Sealkeeper: He Who Binds

Chapter 85 – Amaterasu

With a quick knock on the door she saw herself in, two golden eyes looking up from their work to offer her a gentle smile. "Good morning, Mai." He greeted her.

"Good morning, Naruto-sama." She returned the greeting but wasn't sure if she had managed the smile. While she had come to terms with her feelings for him and the fact that he was going to keep things from her, she was still less than pleased with the fact that he was doing so in the first place.

It wouldn't change how she felt about him, but it would certainly make it harder for her to place her trust in him. She could, however, rest easy knowing that no matter what he was hiding that the intentions would always be for the benefit of the Wolves.

The only problem there was that not all of his ideas were necessarily good ideas.

Which, again, made it somewhat difficult to ignore the fact that he was hiding things. What was the next mess he was going to end up involved in?

Peering into those golden eyes, she thought she had a pretty good idea.

It would be just her luck that something went wrong with his utilization of Karura's Chakra. She also made note that he typically referred to the Biju in his arm as female and she wondered if she should feel jealous of a mass of destructive Chakra.

It, after all, got to spend all of their time with her lord.

"Anything I should be aware of?" her question earned her a raised brow and a look of slight confusion that had her cursing internally. Normally she was the one who brought things to his attention, but the fact that she'd been away focusing on trying to get his Mizu no Kuni situation under control meant she hadn't been paying much attention to anything else.

She was also hoping that if he did hear something about Mizu no Kuni- which she was very intent to prevent- he would mention it so she could try to keep his attention away from it.

Mai did not want him worrying over their deal with Yagura, though some part of her argued that maybe learning the consequences of his actions would put a stop to future mistakes.

Naruto turned his attention to the papers scattered over his desk, frowning in thought, before shaking his head. "No, nothing really stands out. Just the usual reports."

This time she knew she gave a small, small and relieved. He still didn't know, they had time to fix things.

"That's good, have you almost finished already?"

It wasn't very early in the morning but normally he ended up spending more time on paperwork than this. She had also heard he was on a team now, so why was she finding him just sitting in his office again? Surely they had missions or at least some training?

"There was a lot for a while," He shrugged. "And I'm not sure where it came from, but after I finished it the volume really slowed down."

Ah, she had forgotten that he had ended up with access to an entire month's worth while she was away. She had briefly hoped that his team would keep him occupied while there wasn't much work for him to do but it looked like she was going to have to come up with work to keep him from getting suspicious.

Last thing she wanted was him looking into things too closely and learning about the trouble in Mizu no Kuni.

"In fact," He continued. "All I have here are yesterdays reports from the Wolves here and a letter from Hana." Naruto riffled through the papers, double-checking. "Ah, no, it looks like there's something here about our newest packmates."

He took a moment to look over it while Mai wondered how she could arrange a visit for him to keep him busy. Might be difficult now that he was on a team,.

"Progress is good, apparently." Naruto said with a pleased nod. "Everything seems to be going as planned."

Oh, how she wished that was the case.

"That's fantastic, Naruto-sama. Did you have any plans for the day?" She hoped he had something, just to buy her time to come up with more for him. A restless Naruto was almost as bad as a restless Anko.

With a lazy wave at the papers on his desk he leaned back into his chair and gave a mighty yawn. "Just this." He shrugged. "And please call me Tsukiyomi when I'm working. I need to get more used to it."

He felt like he was forgetting something but dismissed it easily enough. After all, if he had forgotten something Mai would remind him when it became important.

One of Mai's brows rose at that, but it offered an opportunity she just couldn't pass up.

"Only if you call me Amaterasu" He stared at her for a minute, making her worried she might have overstepped her bounds, but eventually he gave her an amused snort and a small smile.

"Amaterasu, huh?" He mused. "I suppose it's fitting. Just don't introduce me to any of your friends if they intend to provide lunch by regurgitating it."

"I'll keep that in mind." He had accepted that more easily than she had thought and she was aware that the Wolf standing guard in the corner had perked up at the name. She was sure it will have made the rounds through the Konoha ranks by tomorrow. From there she just had to wait for it to spread to the rest of the pack.

She gave it a week before she had every Wolf new and old calling her Amaterasu.

"So, no plans for the day?" She was going to have to make up something to keep him occupied before he did, otherwise he'd start a project he had no hope of finishing.

"No," He gave a relieved sort of half-laugh. "And after last night that's probably for the best." Even if he was a clone, the original had been completely worn out when he performed the Kage-Bunshin which meant Tsukiyomi- even if he technically wasn't exhausted having not used any of the energy given to him by the original or Karura- was feeling as though he had just spent the night trying to reward Anko.

Most definitely a good sort of exhausted, but exhausted all the same.

One of Mai's brows rose even as she tried to squish a sudden wave of jealousy rising in her. By Tsukiyomi, she didn't even know what he was referring to yet.

"What happened last night?" She asked, hoping that it would be anything but a woman's name.

She was disappointed when that was the very first thing out of his mouth.

"Anko joined us on a mission," He started. That alone would be reason enough for his desire to rest- it was not easy keeping up with that woman doing anything- but she had a sinking feeling she was about to hear more she wouldn't like. "And by some miracle managed to behave herself around the Genin- mostly." Neither even noted the fact that he was also a Genin.

"She did?" There was genuine surprise and curiosity in her voice. Anko was known for many things but her restraint was not one of them. The fact that she had managed to behave was indeed some sort of miracle.

"Yeah," Naruto nodded. "And I promised her that if she was good I'd reward her, might have helped." A sudden realization dawned upon Mai as she deduced exactly where this was going.

He gave her a tired look and an even more tired smile. "By the gods, does that woman have a lot of energy. She was even ready to go just a bit ago and I had to turn her down."

"Oh." Mai kept her face carefully blank and professional, a bitter taste of lost chances filling her mouth. "So first the master and then her apprentice?" She was referring to Orochimaru of course and Naruto took a moment to blink in thought.

"Huh, I suppose that is how it went, isn't it?" He gave a light shrug. "I should probably be more surprised it's taken so long for either of them, Anko made her intentions known almost a year ago now and Orochimaru has even less restraint than her former student."

Two things about that immediately stood out to her, the first being that he made a very good point. It was easy to see how obsessed Orochimaru was- she'd canceled her invasion of Konohagakure in fear that it would displease him, after all- and the fact that she had managed to hold off long enough for them to actually get to know eachother a bit was amazing.

The second thing that stood out to her was the fact that Anko had been waiting almost a year for last night. Mai had only figured out what she wanted a few days ago.

To be fair, while she didn't know how long Orochimaru had wanted the same the woman hadn't even been around him for two months before she had stolen his first, so perhaps the whole time thing was irrelevant. Still, it remained that the intentions of both women had been well known before either of them were given the chance to be with him.

"I don't recall you mentioning that" She was certain she would have remembered. "When did Mitarashi let you know?"

"Remember when we blew up that casino and I used my half of the funds to get the Wolves uniforms? That night." He answered, fondly remembering one of his most notable missions with the Tokubetsu-Jōnin.

"I see." She frowned slightly in thought, wondering if it was as easy as simply asking him, before she shook it from her head. "You enjoyed yourself, then?"

He gave her a soft smile. "I always enjoy spending time with Anko, you know that."

That..was not what she had expected to hear. Talking about how much he had enjoyed it or how wonderful it was would have made sense to her, as would have him trying to avoid the subject. From the way he answered, it was as if sleeping with the former student of Orochimaru was no different from chatting with her over dinner or curled up on a couch with books.

A sudden thought struck her with more strangeness than she thought possible.

Did sex even matter to him?

As impossible as it seemed, she couldn't help but suspect that was the case. One half of her was somewhat disappointed in the idea that he didn't feel it was important as she did, the other half thought it was an explanation as to why he had never tried anything with her. Anko and Orochimaru had told Naruto what they wanted and he had provided from them as Naruto does.

Maybe it was as easy as asking him.

She was very, very tempted to find out.

"That's nice," She managed to force a small smile of her own using that tiny hope. Maybe he wasn't as lost to her as she thought. "So you've been with two different women now, what do you think about sex?"

He raised a brow. "Curious, are we?" She blushed lightly, but perhaps not for the reasons he suspected. "It's certainly a nice way to spend time with those you care about, and it seemed to make them both very happy."

"And what about you?"

"Hmm?"

"Did it make you happy?" He seemed almost puzzled by the question.

"I enjoy spending time with them, yes."

She stared at him in disbelief before pinching her brow and giving a groan. "It really shouldn't be a hard question to get an answer to." She sighed. Of course this was Naruto, things couldn't just be simple. "You enjoy spending time with them, right?" Mai confirmed.

"Yes, I always enjoy time with my girls." She had a suspicion that despite not having been one of those to sleep with him like that she was still part of the group he was talking about. Mai felt a pleasant tingle travel down her spine at the thought. She could certainly get used to hearing him call her his.

"So, would you say sex would be one of your favorite ways to spend time with them?" Mai could see the understanding dawn in those pools of molten gold. It was quickly followed by a large grin and a faraway look.

"Oh, definitely."

So it did matter, it just wasn't a focus. Should have expected that, really. The only thing he ever focused on was the Wolves and those he considered 'pack'. What he actually did with them was unimportant so long as they were happy.

Knowing Anko as she did, Mai had a feeling she was very, very happy at the moment.

Not that she could blame the woman.

Moving closer to Naruto's desk, she found herself sitting on it much like the Tokubetsu-Jōnin might.

"So, you said you didn't have any more plans today, right?" Maybe it wasn't making up work for him to do, but she had a wonderful idea on how to keep him busy for a while. He enjoyed spending time with his girls and even if he was hiding things from her she knew she was one of them.

She was sure it wouldn't be too hard to convince him to agree with her idea of how to spend the rest of the morning.

And maybe a bit of the afternoon, too.

One of Naruto's brows rose and he looked back down to his papers. "No, I'm done for the day." Which, really, was a very strange thing for him to say- an opinion shared by Mai who paused briefly in surprise.

Their eyes met and an unspoken agreement was made between them – they would not speak of this unnatural occurrence.

At least until it was more common, in Mai's case. She'd still work towards it but there was no point in jinxing her efforts by acknowledging it.

"Hmm, in that case maybe you'd spend some time with me, too?"

"Of course." He hadn't been able to spend much time with her over the last week or so- in fact, he had only seen her once- so the chance to spend time with his favorite Wolf was most welcome. "What would you like to do?"

Slipping from the desk she took a bold seat straddling his lap. Leaning in she enjoyed his smell and the way he immediately placed his hands on her hips.

"I have a couple ideas, Naruto-sama."

He gave a groan, half enjoyment and half disappointment which confused her until he explained.

"As tempting as that is Mai, Anko's completely worn me out. There's no way I can take care of you right now."

She just smirked. It looked like it really was as easy as asking, she should have done this months ago.

"In that case just sit back and let your favorite Wolf take care of you, my lord." She wasn't really sure she was still his favorite but he made no protest to her words.

Nor did he protest anything else she did that morning.

"...And may Tsukiyomi's will be done." Their instructor ended the day's training session. "You are all dismissed."

Tenjin and Haru – two individuals who until very recently would have considered themselves Otogakure Shinobi – shared a look as their peers started dispersing. They certainly heard a lot about this 'Tsukiyomi' – He was their new lord, according to Orochimaru – but neither had ever so much as met the man.

The Wolves, however, were more than happy to go on about his greatness. Maybe it was just them, but some of the things they were hearing were just too far-fetched to be true. Sure, they were Shinobi, but the enslavement of an entire Konoha clan and the creation of the Aisu Bay because he was insulted by a fisherman's wife?

That was to say nothing about the mountain ranges he had apparently created so he could better survey the world that belonged to him without returning to his throne on the moon just so he wasn't too far away from his beloved children.

At the same time, they couldn't deny just how effective the training had been so far. Otogakure had nothing like it and they could already see the results of their work. And, really, how can you go wrong both joining an Imperial House of the strongest of the elemental countries and escaping the direct command of Orochimaru? It was win-win!

They would just have to wait until they met this Tsukiyomi before they could determine just how delusional their new "Packmates" were.

They had a feeling it was "very" but it was still better than ending up on one of the Overseer's operating tables. Orochimaru's most trusted were almost as bad as the woman herself.

She was going to fucking kill him.

Really.

Mikoto had fantasized about it often enough during her stay here in Ame but she was going to fucking do it this time.

She couldn't blame the little shit for staring at her, mask or no –she was damn attractive and she knew it. She could understand him wanting to peek on her in the showers. Again, she was attractive and he only needed one look with those damn eyes of his. Even snooping through her room was somewhat understandable – though, admittedly, she had not expected him to stoop to a panty-raid. Then again, with Kisame there she had a pretty good idea who had come up with the idea – because, again, she was an attractive woman.

It did not help that there was only one other like her here in Akatsuki, favored by the boss-man – who wasn't really in charge – that had the other S-Ranked rogue Shinobi here terrified enough to behave – well, somewhat.

She – despite actually being higher up the hierarchy than he was – did not have the benefit of protection because the knowledge was not public. So, being the most "vulnerable" of the two, she should not be surprised that they were all desperate to get as close as they could.

Again – because it couldn't be said enough – she was an attractive woman. Hell, she almost felt a bit bad for them because they were all well-known S-Ranked rogue Shinobi and even most civilian woman were cautions enough to avoid them. Most civilian woman avoided Shinobi period – which wasn't a bad idea, they were crazy and they were usually far more powerful which was not a good combination – but someone known as a traitor or murderer or who had stolen some precious relic from their home?

Yeah, she had a feeling none of them were getting any, which must have been terribly frustrating.

All that aside, there were things she couldn't overlook.

Finding a mannequin dressed up in some of her missing clothes and wearing a poor imitation of her own mask being one of them. It was bad enough when he had just stolen her underwear, but who knows what horrible things that poor mannequin had been forced to witness?

That was simply taking things too far.

Well, there were Sasori's "Immortal pieces of art" featuring her, but she didn't mind his lewd drawings nearly as much. She had confiscated them, of course, because she wanted them for herself, but she was kind of looking forward to what he might draw of her next.

The mannequin was simply unacceptable, though she was immensely relieved it had been some other sort of doll she had stumbled upon.

She was most definitely not just using it as an excuse to stop putting off the desire to kill him she had been harboring since the little shit had slaughtered his entire extended family. Maybe she should have let Fugaku beat him when he was a kid.

No, she was thinking of Sasuke. Itachi was already a murdering little psychopath when he was younger, he probably could have killed the Uchiha Head by the time he was six.

Huh, maybe that should have raised more red flags than it did. That didn't make her a bad mother, did it? She hoped not, Naruto still needed her.

And speaking of needing her, she had to let him know that the Akatsuki was finally going to be making moves. Not major moves- that's not how they liked to work- but Pein – which really meant Zetsu – had decided it was now the proper time to start going after the Jinchuriki.

Beyond the fact that his sister was one, it didn't really concern him- you know, besides the fact that a group of infamous S-Ranked Shinobi were planning on being in possession of nine destructive Chakra beasts of immense power – but she finally had valuable information to provide and gods be damned she'd make sure he received it as soon as she possibly could.

Apparently they were going after the Ichibi first – she thought they'd be better off getting the Jinchuriki who had the potential to become the most powerful out of the way before they had a chance to realize what was happening but she sure as hell wasn't in charge and they hadn't bothered asking her opinion – the only real problem no one was quite sure where they were.

Hi no Kuni's invasion of Kaze no Kuni had seen to that quite nicely. It was also one of the reasons they were taking it slowly. Iwa had recalled its Jinchuriki to who knows where in preparation of any attack on their own borders – Mikoto had a suspicion they were lazing about the Imperial Earth Palace about now to make the Daimyo of Tsuchi no Kuni feel protected while keeping them out of Iwagakure no Sato but again no one had asked her – and Kumo had, well, Kumo was Kumo.

Those paranoid, militaristic bastards were already hard to get information on. Luckily there was a fine balance between information security and efficiency because otherwise they'd be bogged down by security procedure and get nothing done or the would be a joke to infiltrate but be always on the move.

The balance was good for them but it also kept them limited and provided opportunities for things to leak. So, pretty standard, actually. Huh. You didn't think average when talking about Kumo, but she supposed they were just well organized.

Still, they had managed to keep a tight lid on all the information pertaining to their own Jinchuriki. Considering the fact that Jinchuriki were supposed to be a village's most powerful assets, it made a lot of sense. It also made sense for their Jinchuriki to be properly cared and provided for, as you would with any weapon. Why places like Iwa and Taki pushed them away she'd never understand.

Kiri had that whole 'bloodline war' excuses they could use, as no one could blame the Jinchuriki from staying away until things had settled down, and Suna, well, Suna's Jinchuriki kind of brought any treatment upon himself when he started slaughtering people. Some blame definitely rested upon the Kazekage, though. Letting it get to that point was bad enough, but not doing anything to stop it? They probably would have been better off just giving the kid the hat and letting him do as he pleased.

It had practically been the arrangement already and it got another useless person from out of power. Win-win as far as Mikoto was concerned.

But village treatment of Jinchuriki aside, there was now a large portion of them that Akatsuki no longer knew the location of which made it had to perform any coordinated captures. They would just have to work their way up and hope that the disappearance of the lesser Biju would prompt them to move the greater. They were also banking on that movement giving them something to follow or cluing them in to the new location ss probably not the best idea. It also didn't account for the fact that the Nibi was under Kumo control and Kumo was one of the villages who had managed to mask the identity and current whereabouts of their Jinchuriki from the outside world.

Either Pein wasn't very good at plans or someone had chosen poorly when they put the plant-man in charge.

Working from the ground up was the kind of thinking a plant would have, after all.

Gaara knelt upon the floors of the room draped in the finest silks the resort had to offer. Before him sat a small wooden table, masterfully carved in the design of twisting dragons and- where the artist had room- tiny *Nishikigoi. The entire thing had been stained a dark red just opaque enough to show color without removing the natural beauty of the wood.

As far as he was concerned, however, a table was a table. Had it not been available he'd have used Kankurō's back. It was all the same to him. The only reason he hadn't gone straight for his brother's back- beyond the fact that the table was closer – was because what he was working on was important. Very important.

So important, in fact, that he wanted to at least try to do things properly before simply asking Temari to do it for him.

Part of that may have been because he wanted part of it to be a surprise for his Other Kaa-san, but he also wanted this to be special.

It was his first letter to Tou-sama, after all.

Taking the clean paper he began trailing the fine brush over the field of white, occasionally removing it for more ink . His strokes were smooth and controlled, flowing like a shifting sea of sand, and when he was done he carefully washed the brush before putting it away.

He cleaned off the table, packing away the supplies he had liberated from the resort and once everything else was done he gazed down at his completed work.

It was glorious.

Before he could fully appreciate his work Temari and Kankurō returned to the room, both wearing robes and with hot towels wrapped around their heads. Something about a spa day, if he recalled, and the only reason his brother wasn't covered in his 'war paint'.

Kankurō stretched with a yawn as he entered the room while Temari went straight for Gaara and wrapped her arms around him in a hug. Settling her head over his shoulder she peered down at his work and squeezed him even more tightly.

"Oh, Gaara, it's adorable." This, naturally, caught Kankurō's' attention and he ambled over to see what his brother had been up to while they were out. He had considered the fact that there were no panicked masses, pools of blood, or pillars of flame on their way back to be a good enough sign and he was terribly curious about what had distracted his brother for so long.

Peeking over Gaara's other shoulder he had to stifle the amused snort that had threatened to escape him. It was knowing who's work it was that had him restraining himself more than the challenging glare his sister was shooting him.

Staring proudly up at the Suna siblings was a picture of four figures, two female and one male, standing on a hill- or maybe it was a dune, the whole thing had been done in black ink – with the moon overhead.

The figure with four spiky ponytails was obviously Temari and the woman on the other side Kankurō guessed was probably 'mother', leaving the two male figures between them. Gaara was easily identified by the gourd by his feet and the tiny 'love' written on his forehead- Kankurō would admit to being impressed by that, judging by the thickness of the other lines the brush had not been thin enough to make that easily– so he took a wild guess that the figure in the back with their arms wrapped around the waists of the women next to him was probably that Naruto his siblings were so fond of.

Right between the four figures and the moon was the word 'Family' but Kankurō was far too amused to be upset about being left out. As great a job he had done on the 'love' on his forehead and as incredibly lifelike the moon looked-gods above knew Gaara had stared at it enough over the years – the rest of the picture, well, maybe Gaara could have saved himself a lot of trouble just using crayons.

Four stick-figures looked up at them, all with large smiles on their faces, and Kankurō thought it had a very strong argument to being the greatest thing he had ever seen.

And, as his sister had said earlier, it was pretty damn adorable.

Squinting it the background, a large grin spread over his face when he managed to make out a tiny puppeteer next to a grave that said 'Jiji'. Standing back up he ruffled Gaara's hair- something he had never dared to do before- and started towards his room to work more on what remained of his puppets.

"You forgot my warpaint." Was the only comment he made as he slipped through the door.

Gaara shared a look with Temari, wondering why Kankurō was suddenly in such a good mood, but she just gave him a soft smile. "This is fantastic, Gaara. Did you want to get it framed?"

Gaara just shook his head. "I'm writing a letter to Tou-sama."

She almost refrained from glomping him. Almost.

"You are just the most adorable little Tanuki ever!" A moment later she followed up with a very important question from the floor she had tackled him to. "Are these the curtains from the front lobby?"

Kankurō had been moments from leaving his room in search of a tool he had misplaced- it was probably still floating in the baths- when he heard that and covering his mouth with his hand did his best to keep from bursting out in laughter. Maybe he'd search for that tool later, preferably after the resort staff had given up finding their curtains.

Gods above, he needed to start writing this stuff down. He could probably make a killing using this in a story.

[End Notes]

Amaterasu avoids her husband Tsukiyomi (also her brother, technically) because one of her friends, a Kami of food, regurgitated a meal for them to consume and he slew her on the spot in disgust.

Nishikigoi are decorative Koi (Carp).

Commentaries – Sealkeeper Chapter 84 will be available at Eyazahrid-dot-net later tonight, as I did not have time to finish typing it this morning.

If you haven't already, follow me on Twitter at Eyazahrid for notifications about chapter progress, streams, and posts on my website.

Until I next have your attention,

– Eyazahrid