Chapter 23: Summit Aftermath
A/N: Hello kiddies! Here's an update and I hope you enjoy it! I'd like to thank everyone who faved, followed and reviewed!
Infinite Katalyst: Katsutoshi and Kurotsuchi look kinda similar wow...
Nicolai Grey: Why do you think Nakina's gonna die?!
Starfire201: Yeahh...Katsutoshi is a little crazy... It will be very interesting to watch the situation he weaves.
Flanked by Toru and Sae, Nakina entered the room the Summit took place in the day before. Most of the small village leaders were already there waiting with their gaurds, however, Nakina noticed Katsutoshi and Shogo weren't there yet.
"I wonder what's taking the bastard so long," Ryutsuki said, approaching with anger apparent on his face. His tiny wife Meihane had a worried look on her face as she looked up at her husband.
"Did you all come to a consensus last night?" Nakina asked him, wondering. She, along with Sumaru and Shibuki had not been permitted to go, as they had clear allegiances against Katsutoshi.
Ryutsuki nodded. "We did the best we could, but none of us really want to trust this guy, he seems like a looney."
"The sooner we end this, the better," said Amaya, leader of Ame, having overheard Nakina and Ryutsuki's conversation. "I don't want to prolong this ordeal any longer than necessary. I'm busy trying to revive Ame's reputation."
Before Amaya could say any more however, Katsutoshi and Shogo finally entered, a broad smile on Katsutoshi's face. He gestured for all the leaders to sit as they had done the day before.
"I hope you all thought about my proposition last night," Katsutoshi began, his eyes moving around the table in order to look at each one of them. "To show you how serious I am about an alliance of small villages, I have just persuaded Shogo to allow me to marry his daughter. This will bring Tani and Ishi closer together."
Nobody seemed to react, except for the girl behind Katsutoshi, his sister Hiromi. Nakina could see the surprise etched on her face clearly.
"I actually got this idea from your beloved Konoha, Nakina-san." Katustoshi smirked, his maroon eyes meeting her brown ones. "The Kazekage's impending marriage to a Konoha girl can't be more than some village-strengthening ploy I'm sure."
Kaede, the leader of Kusa cleared her throat and looked Katsutoshi directly in the eye. "That's very nice and all, but the villages of Kusa, Ame, Getsu and Shimo decided last night that we will sign a pact of neutrality with each other, not supporting either side."
Katsutoshi did not seem surprised in the least, but still turned to Sumaru and Shibuki. "Any changes in your thoughts?"
Both shook their heads no, and Katsutoshi stood. "Very well, I hope you've had an enjoyable stay in Tanigakure. You are all dismissed. Oh, and Setsuna, I hope your brother is doing well."
With that, Katsutoshi left the room, followed by his sister and Shogo. Setsuna visibly frowned, but said nothing, simply exiting the room followed by her gaurds.
"What a suprising reaction," Toru mumbled from behind Nakina. Sae nodded, turning to Nakina. "Are we going to head home then?"
The woman thought for a moment, before shaking her head. "No, I think it's high time we finally meet the Hokage Tsunade and the Kazekage Gaara and tell them what's going on."
"To Konoha then." Toru said, pulling out a map.
"Sae, please send a message to Eiji."
The brunette nodded, and lifted up her sleeve, revealing a red dragon tattoo that wrapped around her arm. "Toru, please write the message down," Sae said quietly as she did a handsign. The dragon began to come alive, and eventually flew off of her arm.
"I've always found that creepy," Toru remarked, causing Sae to roll her eyes as she handed a note to a small dragon, who promptly flew away. "You haven't even seen the big one."
"There's a bigger one?!"
"Two bigger ones, I have five tattoos after all."
Nakina looked away from her squabbling gaurds to see Meihane and Ryutsuki standing there. "It was nice to meet you," Meihane said with a sweet smile. Nakina shook the couple's hands, and smiled sadly.
"I'm sorry it had to be under these cirucumstances," the Ryu leader said.
"Let's hope this is over and done with, ey?" Ryutsuki said with a wry smile, as he wrapped his arm around his wife, ready to guide her to the door.
"Let's hope."
Naruto jumped from branch to branch, and looked behind him at his companion, the Iwa kunoichi Kurotsuchi. She was panting slightly, and struggling to keep up. Jumping into a clearing, Naruto decided to stop for a break. Kurotsuchi smiled thankfully.
"Let's rest a moment, ok?" Naruto said with a friendly smile.
Sitting down for a moment, Kurotsuchi looked at Naruto. "How's your heart?"
Instinctively Naruto touched his side to where the scar marking Sakura's life saving CPR was. He smiled slightly, "Eh its fine thanks. I don't really like to think about the war, cuz y'know..."
A sad look spread across her face. "We've all lost so much," she began, starting to tear up a bit. "I'm sorry...I told myself I wouldn't cry about this anymore..."
"Hey, its ok!" Naruto said, before suddenly standing up looking alarmed. Kurotsuchi stood too, readying her self for an attack. Sure enough, a figure flew out from the tree line, a kunai ready to attack Kurotsuchi.
The black haired kunoichi swiftly erected an earth wall to protect her, and used a spinning roundhouse kick to knock back an attacker approaching from behind. Naruto ran towards the first attacker, a rasengan swirling threateningly in his palm. Two Naruto clones snuck around the attacker, holding him down long enough to allow Naruto to connect his rasengan with the man's abdomen, the force sending him flying backwards.
Naruto looked up satisfactorily towards Kurotsuchi, who had impaled the second attacker with about a half dozen earth spikes.
"Iwa Rebels," Kurotsuchi said grimly, pointing to a bright red armband one of the rebels wore. "They were probably following me the whole time."
"I guess we'll just have to move even faster and try to get to Konoha before anyone catches up with us." Naruto said, readying himself for more running.
Kurotsuchi merely sighed. 'I wish I had half his energy...'
Sai frowned as he found himself in the maternity ward once again. He really was starting to hate this mission. He knew it wasn't Karin's fault, but he found himself quite upset with Tsunade for assigning him to it.
It all boiled down to Sasuke. He knew that Naruto and Sakura had had a special bond with their teammate, and that he redeemed himself in death, but Sai hated being compared to him. It was the only reason he was assigned to the mission, because he looked like Sasuke.
Furthermore, Sai could just not comprehend Karin's love and affection for the guy. Then again, Sai couldn't comprehend most peoples feelings.
While Sai's inner thoughts were raging, Karin peeked at him every now and again, noticing his blank features. She had begun to learn that while he appeared to be bored, he was not happy at all. She could feel the tiny flares in his chakra, something so uncharacteristic of him until recently.
Sadly, she could speak to nobody of this. Few gave her the time of day, save for that Aya girl she was training with, but she was too new for Karin to entrust private thoughts to. As much as she hated to think it, she sort of missed the company of Sakura and Ino.
Upon the thought of Sakura however, Mebuki Haruno entered the room, a little tired, but a friendly smile all the same. "Sorry about that, we had a mother come in and labor for about 10 hours now."
"Oh it's fine." Karin said as she went through the motions of the check up per usual, answering questions and laying on the bed. Mebuki began the scanning jutsu, which Karin was starting to get used to.
Mebuki started to take some notes on her clipboard, but then stopped suddenly as if startled. Karin started to panic, and even Sai seemed to be slightly alarmed.
"What's wrong?!" Karin asked, a little fearfully.
Mebuki's eyebrows furrowed slightly, but she looked towards Karin reassuringly. "I don't know how I missed it before, but it almost appears as if you're carrying twins."
Karin's jaw dropped, and Sai's eyebrows knotted. Mebuki cancelled her scanning jutsu and began to reach for a small cart.
"We almost never need technology, but just to be sure, let's take an ultrasound." Mebuki said, already spreading a jelly like substance and placing a device on her stomach, while looking at a monitor. "Yep, there's one...and there's two."
"Twins?" Karin said, almost dejectedly. She wasn't prepared to handle one baby, let alone two. The redhead began to feel a little dizzy, and her breathing became somewhat labored. Suddenly, her eyes closed and she started to fall off of the bed. In a flash, Sai had caught her and laid her back down.
Karin's eyes fluttered open, her hand flying to wipe the cold sweat off of her forehead. "What happened?"
"You passed out," Mebuki said, feeling Karin's face in a motherly fashion. Sai looked at her. "You must've panicked about being a mother to twins."
Karin looked at her hands. "Sorry, Mebuki..."
Sakura's mother patted the girl's shoulder and chuckled. "It's quite alright, you should've seen my husband when we found out about Sakura and Sayuri. They turned out to be fine ladies, Sakura's a gifted kunoichi and medic and Sayuri is training to become an Academy teacher."
The blonde woman pointed to a picture of three little girls pinned on a corkboard. "This is Kimi, Kumi and Kuri. Mrs. Asada was a wreck when I told her she was having triplets, thinking she'd go crazy but she loves them all dearly."
"Thank you, Mebuki-san," Sai said as he guided Karin out of the office, frowning as he could not shake a mental image of two little Sasukes with eyes as cold as their father's.
"Hiromi, fetch me Shogo." Katsutoshi called to his sister as he sat and drank a cup of tea. All of the small village leaders had left earlier, save for Shogo, who he still needed to plan things out with. The black haired girl nodded and left to summon the Ishigakure leader.
Moments later, the middle aged man entered the office, followed by Hiromi. Katsutoshi gestured for him to sit down, and dismissed his sister with a wave of his hand. Shogo leaned forward with a wry smile. "Did you wish to see a picture of Kuzuri?"
"Who's Kuzuri?"
"My daughter! You're marrying her! Here, look." Shogo said as he held up a picture of a girl about 20 with light brown hair and dark brown eyes. She was not quite beautiful but not plain or homely either.
"No, Shogo, that's not why I summoned you here. I want to put my next plan in action."
"Ok, but she's a whip smart girl, that Kuzuri. Must've got it from her ma, this lass named Nobara who conned me into marrying her after she found out she was pregnant. Ended up leaving me and the kid after a while."
"I don't care right now, Shogo. I need you to tell Kinrei to make his move." Katsutoshi said, as he looked out his office window, down into a bustling section of Tanigakure where it had become populated by all the mercenaries he'd been hiring. Some of them had chosen to become citizens of Tanigakure, others preferred their temporary hiring.
"What about Byakuren?" Shogo asked nervously, clearly reluctant to have to talk to her.
"Send her too. She wouldn't want to miss out on the fun, surely."
"Don't you think she's a bit of a loose cannon?"
Katsutoshi sat back down at his desk and shrugged. "For now, she serves a purpose. If we need to eliminate her later on, we will. The same goes for Kinrei, naturally."
Shogo nodded and stood. "I'm going to leave tonight and send Kuzuri to you as soon as possible."
"Fine. Await any further instructions once you arrive."
Watching Shogo leave, Katsutoshi grinned to himself. Shogo was so malleable, it was almost as if he was waiting for a person like Katsutoshi to follow.
"Well, Kinrei and Byakuren should certainly make things interesting." Katsutoshi said to himself, pouring another cup of tea.
A/N: Alright kiddies, hope you liked it! Please leave a review and don't forget to vote in my poll! It will be closed down after Chapter 24 I believe...(maybe its 25, I think its 24...)
Au revoir mes petits chapeaux, until next time!
-MyHikari