XXV: Scales
The Former Land of Neck: Four Months, Eleven Days Ago:
Turning around Naruto got his first real look at the summons it was an immense chameleon that was seemingly flickering between castle and lizard. Its voice echoed out, "I am Shiromari, and I have stood watch over this place for fifty years for a friend long dead. You wish to take the last wish of my friend away from him?"
"Sh-Sh-Shiromari-sama, your m-master's en-enemies are long d-dead." Hinata told the giant summon. "Th-They were w-wiped out thirty y-years ago, d-during the Third Great Shinobi War. N-No one even r-remembers their name."
"NO! You lie!" The giant chameleon roared, its form solidifying, revealing the ruins of a castle where it had been laying. "I will find my masters enemies for myself and destroy them! I will not let you protect them!"
"Oi Lizard!" Naruto shouted at the summon. "You're not going anywhere!"
"You think you can stop me?"
"Well duh. I have your summoning scroll. If worst comes to worst I destroy it and you'll be stuck wherever you came from until someone finds you again and makes you a new scroll." Naruto boasted to the giant lizard "Now give us back the people you ate before I make you."
"Foolish boy! I am faster then you could ever hope to be! I can destroy you before you can harm the scroll!" The Boss summon stared down at Naruto with rage in his eyes. "You cannot threaten me!"
"Actually, yes I can."
"Naruto! Stop pissing of the giant lizard!" Sasuke whispered fiercely to Naruto.
"N-Naruto-kun, are you sure it's s-s-smart to anger it?"
"No worries, I got this," Naruto reassured his team.
"I will crush you!"
"Oh Yeah? Bring it you overgrown flyswatter!" Naruto shouted at the top of his lungs. Roaring in fury, the summon shot its giant tongue at Naruto and his team. "Naruto!" his teammates shouted as they jumped out of the way. Naruto, however, just stood there holding the scroll in one hand and smirking at the summon. Just before the Chameleon's tongue hit Naruto, it changed course and smashed into the ground next to him. "See? You can't hurt me. Now be a good boy and do what I told you to."
"Let's see if your power extends to your friends boy!" The lizard turned to attack Hinata, his giant tongue once again shot out.
"I Said Stop!" Naruto shouted, causing the summon to wince with pain, delaying its strike long enough for Naruto to get in front of Hinata, once again throwing its aim off. "Everyone get behind me!"
"I… Will…Not…Yield…" The summon was in obvious pain, but it refused to stop. "I don't know what you did to me but I will find a way to stop it!"
"What's going on Naruto?" Sasuke asked.
"Summons are supposed to obey me, but he's a boss level summon, so I guess he has the strength to resist for a while."
"What are you talking about Fishcake? Summons don't even have to obey their summoner, why should they obey you?"
"I think it has something to do with my eyes, I found out when I got the ring in my left eye." Naruto was interrupted when Shiromari started throwing things at them in an attempt to get around its inability to hit them directly. "We've got to do something to stop him until he can't resist anymore…"
"I told you pissing it off was a bad idea!" Sasuke complained as half a tree flew past his ear.
"N-Naruto-kun I can't keep this up for much longer." Hinata was panting as she danced out of the way of a rain of rocks.
"Naruto when we're done with this me and you are going to have a long talk about discussing your plans before acting them out." Kakashi scolded Naruto.
"Um…Um…" Naruto racked his brain for ideas before finally solving their problem. "Kuchiyose: Yatai Kuzushi no Jutsu!" (Summoning: Food Cart Destroyer) Naruto shouted slamming his palms on the ground. Gamabunta appeared three hundred feet above Shiromari's head. The giant chameleon didn't have time to react before the Toad Boss slammed into his back pinning him to the ground. "Hold him there Gamabunta! He won't listen to reason."
"You do realize who the kid is, don't you?" Gamabunta asked the crazed lizard.
"I don't care! They stand between me and my vengeance!" Shiromari struggled under the weight of Gamabunta, trying to through the massive toad off of his back.
"Hey kid! Sign his contract, it'll make it harder for him to resist!"
"NO! You cannot! That is a sacred artifact of my people only the worthy may sign it!" Shiromari began to thrash around wildly in a blind panic.
Meanwhile Naruto had unfurled the summoning scroll. He bit his thumb and signed his name, in the first blank spot on the scroll. Once again when he made his hand print three drops of blood fell from his left eye landing next to his hand print on the scroll. As soon as the third drop fell on the scroll, Shiromari's body began to slowly turn to smoke, apparently causing it great pain.
"Just stop and listen to us for a moment Shiromari!" Naruto called out to the summon.
"Look Lizard," Gamabunta chimed in, "stopping to listen to the kid can't hurt in the long run can it? And in the short run it'll definitely stop the pain."
As soon as Shiromari stopped struggling, his body ceased its transformation. "Speak quickly; I have little patience for games."
"Y-Your m-master has already been avenged. K-Konoha destroyed your enemies d-during the last Great War, this p-part of Konoha is even still known as the former land of N-Neck!"
"You've been trapped here for 50 years! Surely your summoner would want you to be able to go home again." Naruto tried to reason with the lizard.
The wind picked up, carrying a voice from nowhere. "…please…my…friend…listen…to…them…" The wind spiraled together, coalescing into the form of Kubisaki Kouza.
"G-G-GHOST!" Naruto shouted before diving behind Hinata.
"…you…have…earned…your…rest…please…don't…stay…for…me…"
"Kouza…" The Chameleon boss was silent for a moment. "Fine, I will listen, what do you want me to do?" Shiromari asked Naruto.
"Give us back everything you ate and go home." Naruto ordered the chameleon. Shiromari nodded and disappeared in a puff of smoke leaving behind a large pile of things; stone blocks, wooden beams, books, scrolls, and piles and piles of bones.
"…Thank…you…for…freeing…my…friend…" Kouza said as his ghostly form dissipated.
"I'm surprised Naruto, that actually worked." Kakashi sighed, leaning against a tree. "Now go find the princess."
Naruto made a hundred clones and ordered them to sift through the rubble. "So now what Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto said as his clones dragged the unconscious bodies of the princess and her guards towards them.
"Once the princess is ready to travel we'll escort her to the Land of Honey. That will probably take two or three days at the least." Kakashi paused and thought for a moment before continuing, "You know, it's a short ride by boat to the Land of Sea from the capital of the Land of Honey… you three up for a little vacation?"
"Hell yeah!" Naruto jumped in the air enthusiastically, before ordering some of his clones to sort through the rubble to find anything useful and the rest to dig a grave for all of the bones.
"Hn." Sasuke just shrugged, not really caring one way or the other.
"W-W-Why not?" Hinata stuttered, trying not to think about Naruto seeing her in a bathing suit, or seeing him in his, before she began to examine the seven people rescued from the castle. "I-It's going to take a f-few days b-before they're ready to travel a-again. Sh-Sh-Shiromari absorbed most of their ch-ch-chakra, and a f-few of the g-guards have b-bad acid b-burns, I can treat the chakra exhaustion with some soldier p-pills, and the b-burns with my cream, b-but it will take longer than if we had an actual m-medic on the t-team. M-M-Maybe wh-when we g-get back to K-Konoha I should take a course in m-medical N-Ninjutsu."
"That's a great idea!" Naruto said encouragingly. "Having a trained med-nin on the team would be really useful…I wonder why it's not mandatory…"
"A Med-nin takes years of intensive training to be really effective." Kakashi explained, "It's only been recently that we have enough time to devote to training med-nin properly… During the wars there just wasn't enough time to train them, in the end the Hokage decided that the potential medics were or more use on the front lines."
It took three days for the princess and her guards to be ready to travel again. During that time Naruto and his clones built a crude mausoleum out of the stone left over from the castle's foundations. When he was done he began to sort through the books and scrolls left behind, in the end he made three largish piles, one containing scrolls of purely historical value, one containing various training texts for the Land of Neck's samurai along with a few Ninjutsu and Taijutsu scrolls that must have belonged to the few ninja who lived in the castle, the third, and largest, pile held miscellaneous documents, various bills, storeroom ledger's, personal journals, and works of fiction. Naruto sealed each pile into a separate scroll which he gave to Kakashi to send back to Konoha along with the mission reports.
"Naruto, Hinata thinks the princess and her guard are ready to travel." Kakashi said when Naruto handed him the scrolls. "I'll get our clients ready; you go get your teammates."
"Find anything interesting in there?" Naruto asked Sasuke, who was digging through the rubble.
"Not as much as Hinata, she found an entire room filled with money."
"Did she keep it?"
"O-Of c-course not Naruto-kun. It's n-not ours. W-We have to report it to t-the H-Hokage…" Hinata stuttered from behind Naruto, before handing each of them a scroll with a wink and walking off.
Naruto and Sasuke both unrolled their scrolls. Naruto's eyebrows shot up in surprise as he read the note inside the scroll that Hinata gave him. "Hey, Duck-Butt, I think we're a bad influence on Hinata-chan."
"Now why would you say that, Fishcake?"
"She lied to us with a straight face for one; she even got the right amount of stutter…"
"I'm more worried about her signature…"
"Hey! She stole the idea for that from me!"
"Naruto, she signed her note with a chibi picture of her giving me a wink."
"Just a wink?" Naruto asked.
"Why? Did she draw something different for you?"
Naruto turned a bright shade of red and stuffed the scroll into one of the pouches on his belt, "N-No, o-of c-course n-not! I w-would n-normally s-sign m-my n-notes w-with a d-different picture for each person that's all!" Naruto stuttered before running off. 'Why did she sign mine with her blowing a kiss?'
When Naruto and Sasuke both arrived at the camp Kakashi spoke, "Now that we're all here we can depart. It's a three day journey to the capital of the Land of Honey. We should set out immediately, Team Seven Escort formation alpha." And so they set off, the princess in the middle surrounded by her six guards, Naruto had taken point and Kakashi brought up the rear.
Road To Konoha: Present Day:
"So the kid's got two summon types already? Maybe Katsuya would want him to sign the scroll…" The group had stopped for lunch and had taken a break to discuss the story. "Did Hinata ever get that medic training? It's always nice to train someone who already has a grasp of the basics."
"Don't jump ahead; they're not back in Konoha yet. Do you honestly expect the Kid to get away with a vacation?"
"Good point, his team seems to have the worst luck when it comes to missions. So what goes wrong with this one?"
"Well…"
The Land of Sea: Four Months, One Day Ago:
The journey back to the Land of Honey was slow but uneventful, the princess and her guard were still weak and incapable of traveling as quickly as the ninja would like. In the end it took them almost five days to arrive at the capitol. The Daimyo had insisted they spend the next day and a half as his guests before arranging free transportation to the Land of the Sea.
"So this is the Land of Sea?" Naruto said as Team Seven stepped off of the ship. "It looks a little run down…reminds me of Wave a little."
"Naruto's right, something's wrong here…" Kakashi agreed. "But let's find a hotel before we start trying to solve everyone's problems, okay?"
As the group walked off the dock they were stopped by a dockhand dressed in ragged clothes. "You lot just came in by ship?" The man asked surprise clearly etched onto his face.
"No, we walked." Sasuke snarked from the back of the group.
"Was your ship attacked? Did you see anything? You're the first ship to actually make it to the docks in three weeks! We've had almost thirty shipwrecks wash up in the past three months."
Team Seven shared a pale look. "Th-th-that w-was a c-close c-call…" Hinata managed to stutter out. Naruto and Sasuke only managed to nod the revelation of how close they came to dying without even knowing it scared the crap out of them.
"I'm going to send a message to Konoha, maybe they have an idea what's going on. You three go find a hotel and check us in, while I do some preliminary scouting." Kakashi tossed a small roll of cash to Hinata. "This should be enough for two rooms; I'll meet up with you after I'm done."
"If you lot are looking for a hotel, there's one just down the street." The dockhand supplied helpfully.
"Well there goes our vacation…" Naruto grumbled as they walked away.
"N-Naruto-kun! Helping these p-people is more important then a l-little v-vacation!"
"I hate to say it but I agree with Fishcake on this one, I sure could do with a vacation after the last two missions. And I'm not the one being framed for the murder of a friend's mother."
"Thanks for reminding me Duck-butt…" Naruto said gloomily.
"Ch-Cheer up N-Naruto-kun! I'm s-sure that the h-Hokage will clear your name soon."
"Hn." Naruto grunted, before shuffling away, head low and shoulders bent.
Hinata threw Sasuke a dirty look before following after Naruto. Shrugging Sasuke followed behind them. They walked in silence until they reached the hotel. They were greeted excitedly when they entered the lobby. "Customers! Would you like a room we have several very nice rooms available. Maybe you'd like two rooms? Or three even!"
"J-just two p-please." Hinata said. "O-Our sensei will b-be here soon, show him to our room when he arrives." Hinata continued while she counted out the money.
"Could you give me his name and a description please?" the receptionist asked.
"His name's Hatake Kakashi, He's tall, has stupid gravity defying hair, wears a mask that covers the lower half of his face and his hitai-ate covers one eye." Sasuke supplied.
After being shown to their rooms and unpacking team seven sat in silence waiting for Kakashi to show up, "I wonder how long Kakashi is going to take?" Naruto was the first to break the silence. "It's been almost two hours…"
"I-I wonder h-how he's sending a m-message?"
"Probably with a summons." Naruto said disinterestedly "I don't know about dogs, but toads can be sent somewhere with a message and they'll wait until a message is ready to be sent back to the summoner."
"Spot on Naruto." Kakashi said as he walked into the room. "Sorry for the delay, but we just stumbled unto something important. Jiraiya's been investigating a rumored build up of Orochimaru's forces, and The Land of Sea is where Mitarashi Anko was found with amnesia so Orochimaru had a base near here at one point. The Hokage is sending Anko as back up, she knows Orochimaru best after all, but it will take her three or for days to get here." Kakashi sighed after giving his students their briefing. "At least you will have a few days to enjoy yourselves before Anko arrives."
Naruto stood up with a sigh before he shuffled over to his futon. "I'm going to sleep I'll see you in the morning." Naruto said before flopping onto the bed without even changing out of his traveling clothes.
"I have good news for you, at least, Naruto."
"Tell me in the morning…"
Kakashi gave Naruto a worried look before signaling his other two students into the hallway. "Alright, what's wrong with Naruto?"
"Sasuke reminded N-Naruto-kun about Sakura's mother's death."
"I was just pointing out that I needed a break! And that he could use one more than me!"
"Don't fight, please." Kakashi ran his hand through his hair with a sigh, "Sasuke think before you speak please, and Hinata he didn't mean to hurt Naruto so go easy on him. Look Naruto's right it is getting late, go to sleep now, tomorrow you three can go relax at the beach, and hopefully my news will cheer him up."
Hinata nodded to Kakashi and crossed the hall into her room. Kakashi and Sasuke went back into their room and silently got ready for bed.
The next morning at breakfast Kakashi spoke to a still moping Naruto. "Naruto I have good news about your trial."
Naruto's head perked up, "What is it?"
"The Hokage has managed to convince most of the ninja in the village that it was a bad set up, your excellent school records in the stealth exercises, and Jiraiya's and Iruka's testament that you were much stealthier than your jumpsuit makes you look, along with the fact that you actually where with me the whole time was enough for most of them. The villagers are going to be a bit harder, but the Hokage is making good progress on that front as well. By the time this mission is done it should be alright for you to return to the village."
Naruto smiled weakly, "That's good news. Well… I'm going to the beach! Who's coming with me?"
"M-M-Me."
"Hn."
"Last one there is a rotten egg!" Naruto shouted as he sprinted to his room to grab his swimwear.
"OI!" Sasuke bolted after him.
"N-No f-fair Naruto-kun!"
Naruto and Sasuke managed to tie sliding onto the sand at the same exact time. "Where…where is …Hinata-chan?" Naruto panted.
"I…don't….think…She…raced…in…the…end."
Ten minutes later Hinata arrived, carrying a basket and an umbrella, wearing a towel like a cloak. "Hey Hinata-chan! What took you so long? And where'd you get the umbrella and basket?" Naruto shouted from the water.
"I b-bought the umbrella on th-the way h-here." Hinata managed to squeak as she got her first good look at Naruto and Sasuke as they came out of the water. Naruto was wearing orange shorts with blue stripes going down the sides. Sasuke was wearing plain black shorts with no ornamentation. "I m-m-made… s-sandwiches t-t-too…" It was a long time since Hinata had last seen Naruto with out his shirt on, and the change eight months of training had wrought on his physique made it hard for her to think, let alone think clean thoughts. "I-I-I'll j-just s-setup up the b-b-blanket a-and umbrella…"
"I'll help Hinata-chan!" Naruto grabbed the umbrella and began assembling it. "Hey, Hinata-chan?" Naruto asked quietly.
"W-W-What N-Naruto-kun?" Hinata stuttered while laying out the blanket.
"Why do you always wear your coat? I think this is the first time I've ever seen you without it on, and you've got that towel on like a coat."
Hinata blushed a bright crimson, "N-N-No r-reason N-Naruto-kun."
"Well, if you're going to go swimming with us you'll have to take the towel off!"
Hinata hung her head, "I-I d-don't know how t-too s-swim…"
"What? Even I know how to swim! What were you going to do? And why didn't you tell us?"
"I w-was g-going to sit here and r-read…m-m-maybe b-build a sand c-castle…" Hinata poked her fingertips together nervously, "I d-didn't w-want to g-get in the w-way of your v-vacation Naruto-kun."
"What are you talking about? You have to have fun too! Tell you what, I'll teach you to swim!"
"S-Sure, Naruto-kun I'd l-love t-that." Hinata said before she could really think about it. Of course when she realized what letting Naruto teach her to swim would entail she flushed an even brighter shade of crimson. She nodded weakly took the towel off reveling a deep purple one piece swimsuit, and a surprisingly curvaceous body for someone her age. 'Please don't say anything Naruto-kun,' Hinata thought to herself. 'Please don't make fun of how I look.'
The sight of Hinata in her swimsuit fused parts of his brain together in ways that he'd never really experienced. 'No! Bad Naruto! She's your teammate and friend! Don't have thoughts like that.' Naruto thought to himself while a thin stream of blood began to trickle out of his nose.
"Heh-heh, Looks like you've finally hit puberty Kit." Kurama growled from the back of Naruto's mind. "Sure you don't want to drop the Team and just Mate? Maybe become friends with benefits?" The giant fox teased.
'SHUT UP! It's not like that!'
"Kit, lie all you like but there are some things you can't hide." The fox sniggered, sending Naruto a mental image of him pointing down.
Blushing crimson as he realized what the fox meant Naruto ran to the water, "CmonHinatathewatersgreatillr aceyouthere!" Naruto dived head first into the water.
Sasuke, who had been watching the entire thing from the water, swam over to Naruto, sniggering, "I see you have a …little…problem there Naruto. Need any help?"
"Shut up Sasuke."
"I doubt she'll notice."
"Not funny Sasuke."
"Well I think it's funny." Sasuke smirked, throwing his arm over Naruto's shoulder "Mocking people is always fun. And there's so much, or should I say so little in this case, to make fun of."
"Thank you Sasuke, your poor attempts at humor, have solved my problem for me." Naruto said, straightening out a bit letting the cold water finish what Sasuke's jokes started. "Are you coming Hinata?"
Hinata, who had turned her back to Naruto almost immediately to fold up her towel, had missed the whole exchange. "C-C-Coming N-Naruto-Kun." she walked slowly into the water stopping when she was knee deep.
"C'mon Hinata-chan! The water has to be at least up to your waist!" Nodding weakly Hinata walked deeper into the ocean stopping next to Naruto. "Swimming's pretty easy! The hardest part is learning to float!" Naruto lectured causing Hinata to smile at his serious tone.
'He would make an excellent teacher…'
"Fortunately the human body floats all by itself! All you have to do is relax and your body will float with no real effort on your part." Naruto leaned backwards lifting his feet off the sandy floor and waved his toes at Hinata, causing her to giggle. "C'mon your turn!" Naruto said as he swam behind her, "Lean back and try to float! Don't worry I'm here to make sure you won't drown."
Hinata nodded and copied Naruto's movements from earlier. At first it was easy, but when she felt Naruto's hands on the small of her back and shoulder she tensed up and would have dropped like a rock if Naruto wasn't holding her. 'KamiNarutostouchingmewhatdoI dowhatdoisay?'
"Relax Hinata! I'm here you wont drown!" Naruto said completely mistaking the cause of her tension, for fear of the water, instead of embarrassment.
"I-I know Naruto-kun, I'm j-just n-nervous." Hinata replied. And so it went for the next two hours Naruto tried to help Hinata learn to float, while Hinata tried to learn to get over her fear of Naruto touching her. Sasuke had already retired to the blanket and was sleeping under the umbrella.
"Um…N-Naruto-kun? I'm getting tired can we take a break?" Hinata wasn't sure how much more she could take before she did something unladylike. "I b-brought some b-buckets and shovels…m-maybe we could make a sand castle?"
"Sounds like fun Hinata! I'll build you the best sand castle ever!" once Naruto was out of the water he sprinted to the umbrella and grabbed the buckets and shovels from Hinata's bag.
"Hmm…? What's going on?" Sasuke asked sleepily.
"Oops didn't mean to wake you. We're taking a break and making a sand castle want to join us? Or are you afraid of sunlight?"
"I told you, Uchiha don't tan, you orange freak of nature! We burn, and I've already got my daily does of light."
"We're outside all day every day how come you don't burn at home?"
"Sunscreen, and there's a big difference between light in a forest and the beach, now go away I'm napping."
Hinata and Naruto spent a good half hour building a magnificent sand castle before the sound of moaning and water sloshing distracted them.
"Naruto-Kun, w-what's that s-sound?" Hinata said? Turning her head in the direction of the noise.
Marching out of the water was a veritable army of blank faced moaning fish people, their eyes glowing red, water dripping off their scales, sunlight glinting from the edges of their claws. Like one creature, they charged the beach, arms extended, moaning hungrily.
"Oh, you have GOT to be shitting me…"
A/N: Nope, Not dead, just busy. Sorry for the delay life got a little hectic, then when that was all over Dawnguard came out unexpectedly for the PC and ate all my free time…then a bunch of random crap happens in the manga (I thought my cliffhangers were bad…Damn it Kishimoto, would one panel of Tobi's face killed you?) But now I have some free time again, and it looks like the only big secret I care about (who the F #$ is Tobi?) is going to be reveled next week I feel I can write without having to change a characters identity. (Wouldn't it be messed up if it was Danzo?) I hope to get at least one chapter out a week (If I can I'll go back to every day) So stay tuned! Also I plan on fixing my first three or so chapters that are hard to read so if you had difficulty understanding who was saying what go back and check them out first one should already be up.
Ciao
Xahn777