it …"
Tomoko raised an eyebrow and followed Jiraiya's dazed line of sight to find a pair of giggling, attractive, scantily-clad women in their late teens or early twenties, passing by. Jiraiya's dazed look turned into a leer as he soaked in the sights, and Tomoko rolled her eyes at the proof of the Toad Sage's famed quirks. She snapped her fingers in front of his face, "It's rude to stare, good sir," she said, the sweetness of her tone turning poisonous.
"Tell that to your fiance," Jiraiya chuckled.
Tomoko looked over to find Ken watching the door as the girls left, his eyebrows arched and his lips pursed. She gave an affronted huff before a wicked smile bloomed across her lips. "Oh, you wretch!" she cried at the top of her lungs and stood from her chair, clutching her hands to her bodice. "How could you?! You swore off your wandering eyes if I promised you my hand! And now you do this?!" She sniffled dramatically, rubbing her arm across her eyes as if brushing away tears.
Ken's cheeks were burning as red as his hair under his Transformation seal. He glanced around at the few patrons of the small cafe who were whispering and glaring at him. He glanced at Jiraiya, who appeared to be sizing him up with a challenging look in his eye. Ken narrowed his eyes and stood before falling to his knees. "Oh, my dearest, please forgive me!" He took Tomoko's hand and pressed it to his chest. "I am a fool, I cannot lie. But I swear upon my very soul that I will never stray from you, my dearest love!" He moved her hand to the side of his face. "Strike me in penance to your heart's desire, for you are my heart's only desire!"
Tomoko's cheeks were pinked as well at this display, even knowing that it was all melodrama. Carrying on the ruse, she raised her hand back as far as it would go and swung … only to stop her palm an inch from his cheek and gently tap it. "I suppose love is about accepting your lover's flaws," she said sweetly, pulling him to his feet. Then she lightly slapped him again. "But control yourself, honey."
"You have my undying word, my sweet," Ken said smoothly, eyes lidded as he immersed himself in the performance. He moved his chair closer to Tomoko and drew her close to his side; she took the hint and laid her head on his shoulder as they wove their fingers.
"Not bad," Jiraiya chuckled as the patrons all seemed to accept the scene with bemusement and return to their own business. "I mean, not exactly stealthy by any means. But nice recovery."
"Does that happen a lot in places like this?" Ken asked.
"More often than you'd think," Jiraiya replied. "Perhaps the gentleman with no-longer-wandering eyes might secure a room for himself and his lady?"
Ken raised an eyebrow before deciding to go along with it. "I certainly should." He schooled his body language with regret and longing and kept his hand in Tomoko's for as long as he could as he left the table, like a star-crossed lover. Tomoko kissed her fingertips and blew him a kiss, which he caught and mimed bringing to his heart as he left the room. Just when he was out of sight, his smile dropped and he swore to himself that Naruto would never learn about this, lest he suffer his dear cousin's merciless teasing.
"I gotta admit," Jiraiya said in an undertone, "that was very impressive. If the 'village life' doesn't work out, you might consider taking up theater."
"Oh no, good sir," Tomoko said airily, keeping up the charade and the title, "I do enjoy my life. Even with its strange tasks."
Jiraiya rummaged in an inner pocket of his haori and produced a pair of scrolls with the kanji for "oil" emblazoned upon them. "Well, if you change your mind, here's some literature on acting you might enjoy."
"Oh, what a wonderful gift," Tomoko said, clutching the scrolls to her chest. "Thank you so."
"Anything for a lovely lady," he leered as he stood up. "Now, I do have an appointment at another inn. So, if you'll excuse me, Miss." He bowed low to her. "And good luck with that 'fiance' of yours." He left with a backward wave just as Ken returned with an old-fashioned room key.
"I got the room, 'my sweet'," Ken said with a sly grin.
"Oh, lovely," Tomoko said, clapping her hands lightly. "And that nice old man gifted me these scrolls. He thought I might make a fine actress!"
"There's no doubt in my mind," he said, meaning every word. "Shall we then?"
"Yes, yes, yes," Tomoko said enthusiastically, taking Ken's hand and leading him up a small flight of stairs to a hall on the second floor with five rooms. She opened the third room and collapsed on one of the beds. "Two beds?" she asked. "I thought we were traveling as a couple?"
"I never agreed to that," Ken said seriously, "and we're traveling 'engaged'. Can't have gossip spreading."
"Hmm, I guess I was right," Tomoko commented. "I pegged you for old-fashioned the moment we met."
"Good for you," Ken said, rolling his eyes. "And since I actually paid for the room, I'm heading down to the spring."
"Not without me, you're not," Tomoko said, ignoring how suggestive that might sound. The pink tinging Ken's cheeks showed that he heard it too, but he shrugged it off and led the way.
After they had scrubbed down in the men's and women's bathhouses, the teammates spent a long soak in the pleasant heat and in the faint awkwardness they had seeded, both avoiding looking at the thin translucent paper dividing the grotto like the plague.
Neither of them would say anything to the other until the next morning, agreeing without discussion that they wouldn't talk about what had happened the day before. Just head back to the village and deliver Lord Jiraiya's intelligence to the Hokage. A simple mission; nothing more, nothing less.
Right …
And they're back in the Leaf, with all the antics to come! As always, do leave a review - they make me so happy! May your inspirations flow ever freely!