Chapter 9

A/N: I'm back kiddies! Thank you to everybody who faved, followed and reviewed. You're all so kind! I hope you like the next installment!

Death by manga: Thank you for your kind words! I like to keep things light hearted, re-reading the story has been like "oh sweet baby Jesus this is serious stuff!" And one has to remember that even though there is all these mature themes, they are only 16-17 years old.

Stallion6: I felt bad giving Kiba such a cruel awakening, but meh, he'll go on to bigger and better things.

Celestia's Paladin: Thanks for your honesty. I admit, it may not be epic per se, but I like that it's character driven. Also, one cannot go from 0 to epic so soon after the war! There's no reason for conflict yet!

Keeper of Worlds: Thank you for your kind words! I worry it's too fast paced, but thank you for your assurance! I did not mean to let it sit for so long, however, Chapter 8's ending was particularly bothersome. It changed at least 3 times. I hope this is fast enough!

Starfire201: Alas, poor Kiba has to move on I'm afraid. And I tried to give a sense that Hinata knew about Kiba's affections but never quite felt the same. Perhaps I failed. And yes, poor poor Sai.

Anoni Mos: wow, you really made my day. Thank you so much! I'm happy to know you enjoy it :) And yes, Sasuke is very much dead. I found it the easiest resolution to his story.

Naruto sat on Sakura's window sill, an softly hit the glass with his knuckle, peering into her room. It was illuminated by the soft light of dawn, giving everything an orangey tint, even Sakura's hair. The Kunoichi sat up and saw Naruto at the window. Lifting an eyebrow, she approached and opened it, before whispering "what are you doing here?"

Naruto smiled. "When I got home last night there were orders for my first Jonin mission waiting for me. I have to leave soon, and I wanted to say goodbye."

Sakura's expression softened, and she brushed some of her bedhead behind her ear. "How long will you be away?" Naruto shrugged. "I'm not sure."

Sakura pouted a bit. "I'll miss you." The blonde nodded, "I'll miss you too." He then gave her a brief kiss, said "I'll find you as soon as I'm home", gave her a longer, sweeter goodbye kiss and leapt off, leaving the Haruno girl standing at her open window.

When Naruto finally arrived at the front gate, Neji was already waiting there. Naruto stood next to him and whispered,"who are we waiting for?"

Neji rolled his eyes. "Shikamaru. Honestly, I expected you to be the late one."

"Thanks for the appreciation," Naruto deadpanned.

The two waited another five minutes before Shikamaru strolled up, some hair astray, and a suspicious mark on his neck.

"What took you Shikamaru?" Neji asked, a little angry at his tardiness. Before Shikamaru could respond, Naruto interjected. "Is that a hickey?"

Shikamaru appeared rather flustered, and muttered something about needing to find the mission brief in his bag, and rifling through it to change the subject. The tension built in silence, and soon Naruto could not contain his laughter.

"Shikamaru did you get it on with Temari?" the blonde asked between laughs.

Shikamaru glared at him. Even Neji joined in, saying "I hope you used protection."

Shikamaru just walked past the two. "We'll brief on the way there, let's just get the hell outta here." Naruto and Neji followed, snickering.

Later, the Nara man had finally calmed down, and started briefing on their mission, while they flew from tree to tree. "If you guys thought this would be a short mission, then you probably didn't do your homework."

Naruto gulped.

"It will take a week to get there, plus however long the mission takes, and then another week back." Shikamaru stated, rolling his eyes, muttering "troublesome" under his breath.

"Where are we even going?!" Naruto asked.

"We are heading to a village known as Ryugakure, nestled in a land between the land of Earth and the land of Wind," Neji interjected.

"And why are we going there?"

It was Shikamaru's turn to answer. "Basically, most of the small nations did not participate in this last war. However, we have never really communicated with Ryu before, we never really had a reason to. Tsunade has decided to open up channels of communication since we have a recently attractive time of peace."

He continued, "After the war, we aren't quite certain where alliances may truly lie, even if they're solid on paper. Hopefully extending a hand to a smaller nation will be viewed favorably, however if I were to guess Tsunade is just guilty about Konoha's involvement with Nagato. Konoha ninja killed his parents, and then he was basically Jiraiya's protege."

Neji nodded. "That makes sense. Jiraiya-sama seems to be a tender point for Tsunade-sama."

Naruto remained silent. Jiraiya was a tender point for him, too.

The rest of the week passed relatively uneventful for the three Konoha nin. There was a spat when Shikamaru labeled himself the brains, Neji the brawn, and Naruto the unknowing persuasive genius. Naruto liked to think he was rather brawny as well.

Eventually the group reached the Land of Scorched Earth, which housed Ryugakure. The terrain wasn't sandy like the Land of Wind, but it didn't have the vast mountains and forests like the Land of Earth. Instead, the Land of Scorched Earth was arid and rocky.

The part of the land they were traveling through was flat, and allowed quick travel. Mountains could be seen in the distance, however.

Before too long, the group saw a gated village in the horizon, and started moving faster. This part of the land had more vegetation, but it still contrasted with the fertile lands of the Land of Fire. There were three guards posted in a kiosk next the gate, with a bright red awning hanging over providing shade. Shikamaru approached the three, who seemed to be their age, but without the burdens of having been in war aging them. Before Shikamaru could get a word out, one of the guards, a girl with navy hair in a braid, and light blue eyes excitedly asked, "Oh my gosh, are you foreigners?!"

"Yes, we are ninja from Konohagakure wishing to check in for diplomatic purposes." Shikamaru stated, causing the girl to squeal.

"Leaf ninja, oh my gosh, that's so cool! My name is Hoshi, how can I-" the Hoshi said, before her teammate butted in. The girl had platinum blonde hair in a bob haircut that started at the top of her neck and grew longer towards the front stopping at her chin. Her bangs were on the longer side as well, her gray eyes nearly peeking out from underneath.

"I apologize for Hoshi, our village isn't used to visitors. To enter, please sign in." the second girl said before pointing to the third guard, who had a clipboard.

"Names here, please." the only male on the team stated. He had black hair and brown eyes.

The Konoha team signed in, and the blonde girl went off to find them a guide. Hoshi talked at the three, speaking quickly and excitedly.

"Welcome to Ryugakure! We're super excited to have you all here, my name is Hoshi Mizushima, that other girl was Nozomi Yukinawa and that stud over there is Daisuke Yamamoto."

At that, seeing the the stoic Daisuke, Naruto sighed inwardly. Hoshi continued her chatter.

"Nozomi went off to find our sensei, Miyako Hoshiyama."

It seemed Nozomi couldn't return fast enough. The sensei to the excited Chunin was a tall and severe looking woman, with long blonde hair and brown eyes. She wore a dress in a seafoam color, underneath a black flak jacket, which the Chunin wore as well.

"Hoshi, these ninja are here for their mission, not to hear your incessant chatter. Excuse me gentlemen, if you would just follow me, I shall take you to the leader of our village."

"Sounds great," Neji said, lifting up his bag and eyeing Hoshi warily.

"Good-bye, ninja-San!" Hoshi called to the group as the entered the village gates.

"I apologize for Hoshi's antics," Miyako said. "She gets it from her father."

The Jonin woman led them to the center of the village, to the largest building. Inside it was very open with a large central lobby. They were led up a staircase to the second floor. The council room finally arrived, and the Ryu Jonin opened the door to reveal a table that curved in the shape of a crescent moon, with several people seated around it.

Miyako approached the center seated person, a woman with orange hair that contrasted with her teal turtleneck. The blonde woman turned back to Shikamaru. "I present our leader, Nakina Takeshi."

"Thank you Miyako, you're dismissed." Nakina said, before continuing. "So you're the envoy from the Hidden Leaf I presume?"

Shikamaru nodded. "We're here to start some alliance talks between our villages, and open up communication channels."

"Well we're a polite group, so allow me to introduce our council, Eiji Takeshi is our head of the Takeshi clan, he's that old guy with the gray hair. Mitake Takeshi is the head medic, she's the one with all that blonde hair. Hibiki is that guy with the graying brown hair, he's the Civilian Rep. The woman with the brown hair is Kirika Takeshi, our Head of Education. The young twenty-something with red hair is Toru Uzumi, he replaced our recently deceased head of ANBU, and last but not least the man with blue hair is Masanori Mizushima, our head Jonin."

Shikamaru smirked. "There certainly are a lot of Takeshi clan members in this council."

The old man Eiji huffed. "We are the largest clan in the village, with a large percentage of the population!"

Nakina nodded. "It is undoubtedly true. However some are Takeshi by marriage, such as myself and Kirika, who is married to Mitake's brother Takeo."

Shikamaru nodded and began his own introductions. "I'm Shikamaru Nara, on my left is Neji Hyuuga, and the blonde is Naruto Uzumaki."

The young ANBU head, Toru gave Naruto a look. "Uzumaki?"

"What's it to you?" Naruto asked, in a suspicious tone, sizing up the other man.

Toru balked, "Nothing, we've just simply heard a lot about your place in ending the war."

Nakina, sensing the tension, stood. "Ok, I think we're ready to begin our discussion!"

A/N: May seem boring, I apologize, but the fictional Ryugakure is my baby. And I wanted to set up and introduce it!

It's role has changed numerous times throughout my conceptualization however, I think this fits rather nicely.

Til next time!

Read & review please!

-MyHikari