I Do not own Naruto, If I did I wouldn't bother writing Fan Fiction.
A Price for Peace
Chapter: 9: Heading North
Naruto held Karin in a bridal style as he kicked open the door to their hotel room. His eyes quickly scanned the room as if he expected to be ambushed at any moment. Once satisfied that the room was empty he crossed the room and gently placed Karin on the couch. "How are you feeling, you're a little red in the face?" he asked concern visible on his face.
"Ye-yeah I'm fine." Karin answered quietly. As dense as ever Naruto once more failed to see that she was blushing.
"Okay sit tight I'm going to go grab our stuff, then we need to move, the longer we wait the more chance it will be that someone finds us." Naruto said before taking off around the small hotel apartment and collecting all the essentials that they would need for the journey.
Karin sat on the couch her mind racing, the events since she woke that morning were running through her mind. From waking up to Naruto's peak of energy it struck her that when she thought about it she was just in her bedroom less than half an hour ago sleeping and now she was back about to flee from the village. The main scene that played through her mind over and over again was Naruto appearing in front of her preventing the kunai thrown by Asahi from ending her life. The power radiating off Naruto made her knees weak, it was awe inspiring. She had felt weak kneed once before in Sasuke's presence but it was out of fear. Naruto had far surpassed Sasuke, but despite having all that power it wasn't frightening at all, rather comforting.
Karin's heart began to beat faster as she thought about the blond. 'No I can't accept this, I don't like him, I just need him to survive.' she told herself. The problem was no matter how many times she told herself this deep down she knew it was a lie.
Naruto returned around a minute later a large backpack strung across his back the pack seemed almost as large as the teen himself. He approached and bent down to pick her up again and once more her face turned a shade of red almost as deep as her hair. "Wait, I can walk now, it was just your chakra got to me before I'm fine now." she said urgently.
"Oh okay, well then we better go. I placed your clothes in the bag so you don't need to worry about that." Naruto said with his warm smile in place despite the seriousness in the tone of his voice.
Karin nodded and jumped to her feet, she let out a small sigh of relief when she found that her legs would support her again, she didn't know if she could handle the embarrassment of asking Naruto to carry her again.
They were staying on one of the upper floors of the hotel and briskly made their way down the flights of stairs until they were once again in the luxurious entrance hall. As if sensing the reason the two shinobi were there, the same man that greeted them on their arrival quickly approached. "Are you leaving us?" he asked in a calm voice with the same slightly creepy smile he wore when they first met the man.
"Yeah, it's time for us to move on." Naruto replied as calmly as he could manage while in a hurry. He knew that it would be several days before Iwa could hope to arrive to investigate the burst of chakra, however he wanted to be well out of their reach by then. In fact he wanted to be sure there was no trace that he was there at all.
After paying the man for their time at the hotel Naruto and Karin soon found themselves leaving the hotel and briskly walking through the streets just fast enough to not draw any attention to themselves should any questions be asked. Not knowing the layout of the village they decided to double back and head north by heading around the large mountain that Iwame was carved into. Outside of the cave it had clearly been snowing. Several of the buildings had a thick coating of snow covered most of the buildings. The sky was still filled with thick clouds that obscured the sun from view that along with the tall mountans gave the impression that it was dusk rather than mid morning.
"Wow there must have been quite a lot of snow while we were in the main area of the village." Naruto spoke in awe. Two days ago they had entered and the building were bone dry, but now you could no longer see the thick reenforced stone structures.
"Yeah, but judging from what we have heard about this place the weather can change at any moment, that's why going north into the wilderness into the Insurmountable Peaks is considered so dangerous." Karin replied her thirst for knowledge had meant that she absorbed all the information that Asahi had given her and more. Whilst Naruto was given the same lectures the words of their former companion simply went over his head. Once more showing that anything not combat related was a real spot for the blond Uzumaki.
What was endeering about the somewhat dimwitted shinobi was his immovable desire and belif that he could do anything. "I hope you're not having second thoughts, we're approaching the point of no return and I would hate for you to resent me for dragging you along." he said a boyish smile gracing his features.
Karin was once more tempted to take off, Naruto's plan was after all suicide. Not for the first time she was instantly hit with fear of being alone, this fear seemed to shake her from any self preservative thoughts. Shaking her head violently she turned to face her companion. "You're not getting rid of me that easily."
"Who says that I wanted you to go. Having you around is at least someone else to talk to." Naruto replied his smile not leaving his face.
'What is wrong with you! Are you not in the slightest bit annoyed with her that she has potentially given away our position. I know you are a kind person Naruto but kindness can only go so far before it becomes idiocy.' Kurama lectured with harshness licking off of every word. Naruto hadn't heard his companion talk to him like that since before the fight with Obito.
'I am annoyed Kurama, but not at her. If I took Asahi seriously from the start Karin wouldn't have been involved. I didn't need to draw on your chakra to win that fight, but because of my desire to find out why I was being attacked, rather than just dealing with the issue she was used against me. I am at fault here not Karin.' Naruto replied honestly.
'Well I must say that I am impressed, I almost thought you were too stubborn to realize when you were wrong, I guess miracles do happen.' Kurama mocked. Despite the tone of the Kyuubi's voice he was really quite proud of Naruto. It was one thing to blame others for a situation, but it was another thing entirely to admit your own faults.
'Well I guess I'm still growing, I must be doing something right if I can surprise a two thousand year old fox.' Naruto taunted back.
'I didn't say I was surprised fool, I said impressed although now I am less impressed it must have just been a fluke.' Kurama laughed.
Naruto face vaulted in embarrassment which almost caused him to trip over himself as he walked. "You may want to watch were you're going. If you can't stay on your feet in the middle of a paved street how do you plan on surviving all the mountains we need to negotiate?" Karins asked in a small laugh.
'Oh great now I have both of you on my back. What did I do to deserve this?.. wait never mind, I don't think I want to know what you have to say.' Naruto thought, prematurely cutting Kurama off from his retort. "Ah sorry about that, I was sort of distracted thinking about everything that has happened so far." He finally spoke ignoring the fox laughing at him inside his head.
"Oh. Sorry I guess I really screwed up huh, we could have stayed in the village for a few more days and left in less of a hurry, now because of me we are forced to flee." Karin admitted slightly sadly.
"It's not your fault Karin, you did nothing wrong. You probably just froze up when Asahi attacked because you could tell who was behind the mask." Naruto replied in a comforting tone.
A small blush threatened to cross Karin's face bus she suppressed it as best she could. 'Dammit, why is he able to say things that get me flustered so easily. I will not fall for him, I refuse to! I won't be hurt again like I was with Sasuke.' she thought with all the determination she could muster.
Karin was broken from her thoughts as the pair of runaway shinobi arrived at the village gates. "This could be a problem." Naruto whispered slightly before coming to a halt pretending to take great interest in one of the larger buildings in the area.
"Why?" Karin asked clearly confused by Naruto's sudden attitude.
"Think about it, if Iwa shinobi come to investigate the large chakra burst, then they are going to check the list of people who left the village shortly afterwords. They will recognize our pictures even from the fake passports almost immediately, and if they don't when they send the records to Iwa someone there will. The old man Tsuchikage may not have survived but plenty of Iwa shinobi were on the front lines where I fought in the war." Naruto explained.
The gravity of the situation finally hit the kunoichi who could only nod darkly. "I'm in no better of a position, the last known surviving member of the Akatsuki. I'm the number one most wanted shinobi in all of the five great nations." Karin admitted slightly fearfully.
"So in other words we just need to find another way to leave the village then. It would be too obvious to just go over the wall, someone would see for sure." Naruto answered a small mischievous grin crossing his face.
"What are you thinking?" Karin asked rather apprehensively. She had seen smiles similar to that many times and they vary rarely meant something productive.
"Oh I was just thinking that it's been quite awhile since I have played a decent prank on anyone. Let's see how these guards fare against the boy who once terrorized the entire Konoha population." Naruto replied.
'I knew it.' Karin sighed but decided to wait and see where this went.
Naruto sat down in a thinking pose in silence for a few seconds. "There are two guards so a single disturbance won't do. I'll need to divide them leading them both away which means I need to create a situation where guarding the gate becomes secondary in importance while dividing their attention." Naruto mused.
Karin couldn't help but be somewhat impressed with Naruto's tactical mind, he came up with a plan surprisingly quickly, not as quickly or as well thought out as a certain Nara could, but fast none the less.
Finally Naruto returned to his feet and created four clones that quickly transformed into different children that wore civilian clothes. He then reached into his bag and removed one of the black sweater tops that he had brought the previous day. In one swift movement he tore the shirt down the middle to create a single large piece of black fabric. "You know what to do?" Naruto asked to which the kids nodded before dispersing.
"So now what?" Karin asked curiously. She was interested in seeing how Naruto dealt with this type of situation. In the past Orochimaru or Sasuke would simply kill the men for getting in their way. By now she knew better than to place Naruto on their level.
Karin watched with interest as two of Naruto's clones created a large slingshot out of Naruto's discarded shirt and started collecting snow. "You think snowballs are going to force both guards to forget about their post?" she asked skeptically.
"Just watch." Naruto answered with a confident smirk.
Much like Karin predicted snowballs began descending on the two gate guards with deadly accuracy. The 'kids' responsible made no effort to hide themselves. "Hey brats get out of here!" one of them yelled attempting to swat away an incoming snowball only to be hit directly in the head. Much to the guards annoyance the only response he received was uproarious laughter and another barrage of snow. "That's it!" the guard said stepping out of his booth in an attempt to intimidate the children.
Little did he know this was exactly what Naruto was waiting for. In the blink of an eye the other two children appeared and before the guard to respond they had taken his keys.
"What the Fuck!" the guard yelled quite obviously outraged by the turn of events. "Hey kid give those back, I hope you know that it's a serious crime stealing the gate keys." he said reaching for a sword he kept on the other side of his belt only to find that too was missing.
"I don't think you're very good at your job, I mean having your weapon and keys stolen by a couple of kids what ever would your superiors think." one of the Henged Naruto clones taunted.
"Hey Honwa, how about a little help here?" the guard asked his partner.
Quite obviously the other gate guard was not pleased in the slightest, at his partner or the children that had made them look like a couple of fools. He wasted little time drawing his weapon and exiting the guards booth. "Alright kids playtime is over, now give my partner his equipment back and nobody needs to get hurt."
His answer was a snowball right to the face. Giving the clones enough time to skillfully remove the mans keys from his belt. "Looks like you both have lot your keys." a clone laughed happily in a fake sweet childs voice.
"Kid give those back this instant or we will be forced to take them by force!" the guard said rounding on the child who had taken his keys.
"Looks like you're going to have to come and get them then." the child said before taking off in the opposite direction. As if on cue the boy who had the other guards weapon and keys dropped the sword and took off as well making sure to split up from his so called partner.
The remaining guard was now left in two minds he couldn't leave his post unattended, but then again a gate guard loosing the keys to the city was not something that went down well. 'It's risk getting fired or definitely getting fired then.' he decided before reluctantly leaving his post to chase after the boy.
From their hiding place Naruto appeared holding his sides laughing. Karin followed soon after shaking her head slightly "I can't believe that worked." she said with a slightly stunned grin.
"Nah that type of stuff was my way of life before I became a ninja. Besides they were both civilians, guards maybe but they were certainly no shinobi." Naruto chuckled as he casually walked towards the gate pushing it ever so slightly open so they could slip out undetected.
"So where to now?" Karin questioned once they were outside the village, the gate doors closing silently behind them.
"We head north, I guess we should follow the road while we can, then we head up into the mountains." Naruto announced taking the road that circled the mountain around the village of Iwame that bent higher up into the mountains.
Karin sighed and just followed after the blond, what did she expect, Naruto had no more of an idea on what to expect then she did. This was territory completely unknown to them, even Iwa had abandoned their outposts further north of Iwame years ago. 'Looks like this is the last time I'll see civilization.' she let out an audible sigh as more thoughts and questions ran through her head. 'What will we eat? Where will we sleep? Naruto seems so calm and confident, how can he be so sure of himself?" all these thoughts and more raced through the kunoichi's mind as she followed after Naruto who was slowly picking up the pace to that of a genin as they moved out of sight of the village.
(Konoha)
Kakashi was not having a good day, literally hundreds of requests had come in to attend Naruto's official funeral. Not many of the people that Naruto had helped during his career as a shinobi were too pleased with his decision to charge for seats. Some like Tazuna and Inari were able to sympathize with Kakashi's plight having seen Konoha after Pein's attack whilst helping with the reconstruction of the village. For this reason they agreed to take the admission price off their bill. While the self proclaimed super builder was easily mitigated the same could not be said for many others. Koyuki Kazahana, the Daimyo of the Land of Spring was furious. Naruto had not only saved her but also her entire nation and now she was being told that she had to pay Ryo to show her respects and say farewell to the boy that she owed so much.
The fact that it soon became common knowledge that groups from the five great nations were given seats free of charge made things worse for the Copy Ninja. The priestess Shion blatantly refused to pay saying that Naruto would never have allowed something like this to occur and it spat upon his memory to do so. Kakashi couldn't help but somewhat agree with the priestess from the Land of Demons.
Other nations also voiced their displeasure at Konoha's decision to sell off the tickets to a funeral. Some payed begrudgingly if only to show some respect to the boy who had been so influential to them while others refused stating that they would honor Naruto in their own way.
All in all Kakashi was feeling rather drained when the village elders entered his temporary office. "Ah Kakashi-dono it seems that the preparations are almost complete and the seats are all but sold out." Koharu said with a contented smile.
Kakashi failed to share her optimism. "Perhaps, but we have upset quite a few allies in doing so." he replied with a tired sigh.
"Allies that will forgive us in time Kakashi-dono, but the potential of a major village alliance is the real issue here as well as funding the rebuilding of Konoha." Koharu assured the acting Hokage.
Homura seemed slightly more concerned than Koharu did but did not speak out about his concerns rather he decided to change the topic completely. "Tell me, has there been any news on Tsunade-Hime?" he asked.
Kakashi closed his one exposed eye and sighed once more not a happy topic. "No she is still in a coma. She was out for close to a month when Pein attacks and by all accounts was forced to push her healing abilities further during her fight with Madara, she was only able to save Gara-dono and Mei-dono after all. It could be several weeks before we see any sort of response for her, that is if she pulls through at all." he answered sadly.
"We will postpone the funeral for Naruto until she has awoken of course." Homura said assuredly.
This time it was Koharu who wore a slight scowl but unlike her former teammate she had no problem in voicing her displeasure. "That is unwise, the sooner we act on this the better. At the moment the boy is a major bargaining tool but the longer we wait the less influential his name will become. We cannot postpone something of such importance for anyone even Tsunade-Hime."
"That may be but lets also remember just how important Naruto was to Tsunade-sama. If she finds out we held a funeral for Naruto and she wasn't even in a state to attend I fear for our safety." Kakashi admitted honestly.
"It also shows great disrespect to Tsunade-Hime, she thought of the boy quite highly, almost like family." Homura added.
"Very well but do not wait for too long Kakashi-dono, political leverage comes and goes do not forget that." Koharu warned.
"That may be, but Naruto has always had the ability to leave a lasting impression on people." the Copy Ninja replied.
"I will leave the decision to you of course I just hope you are capable of making tough decisions when called upon." Koharu answered before turning to leave, Homura following in her wake.
'I'm starting to see why Tsunade-sama disliked dealing with the elders. At least I don't have Danzo to compete with.' Kakashi thought once the two older shinobi had left.
(Land of Earth)
Several Hours had passed since Naruto and Karin had left Iwame. They had been following a winding road that went north, the last road available for travelers. After about and hour the once wide and accessible road had descended into little more than a narrow path that ofter had steep clifs on either side. By now the path was in such a state that Naruto guessed you would either need to be a trained ninja or have safety gear to navigate it safely.
Even with their shinobi training every so often a rock would slide under their feet almost causing one of them to lose their footing. "You know I'm starting to think it might be safer off the path." Naruto joked after a particularly large chunk of earth collapsed down into a deep crevasse to the side of the path not held against the side of the mountain.
"I'm thinking you might be right, even using chakra to stick to the ground this is dangerous. Still if Iwa have any buildings still standing that we could use for shelter they will be along this path, so we should use them as long as we can." Karin replied.
The sky was darkening, both from the now setting sun and the increasing thickness of the clouds that had steadily became more threatening as the day wore on. Looking up Naruto couldn't help but agree that it would be nice to have proper shelter for at least one more night. "Well if we don't want to get caught up in that storm I suggest we get a move on, hopefully we can find an old abandoned outpost to take shelter before nightfall." Naruto added in agreement.
The pair began growing increasingly desperate around an hour later, there had so far been no sign of any buildings, abandoned, ruined or otherwise. To make things worse a few specks of snow began o fall from the sky as the dark clouds closed in. "This is bad, the next area that's somewhat flat we should set up camp." Naruto suggested.
"Do you have a tent?" Karin asked. The question had been playing in her mind for quite some time now but this was the first time that she had decided to voice her concern.
"Yeah I picked up a large thermal tent that has two separate rooms, and several chakra powered heaters this morning before I ran into Asahi." Naruto replied.
"Seperate rooms? I haven't seen a tent like that before, although I'm only used to sigle standard shinobi tents." the kunoichi admitted.
"Yeah well I figured that you would probably want your space, especially while we were sleeping." Naruto said a tiny blush crossing his face.
Karin noticed this and couldn't help but tease the poor boy. "Whats this? don't tell me you are embarrassed about sleeping in the same room? We spent several days traveling together sleeping in the back of Asahi's caravan." Naruto blushed slightly more and began mumbling beneath his breath. "Sorry what was that?" she teased.
"We, ugh we weren't alone then." Naruto whispered quietly, but loud enough for the kunoichi to hear him. Then the reality of it struck Karin, they were all alone. Nobody around for close to a hundred miles. There was nothing, only them.
Now it was her turn to blush picking up on what Naruto may have been thinking that caused him to blush. 'He's been thinking about me.' she mused finding the thought somewhat pleasing before quickly scolding herself once more the last thing she wanted was to have romantic feelings towards anyone least of all someone who was so closely connected to Sasuke.
This was somewhat true, Karin had often been the topic of discussion between Naruto and Kurama. The blond was also quite relieved to discover that he could keep some of his thoughts away from his inner companion. It was never anything overly important, he would trust Kurama with most things, he was however a sixteen year old boy who couldn't help but have several indecent thoughts, that the large fox would discourage certainly considering that he disliked their red headed companion.
"Thanks I guess. You really thought this out didn't you?" Karin replied eventually.
Naruto rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment. "Uh not really, I'm just making it up as I go if I'm being honest." Naruto spoke somewhat reluctantly. Why he was somewhat ashamed to admit he had no plan he couldn't say, he had rarely gone into any conflict with a clear plan so why was it that this time he was almost embarrassed to admit his lack of a clear plan. 'I guess after all I have been through I'm starting to realize that running into things head first is not always the best idea.' he contemplated.
'Maybe, but everything that way hasn't ended out all bad has it? Granted you make a fair amount of mistakes, but in the end you always came out on top.' Kurama assured the runaway Konoha ninja.
Naruto was about to respond to the large fox when he was distracted by Karin. "Look over there!" she yelled pointing to a point around two hundred yards ahead of them.
Naruto squinted to see through the snow that was now steadily falling from the sky. It took a few moments for his eyes to become accustomed to the poor visibility. Then he saw it, a small stone building protruding from the side of the mountain, looking as though it was carved out of the earth itself. "Let's go, we can save camping for another night. Plus there might be information on where the other outposts are, maybe even a detailed map of the area." Naruto said happily.
The two teens moved faster than they had all day, whether that was because they were relieved to find shelter and the weariness of the days travel had been forgotten, or that the snow was coming down faster and faster neither could say.
The old Iwa outpost built into the mountainside was far larger than it had appeared from a distance, Naruto could already see that from the moment they arrived at the front door that like the rest of the building was made of stone. It also surprised him that the stone was warm to touch. "Wow it's not even remotely cold." he exclaimed voicing his surprise.
"I don't care, let's just get inside already, it's freezing out here!" Karin chorused before pushing past Naruto and sliding the door open.
Unsurprisingly the room was pitch black, only the fading light from the open door illuminated a large room. Naruto quickly withdrew a small lamp that ran off chakra before closing the door behind him.
The light from Naruto's lamp filled the room. Depsite the fact that it had quite obviously not been used in many years the building was not in a bad shape at all. The stones seemed to radiate warmth that allowed both teens to remove their jackets. There was a large table in the center of the room with only two chairs and several candles sat on the table. Naruto wasted no time lighting them to add extra light to the room which helped visibility immensely. They could now see that on the back wall was a large detailed map of the Land of Earth, several points were marked that peeked Naruto's interest but decided that he would come back once they had finished exploring the area. Either side of the map were doors and lead to bedrooms each with nothing but a small single bed and a small bedside table holding a lantern and a few candles.
"Well it's not much but it is more comfortable than a tent in the middle of a snow storm." Naruto sighed once he finished lighting the lamp and candles in Karin's room.
"Yeah, but I would hate to be positioned out here for months at a time." Karin replied shuddering at the thought.
"That's true. I would be so bored, but at least I could train properly." Naruto chuckled.
"There would be nothing to do but train and sleep." Karin answered with a small laugh of her own. "We haven't found the kitchen yet, with any luck they might have a stove that works so we can eat, I take it you did remember to bring food?"
"What do you take me for an idiot?" Naruto asked taking out a larfe scroll that had a large supply of long life food sealed inside.
"Well Sasuke did call you Dobe, you don't get a nickname like that by being smart." Karin joked.
Naruto face vaulted grumbling about 'Stupid Teme's ' as he opened another door and went off in search of a kitchen.
End Chapter!
Ah holidays are good. Not half way through my holiday yet, but I managed to get this chapter out writing for about half an hour before I go to sleep each night. Wanted to keep the story moving and the last chapter stopped at a rather annoying place. At any rate I hope you liked the chapter and feel free to complain about anything, I can take it.
This chapter might have had a few more mistakes than others as it was not written in many small sessions rather than two or three, so I apologize if it's not up to standard.