Chapter 81

Back in the Leaf

After 3 days they had finally reached the village. When they walked under the arches the guards stopped Naruto.

"Glad you're back Naruto and Lady Hinata. The Hokage wants you to report to him immediately."

Naruto gulped. "Yes," Hinata replied while nodding her head and walking in the direction of the Hokage headquarters.

Hinata noticed Naruto's reaction and waited until they were out of range to ask him about it. "What was that about?"

"I think Kakashi sensi probably isn't very happy with me…" He placed his hand on his stomach and summoned his courage. He knew he was doing the right thing.

"Why?" She gave him a puzzled look. "You've been gone, what could he be upset about…"

"Because I wrote to the Kages and invited them here for a summit. We're all meeting tomorrow…" He knew he was risking Hinata being angry with him too.

But instead of being angry she just stopped walking and had a hurt look on her face.

"Hinata," he called out.

She started walking again but didn't make eye contact with Naruto.

He wanted to say something. "I didn't tell you because…" he started but didn't finish. Hinata also didn't push him for answers.

"I just thought we would have more time together, did you not want that Naruto?" She asked him.

"No, I do, that's why I'm doing this. Trust me Hinata. Can you just trust me, I'll explain everything later."

She thought for a moment and there was a long pause. "Of course Naruto." She didn't smile but at least she was going to give his plan a chance to work.

They made it to Kakashi's office and met Kurini as they waited outside his office.

"Oh, Naruto and Hinata, you're back." She said loud enough for Kakashi to hear. Naruto could hear Kakashi getting up and coming towards them.

"Hinata, we should catch up and leave them to talk. I don't think you want to see the Hokage right now." She cautioned.

"Thanks Sensi, but it was both of our idea to contact the other Kages. If our actions have caused any issues then we both will bear the consequences." She said as she bowed her head respectfully at Kurini.

"Well, I tried…" she said as she walked forward and put her hand on Hinata's shoulder.

Kakashi walked cooly to his door and nodded at both Naruto and Hinata. He had just heard Hinata admit her involvement and he had already heard enough.

They took the nod as an invitation to come in and sat down across from Kakashi's desk.

"I told you both to keep things under wraps for now, not to call a summit. I didn't want Shikamaru and Temari in the position that they will soon be in with the leadership of this village because of your careless attitude." He started in right away.

Naruto and Hinata sat motionless and took in Kakashi's words.

"And Hinata, this was the reason you were to go with Naruto, to keep him from doing anything like this. I'm disappointed…" he said as he shook his head at Hinata.

Naruto felt terrible, he sat and watched as the woman he loved was chastised for a decision that he made that didn't involve her at all.

"I'm sorry Hokage." She replied.

"Kakashi sensi," Naruto began, his tone getting angry.

"Sorry? You don't realize the mess that you have made! Did either of you think of your friends?" Kakashi questioned.

Hinata looked down as tears pooled in her eyes.

"Enough!" Naruto yelled.

"Naruto!" Hinata yelled back. She was embarrassed by his disrespectful tone.

"Hinata, you can leave us now." Kakashi stated as Hinata got up to leave the room. She took one last look at Naruto before leaving.

"Naruto, you can't just call a kage summit, remember what I said about treating me like a Hokage and not just your sensi anymore? Have you even told Shikamaru? I know you think you had a good reason…" Kakashi paused, he was curious for the reason, but he figured they would end up getting to that.

"Hokage, you know that Hinata would never support something that would go against our mission. And you should know that I wouldn't either. The two of us alone will not be enough to convince the Raikage. We need support from the other Kages."

Kakashi pondered this for a moment. "I supposed there isn't anything we can do now but brace ourselves. I do trust your judgement Naruto, but I don't appreciate the way you went about this. You have a bad habbit of taking the lead when you should be working as a part of a team. I hope things will go well, but have you considered what life for Shikamaru and Temari might be like if they don't go well?"

"Yes, I've been thinking about that, and that's why I made the decision that I did. I think we have enough support to change things."

Kakashi sat forward and just rubbed his forehead. He hadn't had these kind of headaches since the first year that Naruto was on his team. "We will deal with it tomorrow I suppose, be here early, we're going to have a big day tomorrow." Kakashi replied as he stood up. "Tomorrow you will be presenting the idea to the 5 Kages so they can vote and discuss the issue."

Naruto nodded his head as he got up to leave, he had to find Hinata and set things right.

"Naruto," Kakashi called, his tone still grave.

"Hokage?"

"I want you to brief Shikamaru now." He replied.

"Yeah, I'm heading to see him," Naruto said in a confident tone. What Kakashi said was really starting to sink in and Naruto was worried about Shikamaru's reaction as he turned to leave.

He took a moment to gather his thoughts before he finally got to Shikamaru's house.

Shikamaru's mom answered the door. "Oh, Naruto, they're in the kitchen," she said as she opened the the door the rest of the way for him to come in.

"They're?" he echoed as he walked into the kitchen to see who she meant. Shikamaru, Temari, and Hinata were all seated around the table, talking with smiles on their faces and bowls of food in front of them.

"Naruto," Shikamaru said as he stood up. "Heard you guys just got back, are you hungry?" he asked.

"What kind of dumb question is that Shikamaru? I'm always ready to eat!" He said with excitement and then his face fell. Would Shikamaru still welcome him if he knew he was putting his plan at stake?

Shikamaru sat a bowl down in front of him and took his seat back at the table.

Naruto looked down at his food. Just the smell was making his stomach growl. He looked over at Hinata, could she forgive him?

She met his eyes, she had no anger on her features. "I wish I knew what he was thinking," she thought to herself. "Naruto," she spoke softly to him to break the silence.

Both Shikamaru and Temari could see that there was something between them and looked back and forth between Hinata and Naruto.

"Is there something going on?" Temari asked Hinata.

"Naruto," she continued. "I was filling in Shikamaru and Temari."

Naruto nodded his head. "So you know about the 5 kage summit tomorrow, I'm working on a plan."

Hinata shook her head. "Uh…I hadn't got that far."

"What?!" Shikamaru said as she stood up. "What are you talking about? Why haven't you said anything Hinata?" Shikamaru said as he raised his voice.

Everyone was quiet for a moment as they absorbed the new information. Hinata didn't respond right away. She knew the Shikamaru was upset and she thought he had every right to be.

"Don't be upset with her Shikamaru, I'm the one who set the summit up, I didn't even tell her until we crossed the gates to the village tonight." He started to explain.

Shikamaru was still obviously angry, he grabbed Naruto by the collar. "Don't you know what you could be costing us? These are the kind of issues I wanted to avoid!" He yelled.

"Shikamaru!" Temari shoved him off of Naruto. Shikamaru was usually calm, she wasn't sure what had gotten into him. "I know this is important to us, but that's why we asked our friends to go on this mission. They both want what we want, you need to try to have some faith."

"She's right," Yoshino popped in from the doorway. She walked toward Shikamaru and put her arm around his shoulder. We're in this together."

Temari nodded her head as she smiled at Yoshino. "So, what's our strategy?" she asked Shikamaru.

He started pacing the floor back and forth and Naruto took a seat.

"Sorry Naruto, Temari is right." He said as he briefly looked at Naruto with an angry glare.

Naruto didn't say anything but sat down next to Hinata.

"So you said that Onoki didn't give you an answer…what happened with Mei. What was her response?" He asked.

"Oh, she said she'd definitely support dropping the rule," Hinata mentioned reassuringly.

"So then, if we have three supporting us, even if the Raikage disagrees then we're still doing pretty good…" he trailed off as he thought about his strategy.

"And things are going well with Koharu," Temari hadn't had a chance to tell him anything that had happened. She had just gotten to Shikamaru's house when Hinata knocked on the door.

"Well enough to spring this on her?" He asked in a way that seemed to dismiss the idea entirely.

"Well enough that she already knows and has agreed to offer her support," Temari replied matter of factly towards his dismissive tone.

He was shocked for the second time tonight.

"Seriously?" he asked in disbelief.

"It only just came about today. She said you looked at me the way her husband used to look at her and it gave everything away. She was good about it though, I haven't had a chance to tell you until now."

Naruto spoke for the first time since sitting down. "That's pretty impressive Temari, that elder is a tough cookie, she doesn't ever go out of her way for anyone. Whatever you did to make her like you must have worked."

She thought about her actions, getting into a fight with Koharu and yelling at her and then almost setting fire to her entire kitchen…"yeah," she added. "Thanks." She kept her thoughts to herself.

"I don't know if I'm getting anywhere with the other elder to be honest," Shikamaru said as he popped himself down in his chair. "But even with one elder we've got a good chance. I think I have a plan…" he sat forward and begun to share what was on his mind.