Beta by: RedCommandar72. Although I keep telling her to work a little slowly so that my lazy self can keep up, she doesn't. Thank you for being wonderful.
A/N: I apologise for any and all error left here, although we try, we are still bound by the laws of being imperfect humans.
1.9 Lingering Hope
Asahi was heartbroken. The only girl who had ever caught his interest wasn't interested in him.
Like at all!
Naruto, the girl with hair like the sun, eyes like the clear blue sky, and with a smile that lights up the sky, just told him, he wasn't her type. How was a rich, good looking, well respected with great social standards guy not her type was beyond him. Asahi wasn't concerned that his manor was completely destroyed, or the fact that most of his servants ran off. He had enough money to buy another big house and every utility money could find.
Only thing his money couldn't seem to buy was Naruto's favour.
"I am willing to wait for you, I even ordered a gorilla and an alligator for you," Asahi pleaded as the ninja party packed up what's left of their belongings.
The pale, long haired male ninja whose name Asahi forgot was not doing too fine, he kept spacing out. Asahi understood the poor chap was poisoned. Asahi had provided the shinobi with as much medical care a civilian could, but there wasn't much a civilian doctor could do for him. Asahi felt bad for the young man. There also seem to be some odd tension going on between the group, Asahi wasn't too sure but it seemed that the bunch weren't talking to each other at the moment.
Naruto pulled up her bag. "I am truly sorry, but I can't put your life in danger by staying here any longer. I am sure you will find yourself a very agreeable wife soon. This will be goodbye Lord Asahi," she informed him with a polite bow.
Asahi sighed. "I understand. I will be sure to send you the animals I have ordered for you. Please accept that as a token of my love dear," he said sadly. Naruto did have some peculiar tastes, but that added to her appeal.
Naruto casted a glare to her team mates, who filched visibly, and said, "Thank you for your kindness."
Asahi bide her farewell. The ninja party soon left, taking his heart away. Asahi would never forget the wild ninja beauty that was Naruto Uzumaki.
Line break...
"This is unreal," Lady Tsunade said, clearly impressed.
"Yes, this is amazing," Sakura agreed.
Itachi was being checked by the Hokage and Sakura on returning from the crazy ass mission. Lying on a hospital bed, shirtless, while the medics pocked his body wasn't something Itachi was very fond of. He didn't have much choice in that matter though, he wasn't going to risk Lady Tsunade's wrath by refusing her medical advice and treatment.
"What is it?" Itachi uncomfortably wiggled his toes.
Both the ladies had their hands on him, their palms glowing green, signalling the use of healing chakra, as an effect most nerve points in his body were tingling. Even though it wasn't an unpleasant feeling, it did sort of felt funny.
"This Karin person not only removed the poison from your body, but was able to fix a lot the of damages done in your eyes. Your eyes are not fully recovered, but they are definitely much better," the Hokage explained finally removing her hands, done with poking the Uchiha for the moment.
Sakura too finished up her examination and moved away. Itachi immediately sat up and pulled his undershirt back on. Itachi had nothing to say to them, the way he was healed wasn't very conventional to say the least.
For some reason Sai, Haku and Naruto have refused to comment on the incident back at Asahi Haruto's manor. Their return to the village was a quick and silent affair. Itachi had to stop twice before he could continue, Naruto had given him a wide berth which didn't set well with the Uchiha, but he wasn't physically well enough and thus let it slide for the time being. Once they were done with their reports, Itachi was taken to the hospital straight away. Itachi was in a hurry to have his talk with Naruto as soon as possible, he knew he had to complete their conversation before she departs for her sage training. So, when Tsunade cleared him, he ran out in search for the bright haired girl.
At another part of the village, the girl in question was facing Pa, packed and ready to leave. Her heart felt heavy for some unknown reason, but she didn't let it bother her.
Naruto knew leaving without a word to anyone was cowardly, but she needed time to calm her head down. The Image of Itachi on Karin's arms was something she couldn't shook off, the whole image made her want to commit murder, preferably to the red head in question.
Naruto was well aware that without Karin, Itachi would likely be dead and she was grateful that he was alive. However, a huge part of her was angry at Karin for handling Itachi in such a crude manner. Karin, in all sense and purpose, had kissed him! That image was burnt into her mind and she hated that image with every fibre of her being.
Naruto was aware that Itachi was interested in some girl and if seeing him in arms of that Karin had hurt her that much, then she was definitely not ready to see him happy with someone else just yet. Naruto just needed a little more time to heal herself and preferably get over her crush. Once she had some time away from his charming self, she hopefully would be able to feel happy for Itachi again, no matter who he was with. Naruto needed time and some space, and if running away was what it took, she would do just that.
She sighed, looking at the summoning ink and Pa drawing patterns on the ground, one would think some idiot author was writing a bad fanfiction instead of Naruto's life. Oh, how she wished the author would drop dead and put Naruto and everyone else out of their misery. But alas, the author seemed be alive and kicking.
Pa slammed his palm down in the ground and the black lines of the reverse-summon seal appeared on the ground. The old toad looked up at the girl and she nodded in return. They both vanished in the next second.
Much later, Itachi would be able to figure out that Naruto had left the village. He would be sad, but mostly angry at her for not even giving him a chance to finish their conversation. He would curse Orochimaru for his super bad timing and with a heavy heart, he would wait for her return.
Let's see what the fate (or idiotic fanfic author!) has in store of their reunion.
Line break...
A week later...
Pa hit her again and Naruto yelled out in pain. "You toad!"
"Yes, I am. Now concentrate, you human!" Pa answered without missing any beat. The guy had no chill.
Kurama was having quite a bit of fun watching Naruto get beat up by the tiny toad. He was a century old fox and he was bored. Only entertainment he ever got was through his hosts only. His previous hosts were not this eccentric, Kushina came close, but her spunk had down sized once she fell for that yellow flesh. Mito, his first jailor was very serious woman, a boring one if you ask Kurama, her husband on the other hand was much more entertaining, but Kurama disliked him as well.
Now, Naruto was...amusing, Kurama would give her that. Although Naruto's childhood was not ideal by any means, she still strived on.
Kurama still hated Naruto, not particularly her, but all of his previous jailors and the rest of the humanity minus two, the old man sage and his younger kid. As for his jailors, they never tried to look past his huge chakra self, filled to the brim with hate. However, after so many years of being locked up, Kurama was a little lonely. After their father died, he really wanted a friend, but humans were just cruel. He hated humans and although the old sage of six paths foretold about this human with bright yellow hair appearing to unite the ninja world and set them free, Kurama had lost that hope a long time ago.
He watched on when Naruto fell to the ground with exhaustion while whining about being hungry. It was amusing to watch her eat bugs and making faces at the toad family; Ma and Pa. Soon she falls asleep curling up on her futon.
Kurama decided to give her a visit when Naruto was passed out, deep in her sleep.
"Hello little girl."
Naruto sleepily rubbed her eyes and looked confused. She curiously took in her surroundings in the dark alley way, her ankles dipped in black coloured water and a large cage in front of her. They had met previously for a brief amount of time, but he had yet to speak with her.
Naruto finally noticed his presence inside his large jail and her eyes widened. Kurama rolled his eyes, humans and their puny self would always frat over a tailed beast's huge size, he was used to it.
"Why do you have large ears? Are you by any chance a rabbit and not a fox?" Naruto asked narrowing her eyes at him.
Kurama dropped his large ears flat on his skull for a good five second, astonished by the sheer disrespect the brat was showing him. He was aware about his rather large ears, but Kurama liked his ears. Was the puny human making fun of him?
"How dare you, puny human. Just let me out and I will crush you. I am all mighty nine tails -"
"-and a pain in my ears," Naruto cut him off of his rant. She held her little fingers in both of her ears and was making a show of being in pain from his loud voice.
Kurama hit the bars of his prison with a loud bang and Naruto jumped away a little. Kurama felt better.
"Hey, don't be so loud dattebyo! I get it, you are a fox. Geez, can't take a joke can you?" the girl had the gall to say.
"I am not here to listen to your stupid jokes, I am here to tell you something important," Kurama said settling down on his paws.
"I am all ears," the brat replied sassily.
"If you mate with that Uchiha, the first chance I find, I will kill him. I will find a chance for sure, trust me girl," Kurama stated calmly, showing a bit of his fangs for the point to go through the human's puny brain cells.
Naruto's jaws hit the floor and she was speechless for a whole minute. The Nine Tails had called her inside her subconsciousness, while she was sleeping mind you, after a day of brutal training and getting beat up by a toad no less, to tell her that he didn't approve of her crush? Was the beast nuts? And who in their right mind say 'mate' these days? Wasn't the term 'dating'? Also, why the heck did he wait so long to do so.
"Have you lost your mind?" Naruto asked, eyeing the huge, orange fox for any more signs of insanity, at this point she was sure that the fox had scrambled eggs for brains.
"I have not, I hate humans and I particularly hate Uchihas the most," Kurama answered, rubbing his nose on his front paws, the site would have been quite adorable if he wasn't such a big-giant, red coloured, chakra monster.
Naruto was speechless. "Listen, whatever your name is fox, I don't need dating advice from an overgrown, antient, grumpy chakra beast with too many tails. I am leaving dattebyo," she growled out angrily.
Kurama flickered his ears, "This was a warning, understand? I will take over your body and kill that little boyfriend of yours."
"I will kick your overgrown ass before you even try. You stay away from him or else I will cut your fluffy ears off as well," Naruto declared puffing out her cheeks.
Kurama let the noisy girl fade away, no one was touching his ears. The girl could just go to hell, Kurama didn't care. He wasn't kidding about his warning either. He was able to deal with the First Hokage and the Fourth as well. But a constant presence of an Uchiha was something his paranoid soul couldn't tolerate.
Line break...
Kakashi had been to many life-threatening situations in his blessed life, he was also lucky enough to get past these tough situations. However, right this moment he was contemplating his chances of getting past the one he had found himself in. The Five Kage summit is one nasty affair. The tension in the air is impenetrable. He was happy to have a thick skin to not feel too bothered by the killing intents inside the room.
The Hokage was busy glaring at everyone, the Raikage had already broken one table, and Kakashi wasn't sure how long the next one will last. The Tsuchikage was sending death glare towards the Kazekage and his twin, the said twins are unreadable. Only one who was remotely trying not to jump down the other Kage's throat as the Mizukage, she was smiling which was even more disturbing now that he thinks about it. The woman was creeping Kakashi out to tell the truth. The attendants of the said Kage's were not better either.
"You brat, what was the Sand thinking making such a child a Kage!" Onoki growled out to Gaara.
"Better to be a brat who understands today's world then an ancient old man with equally ancient ideas and a back problem. You should ask the Hokage for medicines, she is the best around here I believe," Gaara calmly answered back. Kakashi was thankful for his mask since it hid his amused expression well.
"We are here to discuss the Akatsuki and their threat, let us discuss that," Mei spoke up charmingly. Kakashi agreed with her words.
"Yes Mizukage, tell us, are you aware the Akatsuki was formed in your nation?" A fired at her and Kakashi had a feeling the Raikage was just waiting to point that out.
"I did know," Mei held the attention of the room with her next words. "Our third Mizukage was under some very strong genjutsu and was controlled by some masked individual. Before I took over, every action was taken by that masked individual, not your third Mizukage. The whereabouts of the Akatsuki is unknown to us at this point."
A snorted at her response, "A masked individual takes over the whole nation for this long and people were unable do anything?"
Mei's eyes narrowed at the huge Kage. "We did do something, we took our nation back," her words were softly spoken, but were strongly presented.
"Let's not point fingers anymore, instead WE need to share our intelligence with each other and come up with a plan on how to take them all out once it for all," the Hokage said, Gaara agreed with her statement.
6 hours later...
"That could have gone better," Shikaku said, wiping his sweaty forehead.
Kakashi couldn't agree more. Even though Gaara, Lady Tsunade and Mei were mostly on the same page, Onoki and Raikage were doing the opposite. A managed to break two more table before their host Mifune threaten him with charges for each broken table to stop the hot-tempered guy from acting out. Gaara had to put Onoki in his place twice more and at the end even Mei's face seemed to have lost its usual charm. By the end of the meeting, they all agreed to share their information, and form a search party from each village to track down the Akatsuki's whereabouts. All on all it wasn't a total loss.
"We need to get back as soon as possible. I don't like how well this day went," Tsunade said frowning. She didn't know how on point her instinct were.
Line break...
Sora opened his eyes again and found himself inside one of his dreams. He was Gaara again, back in the fields of the Fourth great ninja war.
…Gaara could feel a huge surge of power coming his way. All the Kages were present alongside him and they were facing Madara and the Gedo statue. A whoosh sound later, the previous Hokage's joined the battle.
Gaara felt Sasuke's powerful and dominating chakra joining them soon after. Madara stopped his attack for the moment and was frowning looking down at the first Hokage.
For a moment, the whole battle field was silent, and were ogling at the power houses joining the battle.
The first Hokage was cooing over his granddaughter soon enough.
"You are my little Tsuna? I missed you!" The first Hokage said much to Tsunade's embarrassment.
But Gaara's attention wasn't with the first or the fifth Hokage. He was watching Naruto approaching her father with an awed and wide grin.
"Hey dad! I wish Ma was here as well!" she happily skipped to her father's side. Minato lovingly put his hand over his daughter's head and messed up her hair.
"Me too, I will meet her soon enough. You met her right?" the fourth Hokage asked.
Naruto nodded her head with enthusiasm.
"I did. I have so much to tell you. I got to meet all the tailed beasts. Kurama here," she pointed at the glowing chakra surrounding her, "he is a very dear friend now, thanks for sealing him in me and if I deal my cards right, I can cuddle his ears too!"
The giant beast snorted a little at that comment and Gaara had a feeling he didn't mind the loud blonde manhandling his ears.
Naruto pulled the Fourth towards him all of a sudden and Gaara found himself facing Naruto's father's reanimated corpse looking at him calmly.
"This is Gaara, the Fourth Kazekage, he is my boyfriend dad!" Naruto announced without any ceremony. "Gaara," she turned to a bewildered Gaara, "meet my father, the fourth Hokage, isn't he cool?"
Gaara felt a blush spreading over his cheeks quickly under the keen blue eyes of the Fourth Hokage.
"I am trying to imagine how your father would have reacted to this," Minato said chucking, his response surprising both Naruto and Gaara.
"Nice to meet you, sir, I am glad your daughter decided to be with me," Gaara said with a polite bow. "I will protect her with my life."
Minato raised one of his yellow brows. "Polite kid and knows what to say. Good choice Naruto!" he said looking at his beaming daughter proudly. "So, you like red heads too? We have the similar kind of choice, don't we Naruto?"
Naruto nodded her head up and down, Gaara had never seen her so happy in his life. It was an endearing site.
"Yes, Mom has the best hair dattebyo! I love Gaara's hair. They totally match," Naruto answered with enthusiasm and Minato started laughing at his daughter's innocent behaviour.
Gaara ended up with a slightly flushed face on Naruto's comment and wondered if he should grow his hair out...
Sora woke up drenched in sweat again. This particular dream was much too realistic and his mind was having a hard time rebooting itself.
Once his haziness from the dream cleared up, Sora remembered something very specific and jumped up from his bed. He hurriedly found his weapon pouch and opened it. He emptied the contents on the table and with a dull thud sound, a three-pronged kunai fell onto the desk.
With trembling fingers, he lifted the three ponged kunai carefully. The kunai's edges cast a silver glint under the yellow light of his bed lamp.
Sora found himself sitting down with one hand holding the kunai and the other hand holding his mouth. His brain was finding it difficult to believe what his eyes were beholding.
The Fourth Hokage had presented him one of his infamous three-pronged kunai on the battlefield in his dreams. In his memories however, Sora had never received such a gift from Minato. In fact, in his dreams, Sora had received one such kunai and the other one was given to Naruto. Minato had said that whenever they feel the need to find each other, they could use the kunai. Since their relation was very much a long distance one, the use of these kunai would require a huge amount of chakra.
Now, it would be impossible for anyone but Naruto and Gaara to use it since they both had ridiculously huge chakra reserves.
Sora examined the seal on the kunai and his heartbeat sped up.
The seal was one of the dimensional ones, with enough chakra one can travel through the different dimentions and was very much intact.
But how was this possible?
How was his dreams and realities mixing up? If time travel was indeed impossible, how was he looking at something very much impossible in his hands?
A/N: All my votes are on purely romance side, so the fic will be more concentrated on their relationship development, drama and fluff, can't forget fluff.
Don't forget to review guys, remember the more response I get from you, quicker the chapters will appear here. Yosh!
