Sealkeeper; He Who Binds
Chapter 78 – Did You Say Something?
And we have our next chapter right on schedule. My reserves aren't quite on schedule, as I was supposed to have time to work on that Skyrim story after finishing chapter 83 but will have to start chapter 84 later today instead.
Should I finish chapter 84 by Thursday, however, I should be able to get some of it done.
I also need to organize my other ideas and post them to that folder I've linked on my site, but I should probably make some headway before I start drowning myself in old ideas that I'd like to play around with.
Have some other projects too, but those can wait.
Remember to follow me on Twitter at Eyazahrid and check out Eyazahrid-dot-net regularly for updates. Some of the recent updates had some little teasers about what's in upcoming chapters so if you want to torment yourself feel free to check them out. Otherwise the beginning of the update is usually safe.
I save the good stuff for last, naturally.
Think that about covers it for this week, so let's get into the chapter.
She spared one last glance over her men, noting how well they had managed to blend in with the rebel forces. If one didn't know them- and considering many of them spent the majority of their time in a mask- there was no way to tell they were really Konoha ANBU.
Those damn Wolves certainly hadn't.
Of course, that was likely to be the only time that worked because they'd be much more cautious now. They had been wising up even during the initial scuffle, realizing that these were not the Chūnin they expected to face.
Yagura's forces hadn't picked up that detail soon enough and had suffered heavily losses for it. Unfortunately, most of Yagura's forces- and nearly all the Wolves- had managed to get out. Reinforcements were likely, but that was fine.
The goal wasn't to eliminate the Wolves, it was to drive them off and topple Yagura's regime. Not nearly enough to satisfy her, but if this was all she could get at the moment she'd be patient.
They'd pay for allowing her Hayate to die.
She had some good men here, they'd see to it that the Wolves were at least sent back to their master with their tails between their legs. In the mean time, she needed to get back to Konoha. She was still a high-ranking member of ANBU and her lack of presence for too long would be noted.
She also needed to train some more with Naruto. Despite associating with these dogs he seemed to trust her- perhaps bad decision making on his part for both – and was likely to let something else slip about their operations.
She'd be more than happy to use that against them.
And who knows, maybe if the Wolves were beaten down enough he'd leave them and she could start grooming him for an ANBU position. He certainly had the mentality already.
Burning the orders from the Godaime, Uzuki Yugao turned from her men and started back to Konoha.
She had work to do.
At first, Naruko was a bit underwhelmed. With all Kakashi went on about her brother she had thought some of it must be true, some tiny grain the man used to grow his stories from.
As it turns out, her brother was not some Chakra powerhouse throwing around earth-shattering Jutsu and taking hits that would kill lesser men. In all honesty, she really should have realized that first.
She had fought against him, for fuck's sake. She knew his preferred style of combat and that he was skilled enough to negate a larger attack using as little force as possible. So why on earth would he be some sort of godly titan on the battlefield?
He wasn't, if that hadn't been clear.
Naruto tended to hang back during their team-building exercises, observing the battleground and barking the occasional order or warning to his teammates. There were a couple times he had used a single chain to block an attack or to pull them out of harm's way but for the most part he didn't take much action.
From a young man who apparently threw himself into a war against an established clan, she found that to be kind of odd. A few hours after they had started Kakashi held up a hand for them to stop, dispelling the clones that had been throughout the training ground and the trees around it.
Naruko and Sakura had been through this often enough and simply headed towards the center of the clearing where the original Kakashi stood with his masked nose in a book. Naruto, however, usually trained with women such as Uzuki Yugao and Mitarashi Anko.
He was only more on guard.
Slinking from his tree, he disappeared into the surrounding forest and circled around so that he had to cross as little open field as possible. Unseen to the Kunoichi- but known by Kakashi- Naruto also took the presented opportunity to send the two Wolves that were with him to ensure the rest of the forest was clear.
He'd been attacked by one too many of Anko's mud clones three hours after their session "ended" to fall for that.
As soon as he received the all-clear from the Wolves he carefully moved from the forest and made his way to his waiting team.
The girls looked a little annoyed but Kakashi bobbed his head approvingly. "Definitely been training with Mitarashi then, haven't you?" Before Naruto could answer- should he be so inclined- Kakashi continued. "So, what did you think?"
Naruto was silent for a moment, looking critically at his new teammates, before turning back to Kakashi with his thoughts. "They've been with you for a while, but they're not very cautious." Naruto's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Have you been going easy on them?" The Kunoichi looked a bit insulted at the idea that all the pain they had gone through in their training wasn't anywhere close to what it should have been.
When Kakashi just gave a lazy shrug, however, they quickly blanched.
It also brought up the question; what kind of training had Naruto been doing?
In all honesty, it wasn't so much of training as having learned to get used to Anko and her antics, but that itself could probably be considered survival training.
And mental endurance testing, but most were wise enough not to make that comment around the woman.
"How many kills do they have?" Whatever color had returned to their faces left again and Naruto's' followup question and Kakashi shrugged once again.
"None on missions, if that's what you're asking. No idea what they may have been doing in their personal lives but it's probably not stabbing people in the neck to rob them."
"...You saw that, did you?"
Again, Kakashi gave a shrug.
"Saw what?"
"Hmm? Did you say something?" Kakashi's' eye froze on the page, his head slowly rising to stare at his unofficial brother. He blinked once, twice, as thoughts raced through his head and finally he put his book away. Walking up to his newest student he placed his hands on his shoulders.
"Naruto, you have learned everything I had to teach you. I can call myself your Sensei no longer." Sakura stared on, not quite sure what to make of the scene, but Naruko was getting increasingly irritated at her Sensei's antics. "By the power accidentally vested upon me by Konohagakure no Sato, I hereby promote you to Jō-" Whatever it was he was going to say was interrupted as Kakashi dodged the multitude of chains Naruko shot at him.
"Baka-sensei!"She shouted. "You can't just promote him to Jōnin because he's so much like you!" As soon as she said that she froze, a horrified realization coming over her expression. "...Hatake...Naruto...Noooooooo!"
Without warning she bolted, desperate to get as far away as possible, and her team stared after her.
"N-Naruko?" Sakura was the only one really worried for the Uzumaki princess but she knew there was no way she could possibly catch up. She still needed a lot more training until she was to the level she should be.
"So, I suppose Kushina never talked to you two about your father?" That was enough for Sakura to reach the same conclusion Naruko had. With a look of horror on her face she shot Naruto a look of pity before running after Naruko. She might not catch up for a while, but the girl was in desperate need of support.
Naruto just gave an amused snort, watching as the girls fled the training ground. "We're done for the day, then?"
Kakashi gave yet another of his shrugs.
"I guess so."
The two stood their in silence for a bit, Kakashi eventually pulling out his book again, before Naruto spoke up.
"You wouldn't' happen to know the Kage-Bunshin no Jutsu, would you?" Kakashi looked at him shrewdly.
"That's an S-ranked Kinjutsu." he commented to which Naruto shrugged.
"Does that mean you don't?" The clearing was silent again, only briefly interrupted by the turning of pages.
"It's possible someone like the Yondaime might have used it before around me." He eventually said.
"Hmm, did your Sharingan just happen to to be out?"
"Could have been. He may have known, too."
"Perfect, because my clones keep dispelling and I need to figure out what I'm doing wrong."
Kakashi looked up from his book and stared at his most interesting student. "You already know it?"
"Hmm? Did you say something?"
A manly tear of pride trailed down his mask again.
He owed Asuma a drink for these new team arrangements.
The Wolves, when not on duty, got up to all sorts of things and Naruto had grown used to their antics. He usually wasn't too surprised when he walked in on them doing something strange.
He had not, however, expected to find Anko, Rusted, Clicky, Tayuya, and three Wolves sitting on his sitting room floor playing cards. Kurenai sat in one of the couches above them, book in hand, and gave him a small wave when he walked in.
Naruto wasn't sure what, exactly, they were playing but Anko and Tayuya seemed to be getting along smashingly. He had a feeling the thought may be very true in a literal sense as well and made a mental note not to let the two of them be together unsupervised.
While seeing them all sitting around together wasn't too strange, he had most definitely not been expecting to run into a scowling Shizune, her fists resting on her hips. The explained why Clicky and Rusted were here.
"You!" Shizune jabbed a finger towards him accusingly. "I gave explicit orders that you were to rest. Team training is not resting."
Naruto spent a moment staring at her in thought. He recognized that she was saying this as a medical professional worried for their patient, which was heartening, but at the same time he wasn't exactly pleased with her and her team at the moment.
"No, I suppose it's not." He stepped around her easily enough and moved through the sitting room towards his office. "but ignoring instructions seems to be the theme as of late so I thought I'd give it a try. It's been most productive."
In a single second Shizune went from irate medical professional to an employee who very much would like to avoid their boss until someone else fucked up more. The group playing cards had looked up at Naruto's voice, both Clicky and Rusted paling slightly at them. Yeah, he was still displeased.
"Should any of you need me I'll be in my office, otherwise enjoy your game." He paused in the doorway, sending a nod to Kurenai. "And your book." With that he disappeared down the hallway, his steps measured but relaxed. Someone looking on without being able to hear his words might have assumed he had simply offered a casual greeting on his way through the room.
The room was silent for almost a minute afterwards, the only sound coming from Kurenai's book as she turned the pages calmly.
When they were certain he was out of earshot both Anko and Tayuya shared a look before letting out loud, drawn out whistles.
"Whoo-boy, you guys must have done something big to get him that pissed off. He just rolled his eyes the last time I crawled into his bed covered in blood."
Tayuya cocked a brow at the older woman, earning a shrug in response.
"What? I was tired and didn't have the energy to take a shower." The redheads look became pointed.
"...and I thought it would be more enticing than it ended up being. Happy?" Tayuya gave a satisfied nod before looking back to her hand and throwing down a card. Other than Anko, no one else seemed all that interested in continuing the game.
A heavy silence grew in the room until Kurenai decided to ask a question of her own.
"Did you apologize?"
"What?" Clicky looked over to the woman, wondering if she was crazy.
"Whatever you did to earn his ire, did you apologize for it?"
The Puppeteer snorted. "You think I'm going anywhere near him when he's pissed at me?" The Genjutsu mistress rose a brow over the top of her book, looking at the Suna native as if she were an academy student talking about all the Jutsu they already knew before their first class.
"Do you think he's ever going to be less angry if you don't apologize?" Kurenai turned back to her book. "I was fortunate that he didn't hold my absence against me and that I had been with Anko when she came to visit him. He can hold a grudge for a very long time and I don't think that's something you want from the person keeping you from Morino Ibiki's hospitality."
Clicky and Rusted both shuddered at the mere mention of the man. There was a reason he was infamous across the world. One did not mess with Morino Ibiki.
While Shizune had never met the man- or had the pleasure of enjoying his particular brand of hospitality- she knew that most of the other villages gave their Shinobi strict orders that they were to kill themselves rather than fall into the hands of Konoha and her top interrogator. Most of them considered that order a mercy, too.
She also noted that Kurenai had just confirmed her suspicions about her Suna subordinates.
"They don't need to," Spoke the medic. "I made the final call not to use his seals when Clicky couldn't see how they could possibly work. The responsibility is mine."
"And you intend to apologize?"
Shizune stared at the place Naruto had last been for a few moments before shaking her head. "Maybe after he's had some time to...rest." It sounded better than calm down or forget, but the idea was the same.
From her spot on the couch Kurenai just shrugged. "Suit yourself, I suppose." Her book closed with a snap. "But if you're not going to be in the office with him I think I'll take my reading there for a bit."
Rising from the couch she left the room after the young Daimyo.
The room fell silent again before Shizune gave a sigh. "I suppose I'll head back to the workshop and start on dinner." Rusted gave a wave, turning back to his cards with a contemplative frown, but Clicky rose from her spot on the floor.
"I think I'd rather not be in the same building as him, honestly. I'll join you." Other than her rants, that was probably the most Clicky had ever said to her.
"Make sure he rests this time." Shizune ordered the Wolves as she left. She wasn't sure how well they would listen but she felt better making sure those around him were aware that he shouldn't be stressing himself.
Who knows, maybe one of them would actually take his well being seriously enough to do so.
She knocked twice, opened the door, and stopped short.
That was a lot of paperwork.
Naruto looked up from his desk and gave her a small smile before returning to his work. "Hello Kurenai, finished with your book already?"
"I thought I'd read in here to give you some company, actually, if you don't mind."
"Not at all," He gestured to the seats across from him. "Make yourself at home."
"I'll do my best." She took one of the seats, careful not to hit any of the paperwork on the desk. Another small stack of papers was settled in the chair next to her. Picking up the stack she raised a brow at the young Daimyo. "A bit behind, are we?"
"Maybe just a little." Her brow rose even more. "Okay, I'm really far behind."
"I can tell." She didn't want to be nosy, everyone deserved their privacy, but there was also a burning curiosity that lead to her taking a peek at the stack of papers in her hand. "What is all this, anyway?"
From what she could see, they seemed to be reports for the most part. The top paper in her stack was covered in no small amount of red ink and seemed to be a financial report submitted by someone named Sai. By the red ink and copious notes that had been scribbled in the margin, it was immediately obvious that there were quite a few issues with it.
Such as the total expenses for the past month.
Gods above, that was not a small amount of money.
"Honestly, I'm not even sure." Naruto gave a sigh and reached for the next piece of paper. "There's usually no so much work, so I'm not sure where this came from. I'm thinking someone had been delivering it to my office in the den, but a lot of it is pretty recent. Wherever it came from, it needs to be done."
"By you?"
One of his brows rose. "Well, I can't exactly ask others to do my work for me."
"Yes, you could." She gave him a flat stare. "It's called delegation."
"I'm working on it."
The flat stare turned suspicious. "Working on delegating it or working on getting it done?"
"Yes."
Her look said she was less than pleased with his response but he carefully avoided it by keeping his gaze down at the paperwork before him. After a few moments of quiet- when he was certain she had given up glaring at him- he looked back up.
"So, how's your book?"
Kurenai crossed her arms over her chest, the book in question dangling almost carelessly from one of her hands.
"Do you really think you can change the topic so easily?" He gave a shrug.
"Usually works with Mai, but I think she's come to accept the fact that I'm too stubborn for her to change my mind." He paused, frowning. "She's usually pretty good about making changes that get around whatever I've been doing, though. Maybe it would just be easier to listen to her."
"The sooner you realize that the better." Kurenai grinned. "You two are close enough that you should know the woman is always right by now."
"Don't think that's true," He commented as he turned back to his work. "But it probably makes things a lot easier, doesn't it?"
"See? Learning already." She picked the papers off the chair again and moved them to a free- relatively, anyway- space on his desk. Turning the chairs towards eachother she took a seat and placed her feet on the other, opening her book to resume her reading. Naruto gave a small snort of amusement but returned to his work with a small shake of his head.
"Comfy?" He asked.
"Mmm, very."
"You know you'd probably be more comfortable back on that couch, right?"
"But then I wouldn't be spending time with you." He paused at that, looking up at the Genjutsu Mistress who met his gaze with her own. Neither spoke for a moment until Naruto broke the silence.
"Thank you, Kurenai."
She shot him a brilliant smile. "It's no problem, Naruto."
He fell silent again before offering "If you'd like, I can have someone drag one of the couches in here."
"That would be fantastic, these chairs are horrid."
Despite her initial panic, Naruko had quickly calmed down after fleeing the training ground. The thought of Kakashi being her father, however, continued to haunt her.
Even with his white hair she was certain he was much younger than her mother, but the possibility that her mother had in fact gone for a younger man was till present. That said, Naruko couldn't really think of any plausible reasons for him to be kept secret all these years if it was just Kakashi.
Unless her mother had been married to someone else, she supposed.
That was not a good train of thought for her to follow.
Hopefully her mother would be back from her mission soon so she could get some answers- or just confirmation that Kakashi wasn't her father.
She would be very satisfied- and much relieved- knowing only that much.
If he was her father, however -by whatever cruel design of the gods- then she had over a dozen years of missed presents and absence for the bastard to make up for. Jōnin or not, she'd kick his ass for not being there.
Still, it probably wouldn't hurt to make some offering to the gods in hopes that it wouldn't be so.
Naruko wasn't sure she could recover from such horrible news.
Kurenai had left some hours prior to get some sleep before her own team meeting- apparently team seven was not the only one going through changes- the next morning. Ino, she had told him, seemed to be adapting to her new teammates- Shino and Kiba- well enough. Kiba was still a little hesitant to take orders from the young woman but the Aburame heir was quite relieved to have someone other than Kiba willing to take the position.
He definitely didn't want it and fighting Kiba for the lead of the team was more trouble than it was worth. Ino, having grown used to giving orders to the fully grown men and woman of her clan, had no problems calling the shots during training.
Kurenai wasn't sure if she would be able to pass on her craft to the Yamanaka heiress, but she'd be able to turn her into a fine Kunoichi nonetheless.
In the time since Kurenai's departure Naruto thought he had made pretty decent progress through the piles that had been on his desk, cutting them down into small stacks that seemed much less daunting. He was acutely aware that there would be more coming in, though. There had always been a decent flow of paperwork to him- much to Mai's displeasure- but now he'd have to work on that and catching up on all of this.
Fortunately he should be able to spend a good chunk of tomorrow's meeting practicing his Kage-Bunshin with the advice Kakashi had given. It might not decrease his workload any, but it would sure as hell relieve him of stressing over not getting it all done in a timely manner.
Apparently one was not supposed to be braiding the Chakra of their clone together because while it would make a Chakra System for them it would be, well, braided. He supposed that made quite a bit of sense and would blame his oversight on being so used to forming his own chains that way.
And that was probably the first thing to work on once he got the Kage-Bunshin down. He could still form and control his chains easily enough, but the technique had so much more potential he never had the time- or excess Chakra- to explore. He'd have to fix that.
He hadn't visited Yugao in a while either, so he was definitely due for a visit with her. Seeing just how much he had regressed, however, was not going to be fun - especially when she had spent so much of her own time teaching him.
Still, he'd have to face the music eventually. He'd been neglecting his training in favor of seeing to the needs of his Wolves and his skills would have suffered for it. The sooner he owned up to the fact and corrected it the better.
A quick glance over to the clock on his wall told him he'd have to get up for his team meeting in an hour or so and a peek out his window showed that the sun had indeed already greeted the world. He entertained the idea of an hour nap but dismissed it with a shake of his head.
Looks like it was going to be coffee then, because there was no way he could manage to sleep for just an hour and he didn't want to be late.
Sleeping soundly in his bed, a great shudder ran down Kakashi's spine and his eye opened in panic.
"There's been a disturbance in the Hip."
Naruto wasn't power, he was control.
As links of chain caught Kunai from the air and sent them darting back towards the Kakashi-clone that had thrown it Naruko was reminded of that fact.
When those Kunai ended up ripping through the surprised clone she was reminded that there was a certain power in control, too.
She also realized that she had quite a ways to go to master her chains. Unlike Naruto who seemed to have focused on them, Naruko had spread her training- well, Kushina had spread her training- across various Shinobi skills. It was good to be well versed in many aspects, but she could also see the benefit of always having a skill you could fall back on if the others didn't work.
Naruto's control, however, could only do so much without the Chakra to support it. Six hours into the training session he was looking exhausted. His blade was out, ready to make use of his lesser Kenjutsu ability, and his chest heaved noticeably.
Two chains remained coiled tightly around him like armor, all the Chakra he had left from the looks of it, and Naruko had to wonder what had happened that had reduced his reserves so drastically.
Another thing to ask her mother when she got back.
Uzumaki were well known for their monstrous Chakra capacity, after all, so an Uzumaki without was most definitely abnormal. Then again, what about Naruto was normal anyway?
Despite his evident exhaustion, he didn't look like he was going to stop anytime soon. That was Uzumaki stubbornness alright. She was willing to bet he'd push himself until he collapsed unconscious unless someone stopped him. She'd know, considering how many times her mother had to drag her back to wherever they were staying when Naruko had taken it too far.
Some part of her also reminded her that open combat wasn't Naruto's preferred style and that if he had been forced into open combat for more than six hours he was already in some serious trouble. Actually, most Shinobi would have trouble with six hours of combat but as this was training and Kakashi wasn't trying to kill them- or Naruto, at least- it was probably more equivalent to an hour or two of true combat.
Still, not too bad when clashes between Shinobi didn't often extend for longer than twelve minutes.
Well, there had been a battle between two Genjutsu users that took four days and ended up drawing a crowd of Hunter Nin, passing Shinobi, and a few bandits but that was most definitely not the standard.
She was not the only one who had noticed how tired he was, either, because after Naruto stabbed another clone through the kidney Kakashi held up a hand to call the session to a close.
Naruto's chains immediately shot into the ground beneath him and from the new holes spilled the smoke of a dispelled Kage-Bunshin. Kakashi frowned behind his mask- maybe Kage-Bunshin weren't the best idea, but with Naruto trying to learn the technique he figured he might as well provided the young man with plenty of chances to observe it- and Naruko shot her Sensei a glare.
Usually the man made use of earth clones and the occasional water clone, which didn't have as much free will. Ever since he had made use of these new clones, however, their training sessions had become much more dangerous. One Kakashi trying to kill you by making it look like a training accident was bad enough, but having up to five of the fuckers all plotting separately?
It was a good thing Naruto seemed so paranoid- and she never thought she'd say that- because otherwise the clones would have got them quite a few times.
Sakura had been fortunate enough to wear herself out before the Kage-Bunshin had come into play and had spent the last few hours sitting next to a tree watching them. Well, she was supposed to be practicing the leaf-clinging exercises because it took almost no Chakra but after an hour had grown bored of it and proceeded to just sit there.
Naruko felt for her, that sort of training was exceedingly dull. On the other hand, it was obvious that some more physical training would do the girl some good.
Couldn't have her collapsing on them out in the field, after all.
"Alright, good session today everyone." Kakashi's frown disappeared in an instant, replaced by his trademark eye-smile. "I'll see you all again bright and early tomorrow, so make sure you get plenty of rest." The first two statements were bold-faced lies and the third was directed towards an embarrassed Sakura.
"See you tomorrow, Naruko-san, Naruto-san." Sakura gave a quick wave and scurried away. Naruko opted to just collapse into the grass where she had been standing. It was a pretty nice day, maybe she'd take a nap in the sun before heading home.
Naruto, on the other hand, turned towards the forest and gave a sharp whistle. From the corner of her eye Naruko could see a man in a Wolf mask slink from the forest carrying a towel and a bottle of water. Naruto accepted them both gratefully- patting the man on the head, much to Naruko's confusion- before wiping off the sweat and draining a good half of the bottle in one draw.
He capped the bottle and tossed it over towards Naruko- nearly hitting her- and proceeded to shed the clothing from his upper body. It wasn't that hot out, but she supposed it probably felt better than a sweat-soaked shirt clinging to him.
"You can have the rest of that." He commented as he started to towel down his torso. "I can't drink much more on an empty stomach."
The towel was handed back to the Wolf and Naruto ruffled the man's hair- which really was an odd sight- before clasping him on the shoulder. "Stop that, you did well." As the Wolf perked up Naruko realized the mans' shoulders had been slumped forward, almost as if he was beating himself up over not bringing Naruto something to eat.
Naruko knew her brother worked closely with them and that when she last visited she had been served tea by one of them, but this was just weird.
"I don't like to eat when I'm training." Naruto continued. "I'll grab something at home." The Wolf seemed to perk up even more, like he had just had some great idea. Naruko had a feeling the idea involved dinner.
Kakashi, who had already buried his nose into his favorite literature, spoke up without looking from his book. "Maa, Naruto, are you sure you should be pushing yourself like this? You seem pretty exhausted to me."
Naruto rolled both his eyes and his shoulders.
"It's fine, Inu." He moved his hands into a position Naruko had become pretty familiar with throughout the day. "The sooner I get this down the better." Kakashi gave a shrug but Naruko noticed that he was looking over his book to focus entirely on her brother. It was evident that the man was concerned but wasn't going to do anything to stop it.
She had to wonder if that was some sort of teaching method or if Kakashi simply didn't think he'd be able to stop him from trying it anyway. Uzumaki were known for being stubborn, so that last option wasn't too far fetched.
Naruto's first announcement of "Kage-Bunshin no Jutsu" was met with nothing except smoke, but that didn't seem to deter him any. In fact, with every failure he seemed to square his shoulders more like he was preparing himself to take some great burden. Well, that or he was trying to keep himself standing. Naruko figured both were equally as likely.
Kakashi's book also seemed to get closer to his pouch with every attempt, but Naruko wasn't sure if the man actually noticed.
Naruto seemed like he would collapse any second, but he also didn't look like he would be stopping anytime soon. Uzumaki stubbornness at its finest. Briefly, she contemplated leaving the field or actually taking a nice little lap, but she kind of wanted to see him succeed.
As another burst of smoke answered his call, she thought it might be quite a while before she go that chance.
Oh? Still no Mai? Kukukukukukukuku.
I'll show some kindness- she does appear in the next chapter.
I have to wonder what sort of reactions the scene will get, but if I'm perfectly honest it will probably be people going on about how she's betrayed Naruto and needs to be killed.
Please do try to keep in mind that just because you think she's betrayed him doesn't mean he'd feel like she betrayed him. Also keep in mind that by the time you get some of these chapters it will be weeks after I've written them, so there's very little chance of things changing in them.
Of course, now the big question is "why would I think she betrayed him?" but, really, you have all known where this is going for weeks now. I'm not that hard to figure out.
With that said, enjoy the wait until the next chapter.
Until I next have your attention,
-Eyazahrid