Chapter 22: The Small Village Summit

A/N: Hello my darlings! I enjoy this newest installment and have a good weekend!

Infinite Katalyst: I loved Ryutsuki & Meihane too!

Loyal Reviewers? Where did you all go last chapter? Was it all a coincidence? Or don't you like me anymore? Its ok, I still love you!

Naruto gazed around the area from behind a rock. Kakashi, Kiba and himself had recently switched pairs to train amongst the Chunin, and now Naruto was working with Hoshi and Hideki. He was wondering where they were, until from the tree line he saw a rushing stream of water coming his way, a feeble attempt at the water dragon jutsu on Hoshi's part, but still coming at him like a freight train. He smirked and jumped to the right of it, dodging. "Too easy."

However, bamboo suddenly shot out of the ground around his feet, and attempted to trap him in place by wrapping around him. It had seemed to work, but the tell tale puff of smoke signified a shadow clone had been trapped, nothing more. Hideki and Hoshi came out of the trees in frustration. "Dammit, I thought that would've worked..." Hoshi murmured, blue strands of hair coming out of her braid, her forehead drenched in sweat.

"I like that you guys are starting to work together, but didn't you learn anything training with Kakashi?" Naruto said, standing upon the rock he had been hiding behind, with a smirk. "Look underneath the underneath! Anyway, let's meet up with the others, its time for all of you to learn some basic medical ninjutsu."

The group met up in the center training field, where Sakura, Ino, Yumiko and a boy about 13 years old, with dirty blonde hair and dark gray eyes. Naruto guessed it was Ino's new apprentice, Hajime, who Sakura had mentioned in passing. Kakashi's group was already there, now consisting of Daisuke and Umeko, and Kiba's group was approaching as well, now working with Nozomi and Kamenosuke. Both groups seemed about as tired as Hideki and Hoshi. Sakura gave a wave to Naruto.

"Hi guys! I hope you aren't too tired to have a short little medical seminar. I would come in very handy if you happened to get injured in the field with no medic around," Sakura said with a smile, as Ino whispered for Hajime to pay attention. The boy was ready to take notes, a pad of paper and a pencil in hand.

The 6 Chunin sat down as Sakura and Ino began to demonstrate basic medical ninjutsu. Kakashi lazily leaned up against a rock, reading his book, while Naruto approached Kiba, who had a strange look on his face.

Naruto and Kiba stepped a little ways away from the group. "What's wrong?" Naruto asked, once they were a few yards away. Kiba sniffed the air tentatively. "I think I smell somebody coming. Its kinda familiar but not really at the same time. They're not from around here..."

"Wanna take a look around?"

Kiba nodded, and the two started to follow the scent, however, before they had gone too far away, Akamaru perked up and pointed in the direction it was coming from. A person stepped out of the foliage, revealing a kunoichi from Iwagakure, wearing a traveling cloak and looking worse for wear.

"Kurotsuchi? Is that you?" Naruto asked. The kunoichi nodded, giving a relieved sigh before approaching. "Oh Naruto-san, I'm so relieved it's you. I heard Ryu was allied with Konoha, and Kitsuchi sent me to tell someone what's happening in Iwa."

"How bad is it?" Kiba asked, watching Kurotsuchi wipe some sweat from her face. She lowered her head.

"It's very bad. Kitsuchi is trying to maintain control, but there's a group against him, they want the Land of Earth to become many smaller lands, because they believe the many smaller nations don't experience as much war and destruction. They support a different candidate to be Tsuchikage, a man named Yutaka. There's riots every night, and some fires seem to burn forever. Villagers are fleeing to the mountains, and a civil war has started, with some people only recognizing Yutaka as their leader. That's why Kitsuchi sent me, to tell the other Kage what's going on."

"What happened the night Onoki was assasinated?" Naruto said, pacing a little. Kurotsuchi teared up a little. "Grandpa, he was sleeping, and I had gone into the library in the basement to fetch him some documents for the morning. I guess someone was concealing their chakra and snuck into his room, but his chakra slipped out for a moment and I sensed it, so I ran upstairs into Grandpa's room. There was a man standing over him with a sword, and Grandpa's head had been cut off. I don't think he ever woke up. The guards and I chased the assasin, but he took a suicide pill."

Kurotsuchi had begone crying more and more progressively with her story, but she now was sobbing, and desperately wiping tears off of her face. "I can't believe this is happening."

Naruto and Kiba exchanged a look, before Naruto placed a hand on the girl's shoulder. "I'm going to take you back to Konoha. Tsunade meeds to know what's going on."

"NARUTO, KIBA, GET YOUR ASSES BACK HERE!" Ino shouted from not too far away, before running up and seeing Kurotsuchi and her tear-streaked face. Her mouth opened a little in surprise. "What happened?"

"She told us what's going on in Iwa." Kiba said, his eyes meeting Ino's for a brief moment. "Naruto's going to take her back to Konoha to tell Tsunade."

"Ino, could you fill in for me training the Chunin?" Naruto asked, looking towards the clearing where Sakura still was. "I need to pack and say goodbye to Sakura. I think I should probably talk to Kamenosuke's dad Eiji, too. He's running the village while Nakina's away, but I should let him know where I'm going."

Naruto took off first, but the rest of group followed, Ino placing a reassuring hand on Kurotsuchi's shoulder.

"And you're nearly complete with your training?" Tsunade asked, looking at the exchange medical student from Ryu, Aya Takemori. The girl nodded, her voulminous red-brown curls bouncing into her aqua eyes.

"Ok, well, we'll see if Shizune out there can show you a thing or two, and I hope you don't mind but she's also working with another, a girl named Karin. You can probably help in training her properly."

The girl smiled excitedly at her Konoha guide, Toshiro Haruno. The blonde man turned to Tsunade expectantly.

"Yes, Toshiro?"

"Uhh, I was kinda wondering if you had heard any news on Sakura?" He said, scratching his head sheepishly.

The Hokage shook her head. "I'm afraid not since the last report. I'm sure she's fine."

Toshiro was about to say something, but a mini-Katsuyu appeared on Tsunade's desk with a poof.

Tsunade smirked at Toshiro, "What a coincidence, this is actually a message from her. Although, that probably means it's bad or important news."

"Tsunade-sama, Sakura-chan wishes to inform you that a Iwa ninja named Kurotsuchi has appeared in Ryugakure, and that Naruto-kun is going to bring Kurotsuchi-san here to speak with you, as she has valuable information on what's happening in Iwagakure." Mini-Katsuyu said, relaying Sakura's message.

A frown on her face, Tsunade dismissed mini-Katsuyu and looked up to Toshiro, whose green eyes had narrowed. "Leave Aya with Shizune, and go find Gaara. He needs to stay here longer than I thought."

With a nod, the two left, leaving Tsunade with a pensive look as she poured herself a cup of sake.

Nakina narrowed her eyes as she sat down at a large table in Tanigakure's central building. Ryutsuki sat down next to her, giving a friendly smile. Amaya and Kaede were already seated, as were a few leaders Nakina did not recognize. Two seats were left unoccupied.

The youngest looking leader there, stood and addressed the bunch with a friendly smile. "Before our hosts enter, I would just like to introduce myself. My name is Sumaru, and I'm the leader of Hoshigakure. I am looking forward to speaking with you all."

Another young leader stood after he sat down, feeling in the spirit of what Sumaru had done. "I'm Shibuki, and I'm the leader of Takigakure. Nice to meet all of you."

One by one, the rest of the small village leaders introduced themselves, and by the time the last leader stood, doors had opened, and two men entered the room. The younger one remained standing, while the older one sat down. "Hello, and thank you for attending this meeting. I'm Katsutoshi, and this here is Shogo. Now, I invited you all here because I would like you to consider joining a grand alliance of small villages."

None of the leaders seemed very surprised at the mention of an alliance, though some frowned. "If we join together," Katsutoshi continued. "We could overthrow the 5 Great Nations, who oppress us and restrict our power. Additionally, we have been gifted with such an opportune time to make our move. The 5 Great Villages have just gotten out of war, and have been weakened greatly due to casualties."

Nakina, glaring at Katsutoshi, opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off by the voice of Sumaru, the young leader of Hoshigakure. "How do the larger villages oppress us? I don't understand that mentality. Konoha helped my village through a very dark time."

Shibuki agreed with Sumaru. "Konoha helped me save my village too."

Katsutoshi smiled, as if expecting their protest. "I am quite familiar of both of your villages' experience with Naruto Uzumaki. However, Amaya of Ame, wouldn't you agree that Konoha involvement didn't help your village?"

The redheaded woman frowned. "While it's true that some of the 5 Great Nations had a hand in destroying Ame during the 2nd Great Ninja War, we bear no ill will towards them, because few remain from that time. Trying to get revenge would be pointless."

"Does everyone in your village feel that way?" Katsutoshi asked, before looking away from her. "We could ruin the Great Nations if we banded together. The civil war in Iwa is my work. Yutaka is one of my supporters, and he has gained a following there. We could break Iwa apart and then do the rest to other great villages, then we wouldn't have as much war because no one would be more powerful than the rest."

"Even so, if none of us here join you, you'll be too weak to take on Konoha, Suna, Kumo and Kiri. And if we were to join you, we'd probably still lose. They just came out of one of the most horrific things that could ever happen in this world. No war after it will match it." Setsuna of Shimo remarked, her fingers intertwined.

"And even if you don't join, I'm hiring rougue ninja from ever village as mercenary soldiers, on top of recruiting from your own villages, just in case."

Several leaders gasped at the notion that ninja from their own villages would defect to help Katsutoshi, but Nakina noticed as Ryutsuki remained remarkably calm. He even stood, looking directly into Katustoshi's maroon eyes. "I can't imagine that Tani and Ishi would be able to pay so many mercenaries. Surely, you'd go bankrupt. You need us to join your alliance."

"You prove a good point, Ryutsuki-kun, but with the money we take from the Great Nations we could pay all of. Not to mention some are motivated by good old revenge." Shogo said, speaking for the first time.

Katsutoshi nodded. "I think you doubt what I can do, Ryutsuki. I think it would surprise you to know that your uncle felt about the same way you did, so I allied myself with factions in Getsu that didn't support him. I had hoped when he died, you'd be more receptive to these ideas."

Nakina heard Meihane gasp slightly from where the gaurds stood. Ryutsuki clenched his fist on the table.

"My uncle was assasinated."

"That's right. He was. And I would hate for that to happen to anybody here. Nakina-san, you've been remarkably silent this whole time. Do you have any thoughts?" Katsutoshi said, an eyebrow raised.

"My village is currently allied with Konoha, and based on this meeting I do not want to change that. Hurting them would not help my village."

Katsutoshi sighed. "I will give you all until the morning to think about what I've said. I eagerly await your responses. We could create a world more peaceful than any alliance of the 5 Great Nations could."

The black haired man turned and exited through his personal doors, followed by Shogo and Hiromi. On the other side of the table, Ryutsuki, who had still been standing, turned and walked out of the doors everyone else had entered through, Meihane rushing to him, as he was clearly furious.

Kaede of Kusa, who hadn't spoken during the meeting, looked to the remaining leaders. "I would like to invite any of you who are interested to my hotel room tonight to speak about this without the influence of Katsutoshi trying to persuade us. However, Nakina-san, since you have a clear bias towards Konoha, if you wish to attend, I plead you not to try and influence any of our decisions."

Nakina nodded politely, and turned to Sae and Toru who approached her. "Let's get out of here," she murmured to her gaurds, eyeing Katsutoshi's personal doors. "That guy gave me the creeps..."

A/N: Aaaannnnddd that's all folks! I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please be kind and leave a nice review. Also, don't forget to vote in my poll, I will be taking it down after Chapter 24!

MyHikari