"It seems I owe you an apology Sakura-san, though in hindsight I can claim the slap I gave you was for lying to me rather than because Naruto-kun died on your watch." Umi's tone, along with the fact she had already decked him when she opened the door with him on the other side, made Naruto regret telling Kakashi he would be fine without him as a shield.
That had primarily been because he had felt a little sorry for the man, after Yugao had finished trying to gut him, even the Hokage unwilling to try and stop the enraged ANBU captain until she had claimed her pound of flesh. But, it now seemed he and Sakura would pay the price for his generosity.
"Umi-chan, in Sakura-chan's defence, it was mine and Kakashi..." Naruto's attempted injection and defence died in his throat, Umi's glare turning on him slowly, a fury burning in her eyes he didn't think any version of him could muster before now.
"Yes, your clever idea to find out about this whole situation with Masori, I was listening earlier and I can understand the logic behind your little deception. But what I don't think you appreciate Naruto-baka, is the effect your 'death' has had on the twins. It took two days for me to get Yuna-chan to sleep without constant nightmares, let alone eat, and Aiko-chan has already attacked two people who said your death was just 'good riddance'. If the Hokage wasn't so understanding she could have been arrested!" Naruto bowed his head as a rarely experienced emotion, shame, washed over him. He hadn't realised that he had come to mean so much to the twins in such a short amount of time.
"Hai Umi-chan, you are right I wasn't thinking, and I'm sorry for the distress I must have caused you as well. Do you want to go and get the twins now? From the sounds of it, me appearing at their front door without warning won't end well." To Naruto's surprise, Umi smiled at his thoughtfulness and nodded, before turning back to Sakura.
"He learns, slowly but I think we can call it progress in our efforts to make him more suitable. Sakura-chan, I will apologise sincerely for hitting you earlier now, we both know how stubborn our Baka can be despite your efforts to keep him in line." Naruto blushed slightly at the backhanded admonishment, it sounded odd to hear 'baka' be used so affectionately, and his blush only increased when he noticed Sakura had turned red in the face as well.
"Umi-San, you shouldn't say such things about your boyfriend and I! People might get the wrong idea." Umi muttered something under her breath that Naruto didn't catch, though her expression was very similar to the vaunted 'cat who had caught a canary', which was quite concerning for Naruto even as Umi pulled the pinkette into a one armed hug.
"Oh, I think people already have those ideas my little kouhai, I know I would. After all, you have already slept in his bed and been rescued by him from bandits, it's starting to sound like the sort of thing your Ero-sensei would read. Speaking of those bandits, I assume that you have already spoken to Ayame-chan and Teuchi-san?" The question was aimed at him rather than the stuttering Sakura, though he was concentrating more on working out on what angle his clone was trying for with Sakura, giving a short nod that was enough for Umi to carry on talking.
"Well in which case you can make it up to us by taking us out for dinner and the story there, maybe you can even invite some of your other friends as well Naruto-kun. In the meantime, I just want to chat to Sakura-chan about something, which I can do whilst we go and get the twins ready." It was a good idea, and would save him having to tell the same story a dozen times, though he would have to dance around the parts about Uzu and the slavery as the details were still classified by the Hokage.
"Sure Umi-chan, but this isn't because you are still mad at Sakura-chan is it? It wasn't her fault." Obviously he had said something right as Sakura beamed at him, whilst Umi settled for shaking her head and rolling her eyes in spite of her wry grin.
"No, I'm not mad at her anymore Naruto-kun, you possibly but we can sort that out later. I just want to talk to her about... Girl stuff." That was more than enough to put Naruto off pursuing the idea any further, raising his hands and shaking his hands in a shooing gesture.
"Well I won't keep you any longer then, I will just wait here for you to bring the twins down here, feel free to take your time. All the time you need." It might seem cowardly or naive, but even Naruto wasn't stupid enough to fail to understand the obvious, when a girl said girl stuff guys weren't usually welcome.
Giggling at his unsubtle retreat, Umi whisked a still nervous Sakura out of the door, leaving Naruto to summon a dozen clones. Each one had a different target group, based on who he had seen at his funeral, whilst one was to go and talk to the Ichikaru's about the plan. He wouldn't want Teuchi-Jiji to run out of stock before he was finished with his story now would he?
With that done and the clones leaving through the various exits, Naruto found himself with nothing else pressing to do. So he went over to the bookcase, which Umi had insisted he buy and install once he started borrowing regularly from the library, and picked out the sealing for dummies book that Nami had left for him. Whilst in Wave, he had used some of the ideas he had seen in the book to make some on the fly modifications to the take out tags, and they seemed to work out fairly well. Now he was wondering what other modifications he could come up with.
He had read somewhere about seals that could be applied to improve the durability of clothing, perhaps he could try and apply it to his next weapon, it would hopefully lessen the wrath of Tenten if he didn't lose any more weapons on missions...
*Line Break*
"You like him..." Whilst there were definitely more sensitive ways that Umi could, and probably should have opened the conversation/accusation,Sakura freezing in place on the steps next to her showed it had the right impact.
"Uh-wha... Umi-San, I have no idea..." Umi stopped Sakura's very suspect denial with a raised hand, glad she had managed to scare off not only the boss but her usual clone guards with her 'girl stuff.'
"Don't bother trying to deny it Sakura-chan, you know I've had my suspicions for a while, which is why we had that conversation regarding my concerns just after you moved in with us..." Concerns primarily focussed on Umi's worry that the pinkette was taking advantage of the boss' feelings towards her, which thankfully was denied in a suitably outraged and horrified manner by the girl in question.
"I appreciate that you tried to put some distance between yourself and Naruto-Kun after that, but Naruto-kun is not one to let people back off from friendship with him easily, especially when there are his own feelings involved." By this point Sakura was bright red and looked ready to bolt down the stairs, which was the risk with being as up front about things as Umi had been.
"We both know his feelings for you haven't changed, even if his method of expressing them has..." Sakura looked away at this and Umi continued in a slightly defeated tone.
"As much as I know he cares about me, the Baka couldn't lie about something like that even if he wanted to, those feelings aren't anything like the ones he has for you. If I tried to confront him about it or make him choose, I wouldn't like the result even if he did choose me, not that I think he would..." Her candidness was as honest as the the slight hurt in her voice, even though the boss ending up with Sakura was the plan, she liked to believe she had been a pretty awesome girlfriend damn it.
"Umi-chan I am sure you would be happy if Naruto-kun chose you..." Umi smiled at Sakura's response, despite her hotheaded anger at times the girl really could care more than anyone else Umi knew.
"But that would lose me my best friend here, and I would prefer not to do that over a boy, even if that boy is Naruto-kun." Umi could see the wheels turning in Sakura's head, after all the situation had many similarities with her past friendship with Ino, though it was obvious her claim about Sakura being her best friend obviously surprised her.
"So, the only way I can do this is to not get mad at you, after all it's not really your fault. So I want you to stay close to Naruto-kun..." The shock on Sakura's face made Umi consider explaining exactly why she wanted her to do so, that if Sakura did shy away or act differently the boss would think it was something he had done wrong, but Umi did that enough with the boss at the moment and found it more fun to let people come to their own conclusions.
"But, I want you to really try and work out your feelings, because if you try and take Naruto-kun from me for a childish crush..." Umi made sure to establish eye contact with Sakura as she made her threat/promise, to make her sincerity of sentiment clear.
"Ninja or not, I will make you pay, understand?" Nobody would hurt the boss if she could help it, not even Sakura-chan!
Obviously Umi was more intimidating than she imagined she could be, Sakura frantically nodding her understanding, probably caught off guard by the rapid changes of pace this conversation had taken. Relaxing to her usual smile, Umi grabbed the slightly traumatised girl by the hand to carry on up the stairs, satisfied that she had reacted to her protective instincts in a suitable manner.
Now she just had to work on the arduous task of subtly getting the boss to notice Sakura's changing feelings, despite the fact the boss was woefully incompetent at noticing these kind of things. In all honesty Umi was surprised that she had noticed so quickly, given she was the boss's clone she should have the same oblivious nature he did,but quickly dismissed the conundrum with a mental shrug.
It must be true what people said, it was so much easier to notice someone's feelings when they aren't directed at you...
*Line Break*
Thankfully for Naruto's bruised and abused body, Yuna and Aiko were too happy to find out that Naruto's had actually not died to be too mad at him for the deception that had upset them in the first place. The Twins had not let go of him since the first bruising hug they had given him when they realised it wasn't a joke or a henge, a blushing Yuna sat on his shoulders and a beaming Aiko gripping his hand in a death grip, much to Umi's amusement as she walked the other side of Aiko and holding her other hand.
Which left him and Sakura walking side by side and occasionally brushing against each other, which was a lot less awkward than it might have originally been, given what they had been through as part of team 7. The conversation on the way to the ramen stand was thankfully filled with mundane topics, such as what the Twins had been up to whilst he had been away, though it was clear Umi was desperate to needle him about Yuna's actions.
They were stopped by a literal crowd of people in front of Ichikaru's restaurant, Naruto thought Ayame had been joking in his clones memories when they went out to get three days stock for tonight, now seeing all these people he feared they might have underestimated things.
"Sorry boss, when we told Tenten-chan's team about tonight they were fairly loud about it, word must have spread about the Wave mission as well, so here we are. What's the plan?" Luckily, when Naruto didn't know what to do, he had a fall back plan that always worked.
"Right, out of the way people, story teller and company coming through! You only get one chance to hear a story from a freshly resurrected man, don't waste it by blocking me from my ramen!" Making it up as he goes along, it worked well enough this time, as the crowd parted like the Red Sea.
"That's Naruto alright, troublesome as it is." The sarcastic drawl brought Naruto's attention to the three teams who he had actually asked to attend, so that he would only have to tell this story the once, though given the frown on Hinata's sensei's face he would have to make it one hell of a tale.
"Go and fill them in on the basic's, I really don't want to upset the woman anymore than I already seem to have with any... Surprises." That was directed at the clone who had approached him, who nodded and quickly headed over to the three teams plus one sensei.
Naruto quickly gave out further instructions, which lead to clones transforming into a small stage with chair and table modestly placed to one side. Moving to stand on his new platform, which only just brought him to the height of most the people there, Naruto put on his best performance grin and gave a cheeky wave.
"Good evening everyone! I will open with an apology to you all, the stories of my early passing into the great ramen broth beyond have been greatly exaggerated, which to those who have dealt with my artistic awesomeness in the past must be greatly reassuring..." The gathered ninja who had dealt with his pranking gave a chuckle at this, the general atmosphere relaxing slightly as Naruto carried on speaking.
"Kakashi-sensei used my injuries to disguise him assigning me a super awesome mission, unfortunately I cannot talk about it, if you have issue with that take it up with him not me okay? However, as I am sure many of you have heard, I have just returned from a mission to Wave country that I can most definitely tell you about and is probably why you are all here. So, if you want to pull up a seat and place an order with a waitress, then I will give you the story of 'Team Seven and the Demons of the Mist." Feeling rather pleased with himself, both by the title he had come up with as well as the confused looks of the people gathered around him, Naruto activated the Kage Bushin jutsu once more.
"Ano, Naruto-sama..." Naruto was distracted from the dispersing smoke as dozens of clones transformed into large tables and chairs by the docile question/call from his right, where a short blonde woman in typical waitressing uniform was staring at him in complete adoration.
"What would Naruto-sama want for dinner? Perhaps I can help Naruto-sama with his needs..." It took a moment before Naruto actually connected the dots and realised this was one of his clones, the clone obviously deciding to go for a prank for some reason, and not a tasteful one at that. Luckily, Naruto managed to keep himself from reacting beyond a slight widening of the eyes.
"A miso ramen, a shrimp and a beef ramen, that should do for now waitress-san." Despite its best efforts his clone did look a little disappointed at his lack of reaction, though it quickly schooled it's face back into a serene smile.
Looking round and seeing that nearly everyone was sat down, though they were getting some odd looks by the people in the street who had just been walking past, Naruto ran through a few quick stretches, knowing that this type of story telling would leave him cramped and aching if he didn't. Then once he was ready, having already gotten a few laughs for his overly enthusiastic comedic stretches, Naruto sat down and began to speak
"Now, the waitresses will be coming round regularly with your orders and to see if you want any more, though the orders will be brought to the table rather than a specific person to avoid interruptions. So without further delay, let's get on with the show!" Starting from the departure at the gate, which gained Umi more than a few wolf whistles, Naruto dove into the story.
By the time the Demon Brothers ambush occurred some of his clones had even taken on acting roles, providing visuals out on the road, meaning he very much had the audience hooked. Naruto didn't know whether he had gotten all the details of the Mizu ninja entirely correct, it had been rather frantic both times he had faced them on the field, but they elicited a few gasps from the crowd as his clones henged into them along with the menacing chain they carried.
He didn't know quite how much time had passed, but judging by the dozens of empty ramen bowls he had seen come past (there had been a short break in the story when Ayame had begged for some help washing the dishes so they could be used again), it had been at least an hour. The Zabuza clone's arrival complete with Kubikiribocho and clone smokescreen, had in fact worked a little too well, the clone forced to dodge a couple of kunai thrown by instinct from the more reflexive ninja in the crowd.
Naruto had even dragged Sakura up on the stage, primarily to talk about the fight with the bandits when they tried to kidnap Tsunami, but also 'what happened' after he had fallen unconscious on the bridge. She hadn't been happy with him at first, especially as he had given her no warning beforehand, but with the now enthusiastically listening crowd and Naruto's unspoken support she seemed to quite enjoy herself.
Eventually though the story ended, and Naruto found himself bowing to substantial applause not only from the original group who had come to the stand, but some of the passers by who had stopped to listen. Everyone then began to disperse, most having eaten and drunk their fill, leaving Naruto to step down from the stage before offering Sakura a hand. Not that he thought she needed it, but because he was still trying to put those basic etiquette lessons into practice.
"So you really expect us to believe that you fought and defeated two chuunin ninja, but also survived getting attacked by one of the seven swordsmen? Please, if this Zabuza guy is anywhere near as strong as you made him out to be, he would never let you take his sword off him let alone not cut you in half at the end there..." As Sakura surprisingly accepted the offered hand, Naruto had to admit he was surprised that Kiba had taken this long to start being brash, turning around with a thoughtful frown as he considered how to reply.
"I wouldn't say that the news of me beating chuunin should be news, but I suppose you weren't here for the previous story about Mizuki-teme, will have to tell you about some time. And I wouldn't say I took Zabuza-san's weapon off him, would you Sakura-chan? I think it was more it was stuck in me too much for him to pull out when Kakashi-sensei got all mad at him..." There were a couple of gasps from Ino and Hinata at his rather brazen attitude regarding a very major injury, but the others were more looking at him in shock.
"Troublesome, if it weren't for the fact I have just seen you put away enough ramen to feed six people I would be demanding to know who you really are, the Naruto I knew would never have tried to be modest about such a feat." Shikamaru's comment made Naruto chuckle and scratch his head awkwardly.
"I haven't changed that much have I guys? I suppose that's what two dangerous missions do to you, especially when going blade to blade with someone like Zabuza..." Kiba scoffed imperiously, buffing his nails in a dismissive manner.
"That's if any of that story is true, it was probably your sensei that did all the work whilst you hid away with you tail between your legs like usual dobe." Whilst Naruto would normally have gotten pissed off at that kind of insult, he was too busy holding Sakura back from trying to turn Kiba into a smear on the pavement.
"Kiba-san/kun!" The twin calls from Hinata and Kurenai were obviously meant to be admonishments, but before either of them could continue, Mount Sakura went off.
"You dare call Naruto-kun a coward Kiba-baka? Just say it one more time, I dare you!" Whilst he was glad Sakura was directing her rage elsewhere, Naruto couldn't believe the petite girl's strength, causing him to use both arms to hold her back.
This caused too much stress on his shoulder injury, Naruto feeling first one, then all of his stitches burst open in an agonising cascade. Letting go of Sakura with a pained gasp, which was probably manlier than the scream he actually wanted to let out, Naruto reached up instinctively to grasp his shoulder beneath his jacket. Judging by the wetness he could already feel spreading through his t-shirt, Naruto knew the feeling hadn't been one he had just remembered, slipping to one knee as the pain overtook him for a moment.
"Naruto!" Ino surprised cry seemed to make Sakura realise she was no longer being held back, having already covered half the distance to Kiba with fists raised and ready.
As she turned round, all anger faded from her body as her eyes landed on him, rushing back to him with Ino and Chouji alongside her. Quickly unzipping his jacket, Sakura gently but firmly grasped his hand and removed it from the wound, frown on her face showing it was probably as bad as it felt.
"Oh Naruto-kun, I'm sorry, Ayame-chan could we use your back room please? I don't want us to get arrested for patching him up in public, and if I stay out here I might get arrested for grievous bodily harm as well..." For a moment Naruto thought she meant his injury, but as Chouji helped him up using his good arm Naruto saw her glare at a now rather worried Kiba, the boy obviously realising at this juncture that Naruto hadn't in fact lied.
"Chouji-san, I remember from the academy you aren't too fond of blood, so could you please keep the twins busy please? They are Aiko and Yuna and the girl they are stood with is Umi-san, Ino-chan can you help me get him inside? Ayame-Chan, could I please have some sake and any bandages you have? What Naruto and I have might not be enough..." Sakura's authoritative tone seemed to catch everyone off guard as no one protested in the slightest as they did as she asked.
The two girls carried him in with minimal fuss, the remaining patrons shifting out of the way to allow them into to the shack's back room, Ayame moving off to explain what was happening to her dad whilst Sakura gestured to him with a small sigh.
"Time to lose the tops Naruto-kun, you know the routine." As she moved to help him Ino whistled appreciatively.
"You've gotten him well trained at least forehead... Hai, hai coming." The blonde's snarky comment trailed off underneath Sakura's glare, the young heiress helping to first remove his jacket and then his t-shirt, a sharp intake of breath coming from her as she looked over his chest.
"Kami Naruto, you've got more scars than my father! Sakura, I'm going to use the T-shirt to try and stem the worst of his back injuries as it is ruined anyway." Naruto winced as Ino carried out her promise a moment later, pressing the former garment deep into his shoulder blade, which thankfully had been the bit the Kyuubi agreed to heal.
"Sakura-san, here are all the bandages we currently have, Tousan has gone out to get some more from the local shinobi store. He also has given me this sake, it's not much but..." Ayame stopped as Sakura grabbed the sake out of her hands, her other hand pressing some bandages into his wound.
"Kami Naruto, you couldn't just let me deck the teme could you? Right, I need you to stay still okay, this is going to sting." Sting was an understatement Naruto thought to himself a little harshly, even as Sakura pulled the bandages away and poured some sake onto the wound, though he managed to bite his lip and avoid a verbal response.
"Sakura-san, are you sure you want to do this here? Surely it would be better to get him to a hospital..." The comment came from team 8's sensei, who had just ducked into the back room without so much as a knock.
"Naruto, flame please, I would ask someone else but I doubt Ino-chan knows it and I don't have time to teach her." Naruto nodded and raised his good hand to form the signless jutsu Kakashi had taught them in the aftermath of the fight on the bridge, the jutsu was meant to form at the fingertips and could be used to light campfires, but with Naruto's terrible control it was more like a Bunsen burner had appeared in the middle of his hand.
It served as a perfect method for Sakura to sterilise her equipment that she drew from her belt and pouches, needles being sterilised from tip to eye with practised precision, whilst Ayame took over pressing the bandage onto his wounds. Only once she was satisfied she had sterilised everything properly did Sakura deign the older woman with an answer, threading her first needles as she spoke with a dangerous tone.
"With as much respect as I had for Kakashi-sensei after our genin test, Kurenai I think it was, don't think you automatically know what is best. First time I did this was on a battlefield, having just watched one of my teammates seemingly die and the other bleeding out in front of me, his clone having just taken out over fifty people in one of the bloodiest explosions I have ever witnessed. If that wasn't enough the only help I had was a drunk old man and the expertise of a defeated enemy, who was somewhat delirious from their broken arm, so this situation is so much better I won't even try for an analogy." Sakura took a breath as she got Ayame to lift the bandages to have a look, before shaking her head and providing a new bandage, leaving Ino to mutter disbelievingly from behind him.
"Damn forehead..." Before the newly named Kurenai could speak in response, Sakura continued, raising the sake bottle to Naruto's lips.
"I have done this enough times over the last week and a half I could probably write a treatise on the treatment on catastrophic shoulder injuries, enough that Naruto even trusts me with a needle near him whilst conscious. So I don't need someone, coming in and just assuming she can tell me what is the best for the situation, without knowing the first thing about the patient." Naruto couldn't help but stare open mouthed at his teammate/friend, he had seen her act like that with Kakashi a couple of times over the last week, but he had never thought he would see her slam another Jounin so methodically.
He wasn't the only one, Kurenai seemed torn between respect and embarrassed anger, settling in the end for stunned silence as Sakura finally seemed satisfied that the bleeding had subsided enough for her to get to work. Naruto was glad he had had several sips of sake now, the alcoholic beverage not only helping with the pain but also to reduce the sense of awkwardness that was in the room.
"Sakura-chan, you know you are really scary sometimes right?" It was probably the alcohol, as Naruto would never have dared come out with a phrase like that normally, but to his surprise Sakura merely blushed slightly instead of getting angry with him.
"Sorry, but if I wasn't you probably would try running away like you do in your stories about the hospital, sorry to you as well Kurenai-sensei. But Naruto doesn't like hospitals, though he won't tell me why I imagine it has something to do with the other scars he won't talk about." Naruto winced at that, it wasn't as if he could tell her about being stabbed because someone thought he was the Kyuubi.
"No need to apologise Sakura-san, though I am impressed with your skill thus far, you must have quite the natural skill at battlefield treatment." Sakura shrugged, though Naruto could tell she was pleased at the compliment of her skill, then he was distracted by someone tracing one of his scars on his shoulder.
"I am sure he won't mind telling us about a few of them, what's this one from Naruto?" Ino's question caught him off guard, but after a few moments he remembered the past of that particular scar.
"Spear to the back whilst fighting through a hundred mercenaries to rescue Sakura-chan, though I'm not telling you any more than that Ino-chan, you have to earn those stories." Sakura beamed at that, as she knew the stories behind quite a lot of his scars now, obviously the fact he was drawing the line with Ino made the knowledge much more valuable to her.
Sakura carried on working in amiable silence after that, until she had finished with the front and moved round to the back, where she proceeded to talk quietly with Ino about what she was doing and the methods involved.
"Naruto-san, whilst I did come in here to ensure your well being, I feel I must also apologise to you." Naruto managed to keep his surprise to a raised eyebrow, what could a Jounin want to apologise to him for?
"Hinata was very upset when news of your death reached us, more than I have ever seen her before, and I allowed that to taint my view of you when I heard you had in fact returned. If I had not allowed that to happen, I probably would have stopped Kiba well before he went as far as he did. I know given the behaviour of me and my team we do not warrant this, but I would ask for the opportunity that my team can train and spar with you sometime? Given what you had said, you have a lot of experience that my team currently lack, and I would be willing to pay for your time..."
Very interesting, Naruto hadn't even considered Kurenai failing to keep Kiba in line, until she mentioned it as part of her long rambling speech, and the offer to effectively be a paid instructor was intriguing.
"Well Kurenai-San, I wouldn't worry about Kiba too much, he is kinda like me so I'm used to it. And sure, I can come for a spar, though first I probably need to see Tenten-chan about a new weapon, and whether she has a stronger bow I can use... Ow Sakura-chan, what the hell?" Naruto felt his indignant comment was justified, given Sakura had just finished tying up one of his last stitches with a particularly sharp and painful tug.
"The first and only priority you have is getting yourself healed up, if I have to stitch this up one more time, I will send you to the hospital to fix it." Naruto blanched at the threat, perhaps he shouldn't have told her of his hospital hatred if that was going to be her go to threat now, especially as he had taken getting healed as a given rather than an active target to aim for.
"No need to get hasty Sakura-dono, of course I will get fully healed and cleared by your wise and illustrious self before I do anything more..." Probably laying it on a bit too thick, as evidenced by the pouring of some more sake on his wound for a final disinfection, but then there was a soft touch and an unfamiliar wet sensation over the wound that he didn't recognise for a moment.
"Forehead, what are you doing?" Ino was quickly stopped from saying anymore, as Sakura spoke up rapidly, whilst beginning to wrap his wound in bandages.
"It's for good luck, that's all..." The blonde girl chuckled but didn't say anything more, leaving Naruto slightly confused, a familiar voice speaking up from the shadows and making him jump before he could think on it further.
"As much as I don't want to interrupt this rather touching beginning to an Icha Icha scene..." Kurenai flinched at the sudden voice from just behind her, though she relaxed a moment later with a small sigh.
"Anko-chan, what have I told you about sneaking up on people?" The purple haired kunoichi, who had appeared through the flap a moment before speaking, then wrapped her arms around Kurenai's neck in a very friendly manner.
"But Ku-chan, it's not my fault if I just want to surprise you with hugs and love..." This caused the lightest of blushes to appear on Kurenai's face, Naruto chuckling for a moment at the almost familiar character who had just appeared, before speaking up.
"Evening Anko-san, what can we do for you? As much as I am sure Kurenai loves the attention, given the mass arrests, I imagine you are a little too busy for a social call out of the blue. Not that I am complaining, if you did just want to pop in and see me..." He smirked for a moment, as he thought he might have won an initial opening jibe with the woman, until he saw the almost predatory look on her face.
"Remember that I not only know where you live gaki-kun, but I'm also the one in charge of your psych evaluations, so if you want me to come visit you late one night... But we can talk about that later." The sudden change to serious ninja from teasing minx didn't detract from her semi-playful threat, but as she held out an official summons Naruto realised the reason why, and that the time for playfulness was over.
"Genin Uzumaki, you have been summoned to attend the Konoha-Mizu negotiations about the bounty of Zabuza Moimochi and the Kubikiribocho, you are to report to the Hokage tower at 9 am and you will be directed from there." Accepting the summons, which he could read a little later when the warm fuzzy feeling the sake had given him had worn off, Naruto pulled off a salute with his good hand.
"Hai Jounin-san!"
"Glad to see you can be serious sometimes gaki, right that's me done here, those poor prisoners aren't going to interrogate themselves you know..." And with that Anko was gone, leaving three bewildered genin and a bemused Jounin staring at the space the special Jounin had occupied.
"Naruto-kun, who is that creepy lady? And why did she say she knew where you lived?" Ino's question brought a smile to Naruto's face, even as he tested his shoulder for motion on the way.
"How much time have you got Ino-chan? Why don't I tell you that story over some ramen? We should probably get back out there before Umi-chan really starts freaking out..." And given how scary she had been earlier, Naruto was determined not to deal with that again anytime soon...
The killing intent emanating from the centre of the group of tents Ronin's bandits now called home was almost palpable, several of the men obviously struggling to shake off it's effects as they moved to and fro. It wasn't actually Ronin's intention to give off that much intent, anger was just one of those emotions that came easily and took a long time to fade, especially given what he had just been told.
"So Masori-san has been arrested along with a large number of his under the counter employees? Can't say I am surprised, given the fall of Gato at the hands of Konoha, the rat couldn't keep a secret to save his life. Masori-san won't take long for them to break either, he was a weak and greedy man who assumed that his economic power placed him above the law... Oh stop shivering, I am not going to kill you." This was directed at the man who had delivered the news, and currently prostrated in front of Ronin as if his life depended on it, which given some of the previous bandit bosses Ronin had killed to unite all of the different groups together probably wasn't far off the mark.
"I am not one to kill the bearers of bad news, unless you are either the cause of the bad news or you were noticed finding out the bad news. You obviously had nothing to do with the former, so is it the latter I should be concerned with?" The man shook his head vigorously, whilst moving into the standard seiza position to carry on speaking.
"N-no Ronin-sama, I was not even trying to get any information when I overheard it from some passing merchants in the local town, they were not quiet or subtle in discussing their version of events. They think that Konoha concocted the charges of kidnapping and smuggling so that the village could confiscate his wealth, from the sounds of it several other merchants have left the village with the idea that it could also happen to them..." Ronin couldn't help but wonder if Konoha had truly thought their plan through, though probably the threat of their ninja being kidnapped far outweighed the economic losses they might suffer in the long term.
"Very useful information indeed Keiichi-san, both to let us know another customer has unfortunately fallen foul of his own lax methods, but also that there will be quite a few more wealthy targets to hit in the next few days..." Ronin had always been an opportunist that could find a positive in the most difficult situations, it was what made a good commander in the bandit's eyes, that and a very lax set of guiding morals of course.
"Ah Ronin-sama..." The man, obviously surprised that Ronin knew his name, was obviously not yet done with delivering the news he had acquired. "It's about that genin you wanted us to keep an eye out for..." Ronin chuckled, this at least was good news Keiichi was trying to report.
"I have already heard that the Uzumaki died on the same mission that took out Gato, in fact I hear from my sources that he was the one that took Gato out, proving that he would have continued to be quite the thorn in our side if he had not perished there." Ronin's good cheer quickly dissipated as Keiichi looked more worried rather than less at the fact the news of Uzumaki's death had already reached them.
"Gomenasai Ronin-sama, but it turns out that Uzumaki's death was just a cover to allow him to return to Konoha without suspicion, from a report I received from inside Konoha from our independent agent. If the reports are true, then Uzumaki has not only survived but was also highly influential in Masori-san's ar..." The man stopped speaking with a gasp as the killing intent spiked to new levels.
Ronin sighed in frustration as the man passed out from the intent, debating whether it would be cruel to now go back on the sentiment expressed earlier. After all, it was acceptable to kill the messenger if he brought bad news squared wasn't it?
A/N: The people have spoken! Or at least enough of you have to convince me that it would be a shame to end this story where I had left it. Whilst 30 reviews (of which 5-6 were guest reviews) for a story with 400 follows is not what I would normally consider to be a high standard, I have to stop being greedy and just take what I can get, especially as the reviews i did get were entirely positive.
So, now we have dealt with a little of the aftermath that comes with such a vicious and dangerous mission, and the impacts that it will have on our character's. The biggest and most obvious impact will be Sakura's attitude, which you will have seen in this chapter. She has been kidnapped, watched one of her teammates 'die' in front of her and forced to perform battlefield surgery on her other teammate.
That's the kind of thing that changes a person, so Sakura is taking things a lot more seriously and also being a lot more protective of Naruto (having him nearly dies twice, once entirely on her behalf is the sort of thing that sparks a closer friendship.) She is also slowly developing feelings towards our blonde protaganist, but I am not going to be one of those 'oh and suddenly they are in love' kind of authors, especially with the obvious obstacle in this case.
Umi is really coming into her own isn't she? There are those that will tell me that she is really OCC now, but in many ways I think she is merely taking many aspects of Naruto's personality and utilising them in a different way. Another thing I am surprised wasn't brought up when I first made hint at it, which is Umi's attitude towards Sakura since she moved in, is addressed in this chapter.
I go with the logic that shadow clones have a subconscious imperative to protect their creator, despite all the stories that have his clones trying to get him in trouble in their stead. Umi of course will take this imperative differently, trying to protect him mentally and emotionally instead of physically, which is why she is concerned about Sakura's possible motives. And to a certain extent, if she didn't act protective and jealous I think that would make people even more suspicious about her.
Anyway, massive A/N over, hope you enjoyed it and please leave a review on your way out!