(AN: Sorry for taking so long. Sometimes it's annoyingly difficult to get my insanity into coherent words.)
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto
Prince Naruto
Chapter 7: a matter of (no) trust
in a tearoom in titan
"Say Akiko-chan, is it true that our class next year will get a certain addition?", Akane asked.
"Yes, the prince. Grandma said he would be in the A-class."
"Great... With almost every girl after him, we wont get a single peaceful recess in the entire term.", Kimiko snorted.
"Huh? Kimiko-chan? Don't you want the prince? I mean, we could actually become princesses and even queen's in time. Wouldn't that be really cool?", a puzzled Akane asked.
"Cool? Competing with pretty much everyone to gain a boy's attention without even knowing him? What if he's some spoiled brat that can't even bath himself without aid? Or an arrogant prick, that believes he owns the world? Even if the prince is boyfriend material and we get his love, which is far from likely, we would have to follow protocols for the rest of our life. Having to deal with politicians and nobles on a daily basis... And we'd have to be well-behaved every single god-damned day! Seriously, it'll be a cold day in hell when I try to get the prince. It'll be more than irritating enough when all the girls chasing him, come to our room every fucking recess.", replied Kimiko annoyed.
"Actually, we will most likely not be in A-class this term...", Akiko brought up.
"What do you mean?", Akane prompted.
"Well. Other countries will send girls to our school too. I haven't heard the exact number, but well grandma asked a lot of retired teachers back and hired new ones as well. Most of these foreign girls will be our age and will basically just attend because off him. I bet the queen will remove most of class A to other classes and put her favorites there instead. We may not even be in the same class next term...", Akiko sighed.
"Personally, I hope I'll be in a different class than the prince. Otherwise it'll be hard to learn anything."
"Come now, Kimiko-chan... I'm sure it won't be so bad. The teachers will put a stop to anything too disruptive anyway.", Akiko pointed out.
"They'll probably try. I'll give you that, Akiko-chan. But as long as the goal of most students isn't related to studies at all, the teachers will have a big problem.
Most girls will try to talk with the prince during lessons or if that doesn't work strategize with allies. With the bulk of students talking, those who do wish to learn, wont even hear the teacher. And what can a teacher do if everyone starts talking? They can't exactly sent the entire class outside. And giving detention wont do anything, since most will consider it a small price for a chat with the prince. Giving out bad grades will do even less, because nobody will care about them in the first place.
Unless the prince or the queen make school-grades or good behavior necessary for any relationship with the prince, the teachers wont have a chance to put troublesome students in their places.", Kimiko predicted with a frown.
"Hmm. I don't think so to be honest. Actually I want to become one of the Prince's wives too. But I don't plan to ignore my studies for this. Grandma would kill me. And I'm sure others will feel the same.", Akiko objected.
"Really? You want to marry a stranger?", asked Akane.
"Well, I'll get to know the prince before and if I don't like him, I'll stop flirting. No big deal."
"Better you than me. Do you want us to help you, Akiko-chan?"
"That would be great, Kimiko-chan! With your brain and Akane-chan's knowledge about beauty, I'm sure we can make the prince fall in love with me.", Akiko almost bounced with excitement.
"So... What would you advice our future queen, Kimiko-chan?", queried Akane.
"Hmm. At first you should probably try to get allies and any information on the prince you can get. Good allies will help a lot and information is necessary to find out what the prince finds attractive. Maybe you should try to get someone from the Mojimi-clan. Moriko-chan is in our year, she'll probably get into the prince's class. She'll surely make a good ally. But it'll be hard to convince her to help us. Or anyone from that clan. They do believe in letting their children choose for themselves after all.", Kimiko started.
"If that's the case, wouldn't Kuraiko-san from the Kin-clan be better?", asked Akane.
"Hell no! You should never make an alliance with anyone from the Kin-clan! People tend to die, when the Kin-clan considers them opponents. Or even allies, who aren't useful anymore.", Kimiko warned.
"Seriously? But wouldn't they get caught if it really was foul play?", doubted Akane.
"I think Kimiko-chan is right. You know Akira-chan from the Fushigi-clan? Her clan was once as big as the Mojimi-clan. When the queens daughter vanished, most people even thought they would mount the throne after the queen's death. With others believing the Kin-clan would become the next royal line. Strangely enough, the death-rate for members of the Fushigi-clan jumped up just when the queen's daughter was pronounced dead. Most of them died on missions in the middle of nowhere with a member of the Kin-clan close by.
By now it's a really small clan. I think only four or five people are still alive from the entire family. You can't trust anyone from the Kin-clan.", explained Akiko.
"So what? We can't trust anyone from the Kin-clan. The Fushigi-clan is unlikely to trust anybody by now and from the Mojimi-clan nobody will help us. Man, that sucks!", Akane complained.
"Without trust - no alliance. Welcome to politics.", Kimiko gave back.
"We can still try. Akira-chan is very bright, I'm sure she'll try to make alliances herself.", argued Akane.
These three as well as many others elsewhere continued to discuss any alliances possible and even some not so possible. Just to prepare for Prince Naruto.
XxXxXxXxX
in the palace with said Prince
Naruto could barely refrain from jumping up and down out of sheer joy. Gran-gran had told him that they would eat ramen! Apparently his grandmother Kari loved it too. He could already smell the delicious aroma. Considering how good the normal meals tasted here, Naruto was sure he would literally sample a piece of heaven.
If only he wouldn't have to wait so long... Nothing could possible distract him from this annoying wait or this great aroma, Naruto was sure of it... Until one of his guard asked the most impossible and unbelievable question Naruto ever heard.
"What is ramen?"
"WHAT! How can you not know what ramen is, Haruhi-chan?"
"I'm so sorry Naruto-sama. It's just the only thing I know about it is, that ramen is some sort of soup...", came the quiet reply.
"Do you mean you never had tasted any ramen?", asked Naruto with tears in his eyes.
"Err, no. I don't think so..."
Haruhi really had never eaten so much as a spoon of ramen... That was such a cruel and unthinkable tragedy. To think just what exactly nice, shy Haruhi was missing out on... And she didn't even knew she was missing it! Naruto had to help her, there was no other way! He couldn't live with himself if he put such a nice girl through even a single more day without the best food ever.
So Naruto sacrificed his very own ramen, well at least the first helping, to let Haruhi sample the food of the god's. Only his jiji was surprisingly strict against it. Sure giving a guard any of his food probably broke over a dozen rules of any protocol he could think of. But still, it was an important matter! And normally his jiji wasn't that concerned with rules, never mind any protocol.
Usually gran-gran was the one who insisted on following enough rules to stop a prank from being any fun. But this time it was like they had switched sides. The only part that actually remained the same was that gran-gran won the argument - as always. Which was good for once. Otherwise Haruhi would go without ramen.
"Hmm, that's really good!", Haruhi found out.
Naruto just beamed at her and tucked into his own bowl, which was supposed to be his second. He had been right: this ramen was even better than Ichirakus, like a little piece of heaven.
After the best meal Naruto had in the palace, he and his guards went back to the training room. He didn't have any schoolwork today and so he could spent more time trying to learn another jutsu from the forbidden scroll. So far he had learned a bit over thirty jutsus and was only a quarter into the scroll.
The next one sounded pretty impressive too. A dragon made of lighting soon raced across the room. With his guards looking on in awe, Naruto stood proud and tall - well as tall as he could - and made another lighting-dragon. This one even faster than the one before. All his guards were pretty impressed. True, they each had similar jutsus, but to learn such a huge one in a few hours and at his age. That was something else.
Only one guard didn't pay all that much attention to the dragon. Haruhi had surprisingly dirty thoughts about the Prince. She just couldn't stop herself, she had to do something! But what? If only she could separate him and herself from the other guards... But that was wrong! She shouldn't even think of it! The Prince had to be protected and not just by one person!
...But what they could do in private... The Prince was always such a gentleman, that would surely transfer to more intimate activities too. No, no, no! The Prince was just twelve! That was just so wrong! ...But he was already pretty mature anyway, that had to count for something, right? No! She would get executed if she took advantage of Naruto-sama! And with good reason too.
But he looked sooo good right now... Breathing a little heavy and with a bit of sweat... It didn't look like he would tire out anytime soon. Would he actually get exhausted if they did it? Or would he not even break a sweat? Oh for heaven's sake! What was wrong with her? She really needed to stop thinking about this before she ended up raping the Prin-
"Haruhi-chan? Are you alright?"
"I'm so sorry, Naruto-sama! I'm just... err distracted. That's all.", Haruhi hastily explained.
"You sure? I could take care of you if you're not feeling so hot... ", Naruto offered.
"No, no. I'm very hot. Err, I mean I'm fine!"
"Huh? Your nose bleeds! Nosebleeds out of nowhere can't be all that healthy. Come on, we'll go to Hideko-sensei and let her have a long, hard look at you."
Fortunately the doctor was just two floors above them and the way was rather short. Which was actually a good thing, because Haruhi's self-control was getting worse by the minute, as were her morals and thoughts.
Naruto waited outside with the other guards. Only one was allowed to stay with Haruhi and she choose in a moment of wisdom Ayame rather than Naruto. After a short eternity the doctor came out and was obviously flustered. Ayame on the other hand looked ready to explode.
"Haruhi Makani-san is asleep now and will be completely fine by tomorrow. However I need to run a test with you and your other guards, Naruto-sama - to make sure you don't, err, suffer from the same thing. I only need a blood-sample of each one. If you all would come in please."
"Is Haruhi-chan's sickness that contagious, sensei?", Naruto asked worriedly.
"It's not exactly contagious... But, err, ..."
"Haruhi-chan was drugged!", Ayame seethed.
"What! How? When?", shouted Miyuki.
"Unfortunately we don't know this yet. The drug used wasn't really dangerous, it's more like a very effective aphrodisiac. So I doubt that anyone is in danger. Besides, the drug has to be digested and doesn't cause an immediate reaction. Still, I will bring this before the Queen personally as soon as I'm sure no-one else was drugged.", Hideko-sensei hastily added.
"What's an aphrodisiac?", asked Naruto.
"It's... well, it makes a person... rather willing. Well in this case it's a very strong one, so whoever ate it, is likely err, kind of desperate... for ehm, well sex.", a red-faced doctor tried to explain.
"Why would anyone give something like this to Haruhi-chan?"
"I don't know. It may even have been meant for someone else. But since we usually eat meals together, if one of us was drugged, it's possible that everyone else was too.", Kazami pointed out.
"We should get this over with. Ayame-chan, were you already tested?", Maya asked.
"Yes. I'm clean."
"Okay. Then you go to the Queen and report what's going on and request some reinforcement. We don't know how many of us got drugged too and I don't want the Prince without protection. Some of us may even got worse drugs than Haruhi-chan."
Ayame was glad that Maya took control and left after a quick nod. She had to report the situation to the Queen and get reinforcement!
"Hideko-sensei. Please test Naruto-sama first. If somebody could drug one of us, they may even got the Prince. Girls, get in line for our test. The strongest fighters first. Personally I think, if Miyuki-chan would try something with Naruto-sama, I could probably stop her by myself. But if it were Rika-chan... Well, it would probably best to sedate her, before she would be affected by any drug. Thankfully Ayame-chan is already cleared. That's one fight I'd rather not think about."
Everyone agreed to Maya's plan and Naruto was quickly done with his test. As were Rika, Maya, Kaji, Tariko, Mariko, Kazami, Kyoko and Miyuki. Everyone but Haruhi was fine. Naruto was really relieved about it, but also rather confused: The guards always ate together, so if one was drugged, why wasn't anyone else? Surely, someone had eaten the same things Haruhi-chan ate?
He got distracted by the arrival of his gran-gran. And her definition of "some reinforcement". Seems like she has a similar view to "some reinforcement" as to "a little shopping", mused Naruto as he looked to the fifty-something guards.
"Naruto! Are you alright? You're not hurt or drugged, right?", asked gran-gran, while turning Naruto around to get a look at him from all sides. As if she could see any drug in him from starring at the back of his head... Oh, well.
"I'm fine gran-gran. Really! Hideko-sensei already checked me. The only one hurt was Haruhi-chan.", Naruto explained, before gran-gran got the idea to strip him bare in front of everyone.
"Calm down Sari-chan. It's probably nothing-"
"HOW CAN YOU SAY IT'S NOTHING! Someone DRUGGED at least one of Naruto's guards! Probably far more! If someone wants to attack him, they would of course try to get his guards out of the way first. This may well be an attack on Naruto and I for one will not allow this!", the queen raged.
"I'm sure there was no bad intention behind this. Nobody got hurt, right? So it was probably just a little prank that ended wrong. Please, down make this into anything bigger than it actually is.", Tsure tried to calm his wife.
"NO BAD INTENTION?! Haruhi-chan is out cold! She must be badly hurt by whatever it is. And a drug is never "just" a prank. It's a crime, for heaven's sake! And maybe all of Naruto's guards were drugged and will be out within a few minutes."
"Actually Haruhi-chan was the only one who got drugged", Naruto butted in.
"And the drug used was a strong aphrodisiac, so Haruhi Makani-san is not exactly "hurt". The biggest danger was actually that she would end up, err trying to, well... take liberties with Prince Naruto...", Hideko-sensei explained with a very red face.
Queen Sari just starred at the doctor. It was just incomprehensible: shy, cute Haruhi-chan... may... could have... raped... Naruto... Sure it had not happened... But that anyone could say it could have happened... The queen had no idea, whether to laugh or cry.
"See, I told it wasn't anything serious. Someone probably just wanted Haruhi-chan to loosen up a bit."
"Tsure, are you out of your mind? Even if that was the only reason, it still is a crime! I can't just ignore somebody who goes around drugging other people, especially if those people happen to hang out with my heir!"
Naruto watched quite confused as his great-grandparents argued. It made no sense! Why did jiji insist that nothing bad happened? Maybe, he didn't like Haruhi-chan? After all, he was strictly against Naruto sharing his ramen with her... But just yesterday he let her win at cards, so it's not like jiji hated her, right?
Hang on! Haruhi ate his ramen! That was the only thing Haruhi had eaten, but no other guard. That's why no other guard was drugged! The drug was in his ramen! Whoever put this stuff in there, had wanted him to eat it! Wanted him to be desperate for sex! Sure, gran-gran told him that others would want his genes, but this was insane!
And jiji wanted to label the whole thing as a prank! It's like he wanted whoever did this to get away with hurting Haruhi-chan... Wait! It was jiji, who wanted Naruto to eat his ramen and not give anything to his guards. But... that couldn't be... His jiji would never try to drug him, right? He was family after all... He was save..., right? He wasn't like the Hokage... just pretending to care for him...
Jiji and gran-gran still argued, though they were quieter now. Naruto just wanted to look at his great-grandfather... to see if... well, Naruto didn't really know how exactly he could gain any answers from watching jiji. But... he had to do something! And so Naruto went closer to his family. The guards, gran-gran brought as reinforcement, stayed behind to let the royal family reassure the young Prince in private. Only Ayame-chan followed him, but that was fine, too. They were friends after all.
Thought before Naruto was seen by his family, he heard that gran-gran was actually not calmer but angrier than before. She looked ready to throttle jiji and whispered to him with a rather colorful vocabulary.
"You really went to far this time, you miserable, dirty bastard! I should put you in prison, for fuck's sake! If anybody else would have tried this, they would get executed! Hell, I have half a mind to execute you right here and now! What the bloody hell were you thinking?"
"You know as well as I, that Naruto needs a little encouragement to get some fun with the fairer sex! I'm just trying to help him! That can't be a crime!", jiji whispered back just as seething.
"If your "help" put someone in the infirmary, than "yes, it is a crime!". Haruhi-chan could have raped him! That wouldn't exactly be all that helpful in getting him interested in girls! Damn it, Tsure, he is twelve! He doesn't need help. And he sure as hell doesn't need drugs. All he needs is time! Naruto just hadn't hit puberty yet! By the time he is sixteen, he'll probably have banged already more girls than you have peeped at in your whole life! As long as you don't traumatize him so much that he can't even look at a girl without running away screaming!"
...So jiji really was the one who wanted to drug him! He was just like the Hokage. Lying, manipulating and without any true care for him. Naruto couldn't trust his own family... Most likely couldn't trust anyone...
Strangely enough there were no tears. Not even anger or sadness. It just was like it was before. As it had always been. The only difference was, that Naruto knew this time, that everyone else would try to use him. That was all. He would have to be careful. Would have to pay attention to everything. So he would never get blindsided by something like this ever again.
Even without the tears, or maybe because they were missing, Ayame saw how the Prince broke down inwardly. She herself had a hard time not to beat the cheeky bastard black and blue. And she wasn't even the wronged party in this!
The queen and the king were responsible for all that crap! For little Haruhi-chan in the infirmary, for Prince Naruto's broken heart and for the fear everyone of the guards felt. Fear to fail the mission, fear to die because of some drug, fear to lose the Prince and by now a great friend. That was unforgivable!
Ayame may became Naruto-sama's guard by the queen's orders. But she was his friend too and that was not by any order, that was just because the Prince was so incredible. Always there for others, always giving his best, always so much fun to be around. She didn't know how the other's would decide, but Ayame's mind was made up:
She would stand by Naruto-sama's side! Always! Even against the queen and the king!
XxXxXxXxX
Kurenai always thought teaching would be fun. Spending time with some cute little kids. Innocent eyes looking at her with awe. Watching and helping them to become stronger... Anko even warned her that "brats usually don't listen. Mostly they either are trouble or get in trouble. The really talented one's manage both on a daily basis."
But of course Kurenai was sure she could lead three little kids. She was a jonin for heaven's sake! She had been certain her rank alone would be enough to get some respect. And the prospect of getting stronger would make sure that even the rowdiest kids would heed her orders.
When Kurenai heard which team she should teach, she was practically ready to start boasting. All clan-heirs, all strong in their own right, all with great abilities and potential. True, like any Inuzuka, Kiba would probably be a little rash, but with an Aburame and a Hyuuga around, the boy would learn some self-control. And from the reports of all her little students she could see herself having a great team before long.
Kurenai's daydreams lasted about three minutes into their first meeting. Then she realized how badly she had erred. Her Jonin-rank meant little to nothing to any of them. She couldn't even fault them for it. All their parents had that rank and most of them could wipe the floor with her any day of the week. None of her students considered her important at all. Kurenai couldn't even dangle the carrot of training or techniques in front of them. The kids would go first and foremost to their own clan for those. Which made sense, since Kurenai couldn't help much with her own abilities.
Kiba and Hinata focused on taijutsu, which was unfortunately Kurenai's weakest point. Shino mostly worked with strategy and his insects. Kurenai couldn't help there either, because insects were clan-based and she didn't know all that much about them. With strategy, she actually could help a bit, but it wasn't much and Kurenai didn't know enough about insects in the first place to make strategies with them involved. Besides Shino was the one student who didn't need to be reined back.
Her strongest point was genjutsu. And it wouldn't work on a byakugan - ever. It probably wouldn't work on Shino's insects either. And Kiba and Akamaru had their sense of smell... While she could put them in a genjutsu, they would know immediately, because the smell would be different. No matter how good Kurenai was, she didn't know how intense the sense of smell was for a dog or an Inuzuka. If she put Kiba and Akamaru under a genjutsu, everything would smell like it usually smelled for Kurenai which is likely different from what those two are used to. So basically her strongest point would be useless for her students.
Kurenai could only watch her students so far. And while their abilities were promising, everything else was troublesome. Kiba was sure he was ready for a B-rank mission the very first day. Shino was so reasonable and logical, he could hardly stand his emotional teammates. And Hinata was like a constant S-rank all on her own. And Kurenai had a feeling she would fail this one even worse than her last real S-rank.
The reports from the academy said Hinata was shy but obedient and nice. Helpful and considerate to others, but easily discouraged. It sounded innocent enough. In reality she was neither considerate nor helpful nor nice. Hinata wasn't exactly shy either. More like quite and withdrawn. Though Kurenai had to agree to the last two points to an extent: Hinata had her own definition of obedience. She did everything she was told - technically. And she was the very essence of discouragement - for others.
Hinata didn't talk to either Kurenai or her teammates. She didn't offer help, advice, words or anything. Hinata didn't even greet them! She didn't talk period. On D-rank missions, she did either nothing or something not related to the missions.
When Kiba or Shino asked/suggested/demanded that Hinata should do something for their mission, they got either glared at or ignored. Personally, Kurenai wasn't sure which was worse. Her glares were seriously scary. Whenever Kurenai ordered her to take part of the current mission, Hinata made sure Kurenai suffered for it.
On the first mission Kurenai thought Hinata was just shy and didn't know what to do. Since they had to clean a house Kurenai told her to take the trash out. Hinata left without a word, took the bin, tripped on her way out and fell directly on top of her surprised sensei - with all the trash. Of course everything that was in the bin, ended up on the floor - or on Kurenai. In the end the house was clean but Kurenai wasn't...
On another mission, where they had to walk dogs, Kurenai ordered her to play a bit with the dogs by throwing a ball. Hinata did just that and after a few minutes threw the ball in Kurenai's backpack. Surely enough the dogs jumped right after it - meaning on her back - and destroyed everything in the way. Including Kurenai's backpack, provision, purse and hair.
On one D-rank painting a fence, Hinata changed the paint with one of a different color and covered her whole team with paint, including herself. They all left orange foot- and hand-prints for the rest of the day. When they had to catch Tora and Hinata's part was to chase the cat into a building to make the capture mission easier, she chased her into the Hokage-tower of all things. Her team, the office and hat of the Hokage and the Hokage himself looked afterwards like survivors of another world war...
The latest one was weeding a garden and Kurenai asked her to take care of the front garden. With orders to remove everything that wasn't a flower, Kurenai thought she was very clear and Hinata couldn't do this any other way than what she was supposed to do for once. By now Kurenai should have known better...
When she went to check on her problematic student, the ground beneath her gave way. Somehow the girl managed in mere minutes to remove the apple tree and hide the hole in the ground good enough for Kurenai to miss the signs. However, the apple tree and weeds weren't the only things missing... The fence, stone path, mail box, bed-framing and bird watering place were also all gone. That had been difficult to explain, especially the missing apple tree and the hole in the ground.
Kurenai just wanted Hinata to stop sabotaging and pranking everyone. By now she had tried everything. Sweet-talking, yelling, reasoning, stern talking, strict orders, heart-to-heart talk, bringing in others (from her teammates, over her family, to Umino, Inoichi and even Hokage-sama), bribery, punishments and on one very embarrassing occasion begging. No matter what Kurenai did, she just couldn't get through to the girl. Nobody seemed to be able to do so. Her teammates didn't fare any better so far. Both seemed to agree to let Hinata handle her problems on her own and be there for her whenever she was ready.
So far Kurenai didn't have a team at all. Instead she had two always clashing students and one serious mess. She had even asked the Hyuuga-clan for help and got a disturbing answer. Hiashi-sama had admitted that his daughter was actually worse at home. Kurenai shuddered just thinking about it. He had told her the reason for Hinata's sudden change and that it would most likely resolve only if Uzumaki returned alive and somewhat healthy.
After this Kurenai decided to bring the big guns in. She even got to the trouble to invite her friend Anko to a meal. True, many would say sinking anyone from TI on an undisciplined genin was beyond overkill. But well, as long as it worked... Who cared? At first they talked calmly about her little problem-student. Anko found the whole idea hilarious. A genin pranking her jonin-sensei to hell and back... She even considered the debacle a good thing. Saying that her student was obviously good with strategy.
Anko had a few doubts that she was even needed. She thought that Kurenai taught for the first time and just wanted the help because she was unexperienced with teaching. Anko told her friend as much, but was also willing to help. Until Kurenai told her the name of her current headache... Her reaction was even more disturbing than the answer Hiashi-sama had given her.
Anko Mitarashi, member of Konoha's Torture and Interrogation Force, former student of Orochimaru, who would fight Orochimaru without a single hesitation, despite knowing she would die, that same Anko Mitarashi was now paling at an alarming rate with eyes wider than saucers - at the name of a mere genin. Somehow Kurenai didn't find it funny at all.
Anko took hardly the time to even give an excuse. She basically just ran. She even forgot that Kurenai had invited her and threw her wallet at the table to pay. Not giving a shit, that she just left a month's salary behind for a single meal. Kurenai could only stare in shock and desperation. She felt a chill go down her spine. It felt awfully similar to her feelings on a mission, just before all hell broke lose. She had felt this particular chill only once outside of missions. And that was the day of the Kyuubi's attack...
Suddenly Hiashi-sama's words echoed in her head, "I must apologize for my daughter's behavior. She had a lot of compassion in general and even more so for Uzumaki-san specifically. She feels betrayed by the village as a whole on his behalf. Hinata found out about the content of the third's law and while she has no issue with Uzumaki-san's secret, she took exception to how it was handled by everyone else. We had taught her that ignoring an issues didn't make them go away. The teachers in the academy had taught the same. But in the end we are all guilty of just this exact behavior where young Uzumaki-san is concerned.
Our clan actually attracted even more of her ire than other people. Mostly because she had trusted us and got disappointed. Thought partly also out of practical considerations. Our clan is known worldwide for chakra-control and the ability to see chakra. We should have seen the difference between the boy and the chakra. We can in fact see it. Both chakras look very different actually. We could have also offered our help to young Uzumaki-san. Unlike other villages we could have easily taught him to use chakra without any danger to ourselves.
We really should have made that offer regardless of personal feelings. It would have been a lot safer if somebody with byakugan made sure Uzumaki-san wouldn't use his other chakra. Instead we just let him try on his own. Later on we could have ensured he wouldn't lose control if or when he tried to use his other chakra... I do regret to not have made such an offer. If only because it would have saved everyone - including myself - from some sleepless nights.
But I digress... As for Hinata. I'm afraid she will only stop her unacceptable behavior if Uzumaki-san returns into her life and is healthy as a bare minimum. She may also consider it necessary for him to be regarded as a person of importance and/or for him to forgive Konoha first, before Hinata can forgive as well. However I am unsure how much the last two can be circumvented. They would without doubt help mitigate Hinata's fury. Still even without those changes, she would at least focus her attention more on Uzumaki-san than on her guerrilla war. But I'm afraid, if Uzumaki-san doesn't return healthy enough or doesn't return at all, we will have to take Hinata out of Konoha's forces."
Honestly Kurenai hadn't thought all that much about the missing Jinchuriki. She believed like many others that the boy was already dead. Either some animal or one of the first hunternins must have found and killed him. And simply destroyed the body afterwards. Kurenai was neither relieved nor sad at the boys assumed death. Just a little worried about the missing scroll. And a lot more worried about Hinata's behavior.
She trusted the fourth Hokage and his seal on Naruto and was sure the boy couldn't break it, even if he wanted to. So the Kyuubi would have never been an issue in her opinion. And the Uzumaki boy himself wasn't strong at all according to the records. Surely he wouldn't be any danger by himself either. Unlike Hinata...
Who apparently had the ability to catch a Jonin by surprise. While following said Jonin's orders to the letter. Without ever leaving a single evidence of malicious intent. Not to mention her lack of cooperation and respect. Hinata was livid with literally everyone in Konoha. And somehow managed to scare even those of the Torture and Interrogation Force. She clearly was susceptible to treason...
Kurenai just couldn't trust Hinata. Nobody in Konoha could.
XxXxXxXxX
The trumpets were ringing in Naruto's ears, drowning out all other noise. Guards and attendants stood at attention. There were at least fifty guards and around two hundred others lining the sides of the throne room. The whole room sparkled. Even the walls and rubbish bins. Seriously, did someone glue glitter on any surface they could find? Granted everyone was trying to impress the daimyo of Uzu and his family. And most wanted to see Kari again. But still... that was waaay overkill! And far too girly to boot! At least the glitter wasn't pink or on himself...
Naruto had been thrilled about his grandfather's and uncle's arrival before, but now he wondered if he could really trust them. After the Hokage kept such secrets and his jiji tried to drug him, he understandingly doubted they actually cared. Especially since they apparently never looked for him. Gran-gran and jiji at least didn't know he existed. But the other Uzumakis had to know his mother, should have known Kushina was pregnant and his own surname should have made it easy to find him... Well, he would find out what his remaining family wanted from him.
The door opened and everyone turned to the guests as they were escorted in. Naruto saw immediately who his family was. An old man with long white hair and beard in an blue Kimono with a white coat was in the center of a protective circle. That must be his grandfather Genryusai Uzumaki, the daimyo of Uzu. Next to him stood a younger man with bright red hair and an x-shaped scar on his face. He wore a red Kimono and also a white coat. Guarding them were some samurai.
The daimyo's eyes went to the queen searchingly, then to the king and last to Naruto. As Genryusai saw his grandson for the first time, his eyes widened with emotions and memories of his darling daughter and her husband. Naruto looked so much like Kushina even if his hair and eyes were from his father, that the daimyo had trouble to even breath. Granted he had gotten a few photos with the queen's letter. But those were mostly from afar and nothing had prepared the old man to see the look in his grandson's eyes.
Naruto's eyes displayed clearly Kushina's inner fire and pride. But also Minato's calculating curiosity and calm confidence. Surely, his grandson wondered just how strong each of them were. He could already tell that Naruto would be kind, strong and fair, just like his parents. The thought brought a smile on his face.
Kenshin was just as stumped as his father. And got also reminded of his sister Kushina. Though he actually completely ignored any resemblance Naruto had to Minato Namikaze. From his point of view Naruto's father was irrelevant. Kenshin probably wouldn't have stopped starring at Naruto for another week, but a cough from the queen reminded him of his manners. Which was a good thing, because his father seemed too spellbound to move anytime soon.
"Queen of Diamond, I would like to thank you for your invitation. We are honored to be in your esteemed home."
"It is my pleasure, young man. Please make yourself comfortable. I hope your journey wasn't too demanding."
"Thank you my lady. Our journey was quite good. Especially since we had one of yours to keep us company. But maybe a little introduction is in order?"
"Ahh, right, right. May I introduce my husband, the king of Diamond, Tsure Shira? And my great-grandson Naruto Uzumaki."
"It is a pleasure meeting you."
Then the daimyo to come back to his senses - well more or less.
"Ohh, for crying out loud! We are all family! Even if we didn't know about it beforehand. There is really no point to be so formally, Kenshin. As for my lovely mother-in-law, I would like to apologize for not asking for my wife's hand properly, but I didn't know she still had family. Much less where they were."
"Father! We are still in front of the leader of a foreign country! One, we had never met before! We should talk with them properly!"
"Actually, I too would like to skip the formalities... So, I guess you can call me Sari. Though 'mother-in-law' is perfectly fine as well."
"Then I suppose you can call me Tsure or father-in-law. And Naruto was already introduced. So, what's your name son?"
"I'm Genryusai and this is my son Kenshin."
Kenshin resisted the desire to sigh - barely - and nodded to the queen.
"Your son? Does that mean young Kenshin is our grandson?", asked Sari hopefully.
"Well. To be honest we had hit this issue during our travel with Sayuri-san. Kenshin was raised by Rina-chan. But he is from my first marriage and therefore not related by blood to either of you or Rina-chan. He can't inherit the throne of Daimond, especially since he is my heir already and Uzu and Daimond aren't exactly near one another. Kenshin is still Naruto's uncle though. He and Kushina were actually half-siblings."
"Rina?"
"Right... Her real name was Kari Shira, wasn't it? When I met her, she had lost her memory and was given the name Rina. Kenshin had given her this name to be honest..."
"Father! (Not again...)"
"Well, anyway, Kenshin is, as I said, my heir and since he has no child of his own, Naruto would be next in line."
"Hmm, I see... Unfortunately, Kari was our only heir. She was supposed to come back after seeing the world and take over from me. I was already past my prime when she left. Nowadays I'm way too old for this work, but I hope that Naruto can take it in a few years. Granted, I will try to continue until he is eighteen at least, but I can't be sure my old body will actually allow me to do so. If Naruto leaves I have no other heir and that worries me greatly."
"That is indeed unfortunate, but I believe we can compromise. As I said Naruto will inherit after Kenshin. Still he should have a lot of time before then. Kenshin is still young after all. Most likely Naruto will already have children of his own when the time comes. If necessary both Uzu and Diamond could be ruled by Naruto for a short time. His children could separate the rule of our countries again."
"Yes, that sounds perfect to me. Thank you Genryusai."
"But father, Naruto would need to spend enough time in Uzu to learn about the land, our people and customs. Not to mention Naruto should have the traditional lessons of fuinjutsu and kenjutsu. How will he be able to do that if he stays here in Daimond? We can't postpone his lessons until you step down either, because he'll likely be already the king of Daimond then. And as a king he will be needed here and unable to come to Uzu for his education."
"You may be right, Kenshin, but he needs to learn about the land, people and customs of Diamond as well. And he will need this knowledge sooner. Thankfully most lessons will help him in Uzu too."
"You know, Naruto could visit Uzu during his summer holidays to learn what he needs to know. As for the lessons, I'm sure we can accommodate a few additional teachers. We will need to rearrange his timetable for the additional lessons, but otherwise it should be no problem."
"But Sari-chan! Naruto needs some free-time too! How is he supposed to find his girlfriends if he is holed up and learning the entire day?"
"Calm down Tsure. He can just use a few more Kagebushin than before. So at most the original Naruto would only take part in physical training to improve his endurance, speed and strength anyway. That should leave enough time for a date or two on most days."
"Wait, wait, wait! Girlfriends? As in more than one?"
"Of course."
"Kenshin, please excuse Sari-chan's short answer. Normally people who come here already know about the Nature-bloodline and Daimond's marriage-customs. In Diamond a man can marry many woman. Well, I'm an exception, because nobody would dare to ask the queen to share her husband. Therefor I only have one wife. But as I said it's the exception not the rule. Naruto on the other hand will be expected to marry a few woman. At least seven, but he could choose more if he wants to."
"SEVEN WIVES? Are you out of your mind!?"
"Kenshin's choice of words could have been better... But I must agree that I find that inacceptable as well. Naruto is the future king of Uzu and not some good for nothing playboy!"
"As if you even know him! You can't take away his right to inherit the throne of Diamond just because you are more closely related to Naruto than we are! Tsure and I are still his family as well! We still have a right to make him our heir!"
"Maybe. But we still have the right to take Naruto back to Uzu! We really should do that anyway. Who knows what other ridiculous customs you have here..."
"Genryusai! You were the one who proposed to let Naruto stay here!"
"That was before I knew what you actually expected of him! If had known you want to marry him of to a bunch of women, I would have never considered that!"
"Genryusai, Kenshin, Shira-chan, please calm down. Just let me explain.
In Daimond a lot of people have the Nature-bloodline. Unfortunately one side effect of the bloodline is that a woman with it can only give birth to daughters. Because of this very few men are born in Daimond, most of those who live here, came from another country, like I myself. You see, women sharing their husband is simply necessary. Otherwise our people would die out.
And as a king Naruto will be expected to marry more girls than most other men, especially since our family became so small. This is even more so, since your own family is also too small for comfort. He needs to produce enough heirs to secure the future of our families. Also if Naruto marries only one girl, his subjects will either believe he isn't interested in girls at all and simply married for the heir. Or that he can't handle even a second wife and that would make him look like a wimp. Surely you don't want that sort of reputation for him, right Genryusai?"
"An Uzumaki marries because of love and nothing else! Ever! If Naruto can fall in love with all seven women, he will have my blessing. But he will not marry for any other reason! Did I make myself clear?"
"Of course. And for the record: I want him to marry out of love as well."
"...Alright then. Is there anything more we should know before officially agreeing to let Naruto stay here for the majority of the year, Sari?"
"Erm... Well, maybe that we prepared invitations to other countries, so that they can send some girls who wish to marry Naruto..."
"... I suppose we should talk more about this later in private...", Genryusai answered with twitching eyes.
With a sigh he focused on the young boy, whose future has just been so heatedly and thoroughly discussed. While he had paid attention to the entire exchange, Naruto hadn't said a single word. Which was slightly worrying.
Of course Genryusai didn't know that just a few hours ago, Tsure had tried to drug Naruto and had drugged one of his guards instead. And while queen Sari was well aware of it, neither she nor her husband suspected yet that Tsure's excuses had been heard by anyone. Much less by Naruto himself.
Said prince was paying close attention to anything that was said. He knew that he needed more information on his family to find out what their goals were exactly and how far they were willing to go. It was the only way he could detect another betrayal before running into a trap. The discussion, while insulting like hell (It was his life! And any decision should have been his decision for fuck's sake!), it did give him a lot of information of his family. The question was: How to get more information and get them to keep talking without looking too suspicious? Yeah, that one could work...
"Say grandpa, can you tell me about my parents? How did they fall in love with each other?"
"I would love to, Naruto, but unfortunately they meet and fell in love in Konoha. Kushina went there because of a duty of our family. I was still in Uzu and only meet your father Minato for the first time when he asked for Kushina's hand..."
"And if you hadn't meddled in, he would have never gotten it, father."
"Kenshin... You aren't still sore about that draw, are you?"
"...I could have won, father."
"Maybe, but either way Kushina would have lost if I hadn't stepped in. Either her boyfriend or her brother."
"..."
"What happened grandpa?"
"Oh well. In our family it's tradition that every man who wishes to marry an Uzumaki must prove himself in mortal combat. Kenshin didn't like Minato -"
"Because he wasn't good enough for Kushina."
"- and offered to fight him for Kushina's hand. I agreed."
"Meaning: You did give me permission to kill him."
"After five minutes I knew Minato was pretty much as strong as Kenshin. -"
"As if!"
"And thought that Minato had enough strength to protect Kushina -"
"Yeah... We saw that when the biju attacked Konoha..."
"So I stopped the fight -"
"Unfortunately."
"and gave those two my blessing. -"
"Well, he never had mine, that's for sure..."
"Since your uncle Kenshin was twelve, he had won every single fight except for one. And that one ended in a draw. That was actually the fight with Minato. So Kenshin is still a bit sore about it."
"I'm not sore! And I would have won this one too, if you hadn't stopped it!"
"Kenshin! For crying out loud! You were the one who insisted on proper behavior in front of the queen! So stop interrupting me!"
"And you were the one who insisted manners weren't necessary! I'm simply following your example."
"Arg! Fine, whatever..."
"...Grandpa, can you tell me what mom was like when she was my age?"
"Huh? Ohh, of course! Well, let's see... Kushina was a bit impatient. Okay, very impatient. You know, once she was so eager to meet her friends, that she got sloppy with her sealing homework and blew up her room."
"Personally, I think it was more than just once, father..."
"Haha, yes, your right. She was really good at sealing when she took the necessary time. But patience wasn't her strong suit. Ohh! And she was also very creative and a little rascal. She pranked a few of the royals that came to visit us. Though one time she kind of ended up pranking herself...
Kenshin and Kushina got private instruction, but Kushina wanted to go to school like a normal girl. At first she asked for permission, but it was too dangerous. She was my daughter and everybody would have recognized her. Sending bodyguards would kind of defeat the purpose of going to school like a normal kid. So she never got her permission.
Kushina decided to go anyway. She made a Kagebushin and sent it to lessons like sealing or politics, where she was sure her Kagebushin wouldn't get hit and dispelled. She rearranged her lessons so that something like physical training or Kenjutsu would be in the evening. In the morning she made a Kagebushin for her studies, used henge on herself, so she wouldn't be recognized, and went to school. After her normal school was finished, she made another Kagebushin to make her homework and tried to swap back with the Kagebushin, she made in the morning.
We didn't notice anything for months. Neither did her teachers. Those in the palace and those at her school. But one day my daughter gave me a letter from the headmaster with a summon to her school. I was quite surprised. Apparently the son of the headmaster was a bully and Kushina had defended a classmate from him. The father didn't believe his son was anything but an angel and usually punished the other children involved.
He surely planned to do just that in regards to Kushina as well. But when he noticed who I was and who exactly Kushina was, he backtracked quite quickly. After that I let her continue her normal school, especially since she already had made quite a few friends there. I just ordered a few samurais to watch the school from the outside."
"...Wow. Mom must have been lively."
"Haha, true. You know, Naruto, I'm a bit surprised. I would have thought you would be just as lively as her. But you were rather quite at first."
"Huh? Ahh... Well, one of my guards is ...sick. Her name is Haruhi-chan and I'm a bit worried about her. That's all."
"Your Highness? If I may? How about I escort Prince Naruto back to his sick guard. I wanted to give him something in private anyway. It would give you and our visitor from Uzu time to arrange anything in regards to Prince Naruto's lessons. I will just leave the scrolls and the report of my last mission here, then you can read it whenever you find time."
"Thank you, Sayuri-chan. That would be lovely."
Sayuri was relieved her excuse was accepted and that she could get far away before the Queen read her report or any of those documents from Konoha. She was never so glad to get out of the queen's presence. After they left the throne room, Naruto received a handful of old pictures taken back in Konoha. He could only stare at them.
Just a few weeks ago, they had meant the world to him. One photo was from Sakura Haruno taken without her knowledge. Naruto immediately threw it into a bin. One photo was from him in front of the Academy, the Hokage made this one on his first day at school. Another from Iruka-sensei and him at Ichirakus. The next one made him hesitate. It was a shoot of him at a training ground and he practiced throwing kunai. Hinata was also in the picture, but only just. Somehow it looked familiar to him, like he had seen something like this before. Then it hit him, Suzura-sensei had shown him a similar picture and explained how to see if a girl likes a boy. Wow... Hinata really did like him... Well, it was too late for that now anyway...
Usually whenever he had looked at those pictures, they made him smile. But now they seemed so fake and empty to him. All but Hinata's photo. Sakura, the Hokage, Iruka-sensei, the family Ichiraku... That was all he had had in Konoha. Here he had his family, his guards and his teachers - well, maybe... He just had to find out who he could trust. And he could make friends too. It couldn't be harder than in Konoha after all. And if there truly was no-one he could trust, he could try to get Hinata here at least.
XxXxXxXxX
Tsume watched her son train with more than just a little concern. His team was a bigger disaster than the sannin - after Orochimaru's defection. Granted Kiba had his faults. Mostly being cheeky, bold and impatient. As many Inuzukas. But none of them had ever had such problems with their teams before. Not even those who also had to work with an Aburame and a Hyuuga. Tsume was actually used to help future tracking teams. It was pretty common after all.
Usually you pointed out that the team-members were pack too. Then you explain that the Hyuugas with an annoying attitude often became a lot better after someone beat some sense into them during a spar or a real fight. And that Aburames needed their precision to keep control of every single bug they had. If they were too lax, those bugs could attack the rest of the team. And lastly point out that both Hyuuga and Aburame could teach strategy and patience. In most cases that did the trick and the next tracking team was ready for their missions. In cases, where it wasn't enough, the Jonin made sure all genin knew how to work together.
Unfortunately Kiba's case was far from usual. In his team was the biggest problem a Hyuuga. The most annoying Hyuugas Tsume had heard about, were always trying to lead the team, told everyone what to do, bragged about how strong all Hyuugas were and showed off any chance the got. However the Hyuuga on Kiba's team did none of that. Hinata-san didn't show off or brag or anything really. She didn't try to lead the team, heck she didn't try to be part of the team. She just made life difficult for everyone who tried to give her orders. Especially her Jonin-sensei.
With the sensei busy trying to get the Hyuuga to cooperate, Shino Aburame and Kiba were left to their own devices. And started fights any chance they got. Sure, they still called it sparring, but both boys became more and more brutal with each fight. If they weren't stopped soon, they would become real enemies instead of just rivals. And would likely sabotage each other on missions. Tsume shuddered at the mere though of a team where all three genin tried to mess things up.
Absentmindedly she sidestepped a few stray kunais while thinking of the advices she had given her son. She told him to be nice to Hinata-san, even if she was to distracted by her own problems to appreciate it. To focus his attention on Shino Aburame instead and on getting stronger. It was weird, her head told her, Kiba and Shino should team up against the Hyuuga-girl and teach her some discipline. But when she opened her mouth to tell Kiba that, she heard herself caution him against making her an enemy.
It was just too weird, Tsume couldn't think of a single reason for this caution. In fact she had far more reasons to believe Hinata-san would soon get kicked out of the shinobi-roster. The sabotage on her missions or yelling at the Hokage were on their own enough to get her a civilian life. Still, she couldn't shake the feeling of doom whenever she just thought of giving the girl a stern talking-to.
Kiba felt it too. And was even more confused about it than her. When he recounted the first day, he was actually surprised at first. Hinata-san had done anything, that usually would drive Kiba insane. From completing the bloody obstacle curse in five minutes when he and Shino had needed four damn hours to ignoring him. But during the day Kiba never even thought about telling the Hyuuga off. He had decided then and there to give her a piece of his mind the next time she didn't show the respect he deserved.
But every time something did happen and Kiba so much as considered giving Hinata-san a hard time, his instincts just screamed at him. And suddenly he knew that being anything but nice to Hinata Hyuuga was a horrible idea. Without even knowing why... Of course he told Tsume of this oddness. And she just said that the instincts of Inuzukas were always accurate. Just like their noses. And to listen to them. But she couldn't explain why there actually was a warning.
It just didn't make sense, not even to Tsume herself. Maybe she should have invited Shikaku to a drink or two and asked him for help. Unfortunately he was really busy trying to find that Kyuubi-kid. Poor guy. In the end she had settled for trusting her instincts. Even if her instincts were not making much sense right now.
With the Kyuubi-kid her instincts usually made more sense. And at first she was overjoyed that the kid was gone. He always smelled like fox and danger. Granted the Sandaime smelled like danger too, but that was to be expected. After all he was the Hokage and one of the strongest ninjas of their time. Like everyone else, she had seen the reports from the Academy about that boy and he wasn't strong at all. Besides even if she hadn't read the files, Kiba had told her enough to realize that the kid didn't have a chance as a ninja.
But the smell of danger was still there, almost palpable. Since the boy was far too weak to be dangerous by himself, it could only mean the seal would be failing sooner or later. She had explained this to the Sandaime ages ago, but he only pointed out that the Yondaime had smelled of danger too, even as a child. It was like trying to argue with a god-damned door! The Hokage couldn't see that the child had no abilities whatsoever, regardless of all reports that basically screamed it in his face. Seriously, how could anyone, much less the Hokage himself, ignore the fact, that the Kyuubi-kid couldn't make a single clone yet - after three fucking years of training!
Even if Tsume ignored the risk of the Kyuubi, the Sandaime's law about the kid was just as dangerous to the children of her clan. The whole Inuzuka-clan knew that the Kyuubi-kid smelled like a fox. But they couldn't explain the why to any of their pups due to that damned law. That was actually the main reason the Inuzukas tried to keep any children away from that boy. Unfortunately Inuzukas weren't exactly all that obedient, regardless of their loyalty. It was only a matter of time until someone said something wrong and broke the law without even knowing about it.
At least that was what she feared until the Kyuubi-kid disappeared. Tsume was relieved beyond measure that the kid was gone and she took part in quite a few of the resulting parties. In fact many Inuzukas celebrated that event hard and long. She seriously hoped the boy was already dead. It's not like she had anything against the kid actually, but he was far to much like a faulty explosive tag for her taste.
If you found a bad explosive tag, you didn't set it on fire out of anger. You took it to an expert who then made the necessary precautions and destroyed the tag in as safe a setting as possible. In the kids case, it would have meant taking him in the countryside with lots of seals around and either train him until he had control of himself or put him down for good. No-one would ever put a faulty explosive tag together with other working explosive tags. But apparently putting the Kyuubi-kid in a school with other students was somehow different...
Anyway, even if the kid was still alive, Tsume was sure Inoichi could make him forget what had happened and make him loyal again as soon as he was brought back. After all she knew Inoichi and trusted him and his abilities. And should Inoichi somehow fail, there's still Tsunade-sama and Jiraya-sama. They arrived back in Konoha two days ago and would handle the boy if it became necessary. And if the boy actually was death already... well, so much the better.
Tsume couldn't for the life of her imagine how things could go wrong from here. ...But if it truly was that easy and simple, why on earth was she still so scared...? And why couldn't she stop feeling so uneasy...?
XxXxXxXxX
Sayuri always enjoyed a few drinks after a near-death experience. It was simply her way to deal with close-calls. So it wasn't the first time she was still in a pub at one in the morning. It wasn't the first time Sayuri was completely sloshed either. However it was the first time, she considered a report more dangerous than the actual mission. Never mind, that the mission was completed successfully.
Her companion was just as weird to be honest. A real elderly lady! Complete with manners and parasol. At night! Sayuri just couldn't understand what this lady was doing in such a rundown pub. She seemed seriously out of place. Heck, she put a napkin on her lap for crying out loud! Sayuri really wanted to know why she was here, but she couldn't think of a way to ask without being noisy. Fortunately the elder saved her and started the conversation herself.
"Good evening. Or does one say good morning at this hour? My apologies, I don't know all that much about pub-manners... I rarely get to indulge in such nightlife."
"Oh really...? Could have fooled me... How about a simple 'hi'. By the way my name is Sayuri and I come here often after a mission. But I have never seen you before... So how did a nice lady like yourself ended up in such a shabby place."
Sayuri actually cringed at her own words. She must have drunk far more than she realized and could only hope the elderly lady didn't consider this a bad pick-up line. Or worse - a good one and respond to it!
"It's nice to meet you, Sayuri-san. My name is Haruhi and I'm here for the first time actually. To be honest, I'm here because of an argument... It's rather stupid in fact and I don't want to bore you..."
"No, no, please do tell... If nothing else it's bound to be better than the bartender's drunken wailing."
"Well, if you want to hear it... Two days ago I visited some distant relatives. They happened to have a young girl, hardly a teenager yet. She was talking about a boy, she had seen in the city. Apparently he was even around her age and quite good-looking. So she went on and on dreaming about getting him as a boyfriend and I may have mentioned a few things about men and how to get a husband. All with the best intentions, I assure you. Anyway, she was quite certain my advices were outdated.
Or in her words 'Grandmas should stick to tips about housekeeping. Nowadays people go to discos or pubs to find their future better halves. And I doubt that you have actually set foot in either a pub or a disco in the last two or three decades. So it's not like your advice could help me all that much.'.
She even thanked me for trying... I do have to admit she was right at least with the point that I hadn't been in any bars or such for a long time... So I came here... Truly, I doubted many men will come to pubs or discos in Titan. ...Mostly because there live so few men in this city. Much less some boys, that aren't even allowed to drink yet. Then again, I have already seen far more men here than I expected. Actually I'm starting to believe she was right about my advice being outdated too..."
"Hahaha! Oh, that's rich! Lady, you just made my day! To go that far for a young girl's crush..."
"Glad, that someone has fun with it... But seriously, it's more about proving that I'm not outdated yet. ...Or trying to at least..."
"Haha. Sorry... It's just... Well, it's quite unusual, isn't it. Besides, the funny part is actually, that I'm not the only one who ended in this shabby pub because of a teenager..."
"Oh, is that so...? How about you tell me about the trouble your kid caused. Then we can drink to our problems until the alcohol gives us some crazy ideas that may actually even work or at least until we can forget them."
"I like the way you think Haruhi-san. Though the kid in question is neither my own nor the true cause of the problem. It's likely the same boy, your little relative dreamed about. At least he's the only boy I know of, who lives in Titan. His name is Naruto and he's in fact rather cute.
Anyway, on my last mission I had to get Naruto's files from his former home. The mission itself was easy... But what I had found... Well, let's just say I didn't want to stick around for a report. The poor boy! Seriously, I had seen prisoners with better lives!"
"Really? What happened? And why didn't his parents take Naruto's files with them when they came here?"
"Actually he lost both his parents the very day he was born. That alone would be sad enough. But those bastards from his so-called home sabotaged him any chance they got! They replaced his schoolbooks with versions, that either contained lies about practically anything or didn't contain any of the most needed information at all. Some teachers send him out of the classroom during important lessons. And the guys who should have protected him did nothing!
Some even attacked the poor boy! Before he so much as hit the double-digits age-wise. He must have been in the hospital more often than me! And I doubt all of those stays were due to sicknesses or accidents..."
"What?! But why would anybody attack such a small child? I mean even if the parents were enemies, it doesn't sound like this Naruto could have had any memories of them anyway..."
"Exactly! But so much wisdom is apparently to much to ask of those Konoha-bastards...!"
"Konoha? I never heard of that place... Must be one shabby, backwater village, if those living there are that barbarian!"
"Hah! Barbarians they sure are! Especially as Naruto's such a lovely boy! He is lively, so nice to everyone and always does his best. A real sweetheart!
But the place is actually well known. Well, for the west at least. Konoha is a Ninja-Village of the Firenation. You may have heard of Minato Namikaze. He was the leader of that village and is actually Naruto's father."
"Huh? Namikaze? The man of the west who was supposed to be as strong as a Cristall? But that makes even less sense! I thought Namikaze was well-liked in his country? And wasn't the Firenation supposed to be one of the nice ones? How could they be cruel to the son of a leader? Even if said leader deceased long ago."
"Well, it's a bit of a long story Haruhi-san..."
"That's fine. You listened to my troubles as well. The least I could do is listen to yours. Who knows? It may even do you some good to get it of your chest Sayuri-san."
"Yeah, too true... Well, I first heard about Naruto from the Queen when she was looking for guards for him. Looks like he stumbled into the basement of the palace. And came out in the Queen's private chambers of all things! Because only those with royal blood can open the basement, queen Sari used an ancestor-table-seal on him. Naruto is the grandson of Princess Kari and great-grandson of our queen.
Anyway the Prince left Konoha quite suddenly. You can imagine why... So the Queen asked me to go and get his files. She wanted to find out why they let someone as important as Naruto travel such a distance alone by himself. Really, even if nobody knew that he was the queen's great-grandson, he also is the son of Minato Namikaze. Granted, the man died years ago, but he's still loved by the entire village. It was just too weird.
Well, the mission itself wasn't so difficult. Then again it's just a nation of the west. The hard part would have been the report. I took a few peeks into Naruto's files during the mission to find anything related to him... I did indeed find references to his parents and took their files too. But what I found most were actually the incidents I already mentioned and some really bizarre decisions. Most of them from the current leader of that village.
Like the one to enroll him in their Academy as a normal student, when he knew he had Uzumaki-blood..."
"Uzumaki? Wait! Didn't the Uzumakis have genetically too much chakra for people of the west? I heard some rumors they needed a training in chakra-control similar to those with our Nature-bloodline. Because their chakra-reserves were simply too massive for the normal exercises of the west. ...But I thought the Uzumaki's are a royal line from a different western nation? Didn't you say Konoha was a part of the Firenation?"
"Yup. And no, I don't know how the Uzumakis got involved. Anyway, we have this boy with far too much chakra for any standard education just from his Uzumaki-genes alone. That should have already been dealt with differently. Then he's also a jinchuuriki. Remember the stories about the start of the Shira-clan? Well, the Prince actually hosts the Kyuubi instead of Shukaku. And he also has the Nature-bloodline as well..."
"Impressive. Sounds like he has more chakra in his body than some countries in their entire army. He must have trouble sitting still during class then."
"Haha, true. But it's not the only dubious decision either. The Prince actually lived on his own since he was five years old! No child should ever live on his own! Far less a future king! He would have spend far less time in the hospital if he lived with some reasonable adults too.
Besides the current leader of that village tried to set the Prince up with a girl from there. So far that at least is quite understandable, right? Well, here comes the punch line: the girl in question is not only an absolute nobody, but she's also a fangirl and abusive, cruel and arrogant. That Sakura Haruno isn't a good match for anyone sane. Much less for our Prince! And those Konoha-bastards convinced Prince Naruto to ask her out anyway. Often!
Seriously, she is beyond lazy unless it's about her crush or pretty clothes and she's pathetically weak - even for western standards. And that's only what I found after a few short peeks. Well, let's just say, I didn't want to be anywhere near the Queen when she read those files. Thankfully I didn't need to give a report."
"That seems quite fortunate, Sayuri-san. Hmm, after all this time the Prince is finally back with his family... For this alone we should be grateful. Besides he will have a better life from now on. The Queen will make better decisions, I'm sure. I suppose it's best to let her handle Prince Naruto's situation."
"Yeah... I think so too. Then again it would be rather hard to actually make worse decisions! Hey! I have an idea! About your little relative and her boy-troubles. You could just let her mother deal with it. I mean, if it's best for the Prince to let the Queen handle Konoha and everything, then it's sure best to let a mother handle her daughter's first crush, too. Don't you agree? Even if things don't work out for her, it's not really a big deal. After all not getting together with the first boy your girl ever saw is hardly going to be the end of the world."
"Hahaha, what a wise choice. Let us drink to problems others have to take care of, Sayuri-san."
Those two kept each other company for the rest of the night and celebrated responsibilities that were other people's problems.
While Sayuri was already too drunk to notice much, Haruhi Mojimi was still used to large quantities of alcohol. She had after all spend years in courts and the company of powerful men and women. Her special little medicine to counter any alcohol helped too...
Haruhi was actually just as somber as when she first entered this pub. Somber enough to notice that two young girls listened in on them since the name "Naruto" was mentioned. Just like the young woman from the Kin-clan started listening after the Queen was mentioned. At first she was worried about the eavesdropper from the Kin-clan, but now looking back Haruhi was sure she couldn't have had more luck, if she had plan everything Sayuri-san said.
After all, wrong or incomplete information could sometimes be worse than no information at all. Looks like a certain scheming clan were about to be reminded of this too...
And about the two girls... Well, obviously they knew the Prince's name quite well. Both were quite, calm and looked serious. Also they couldn't be of age yet, but drunk their beers with quite a familiarity. So they must be Cristalls. Young in body, but already adults before the law. They were probably guards of Naruto since they knew his name.
Haruhi had seen in the mirrors behind the bar how the young girls frowned when they heard how badly Konoha had treated him. Looks like the Prince already made some good friends. Excellent. Especially since it were his guards who became his friends. It meant for one thing, that Prince Naruto didn't turn into a barbarian despite his time in Konoha and the abysmal role models there. Instead he seemed to treat them really well, if they were still concerned about him when being of duty.
For another it meant the young Prince was less likely to try to get away from his guards. Also he didn't seem to have too much issues with trust yet. (A bit of a miracle, considering the actions or inactions of those people from Konoha)
So despite Konoha's best effort, Naruto-sama was apparently on his way to become a caring and good king. Since his files were accurate enough to show so many issues from a few short peeks, the Queen will surely notice and address any problem in an appropriate manner sooner or later.
Hmm, so what sort of advise should she give Moriko-chan? How could she position the young girl best to help the Prince? ...At some point he'll realize just how rotten Konoha had been, ...how unfair and cruel they had been to him. Once the Prince reaches this point, he'll likely stop trusting anyone else. Maybe even those who already had his friendship. Moriko needs to be known to him when this time comes!
As long as they are on speaking terms, she can notice when Naruto withdraws into himself and talk to him about his troubles. Then it should be relatively easy to give the advice to test the trustworthiness of those he's uncertain about. Haruhi wasn't worried about this piece of advice. For a prince it was just a sensible precaution. For Prince Naruto even more so. Such a test would help anyone who wished the best for him and the country while limiting those who wanted to take advantage of him or kill him.
So now... how to start this friendship? That was the big question. Right! That could work! Konoha had sabotaged Naruto's education, didn't they. Surely they also sabotaged his lessons about teamwork.
And that's a subject the Queen would favor over many others. Since in school Prince Naruto couldn't be allowed to show weakness in such a critical area. As it would look like the future king either didn't care about others or was to stupid to help them. Haruhi wasn't even sure which one would be worse.
The teachers would likely be told about the sabotage. So if he received bad marks at first for example in geography or history, the teachers would keep it quite and others wouldn't know his grades. But if Prince Naruto was bad in subjects like taijutsu or teamwork it couldn't be hidden. The Queen either had to explain the entire situation publicly or make sure her heir caught up to other students before the term started.
Even if she told about Konoha's sabotage, it could still hurt Naruto. People would assume he was kept stupid. Heck, they would even be right! But they would also believe he will stay stupid and that would undermine his reign before it even began.
No, the Queen would focus on any subjects that somehow related to a kings work and where bad results couldn't be hidden. She had to! So if we could arrange for Moriko to take part in the Prince's teamwork-lessons...
After all the Prince couldn't possible learn it with his guards. As Cristalls they were simply too good. They would compensate for any mistake Naruto did, read him and act accordingly. But his future classmates wouldn't be able to do so. No, the Prince couldn't learn it with his guards. Thought they would probably try it that way at first. And the teachers would realize their mistake right away. And then they would try to think of trustworthy children in Naruto's age.
So if Moriko was somewhere close by... say perhaps because Tenshi-sama took her along to the palace as a reward and/or present of some kind. And if she walked right into someone because she was looking at all the pretty ornaments around... Of course she would have to apologize thoroughly. Even if that meant making even more of a scene. Then Moriko would be remembered first when the Queen tried to think of a child Naruto's age. And the Queen already knew Moriko was reliable. So she would naturally ask her if she wanted to join Naruto's training. Moriko could not only help the Prince with one of his lessons (which will make it easier to offer help for other subjects later). She could also quite easily strike up a conversation and become the Prince's friend.
And teamwork is something that needs a lot of practice... So the only remaining question was: when would the first teamwork-lesson be? Well, the Queen will surely read the files of her heir as soon as possible. All she wants may be a short overview. But once she sees the same things Sayuri-san saw, she will read everything immediately. Even if it meant canceling a council-meeting. So by tomorrow morning the Queen will know and address the most pressing issues, like his lessons in taijutsu, teamwork and other such things. If she hasn't done so already. So tomorrow afternoon at the latest she'll have those lessons arranged. Looks like Tenshi and Moriko would visit the palace tomorrow...
XxXxXxXxX
The riders were actually more impatient than their horses for once. But that was understandable. After all, they could finally deliver the invites to Prince Naruto's future fiancées. Everyone was eager to see the royal family grow once more.
The gate opened and hooves thundered all around. Two hundred riders started their journey to the leaders of neighboring and far away nations. Each of them had their own destination. And each had a small letter and a scroll. The letter explained the opportunity Queen Sari granted them and the scroll contained the rules and other details.
All of those letters would be received with joy, excitement and sometimes greed. All but one... Among those letters was one single letter which would cause great sorrow, strife and grief. Indeed, even fear and headaches. This letter had the exact same wording, the same stamp and the same offer as any of it's brethren. In fact the only difference was the address. It was for Konoha.
XxXxXxXxX
The Queen had read a lot of horrible things. From whatever Tsure considered love letters over reports about her daughter at school to mission reports where either the mission itself or the morals of the people involved were shattered beyond recognition. It sort of came with being a queen. ...Well, the messes from Tsure and Kari were probably partially her own fault... But that's beside the point.
Anyway. Even with this vast and disturbing experience, she had never seen anything like what now lay before her. She had actually planned to just skim the papers from Konoha. After all they couldn't have watched him too closely if he ended up traveling alone. But the sheer amount of paperwork looked more like the documentation of a decade long experiment. And with each paper the queen read she grew just more angry. And more worried.
Worried about Naruto's state of mind. And of his physical health too. Worried he considered himself unworthy of love and affection. Worried about his crush on this Sakura-girl. Worried how he will deal with his fiancées. And how the girls could even win his heart. And if he still had a heart.
No! He clearly went out of his way to help others. She had seen it herself. And he was always so happy, lively and nice. He couldn't have faked that so well. Still, the very next time someone tried anything with Naruto at all, he could lose faith in everyone. She had to ensure his guards could protect him from such a fate.
Losing his faith, his trust in others would lose this country a bright future. ...And Naruto his happiness. No, that has to be avoided at all costs. After just getting a lively, lovely, darling boy as heir, she couldn't bear the thought of him turning into a cold, calculating and uncaring bastard.
He could even turn away from his own family. From herself. Withdrawing back into himself... Not giving anything away of what he thought or wanted. ...Like during the meeting with the Uzumakis... Fuck! But it couldn't be! It couldn't! Naruto had been as lively as always during lunch today. How? When? And most important who had dared to hurt him in such a way?
Not many people were actually allowed to see him after all. Basically only his teachers, his guards and his family. Huh? His guards! Wasn't one of them drugged just after lunch? Or during she supposed. Stupid Tsure and his bloody tactics! But... but... Oh, hell no! He knows! Shit! Naruto knows! No wonder he was so reserved during the meeting with his family from Uzu.
Damn it! If Naruto somehow realized that Tsure drugged Haruhi-chan... Or had tried to drug him... Well, no wonder he didn't trust his own blood anymore. Especially since Konoha already treated him so badly. What a nightmare!
Well, first thing tomorrow morning would be to give Hideko-sensei the files on Naruto's health and let her check him up thoroughly. Hopefully, the Kyuubi and Uzumaki-blood had helped enough. Well, better safe than sorry...
Then she would have to talk with his teachers about the sabotage and decide what subjects to focus on. And how they were going to prepare Naruto enough for the coming term that he won't look like a fool.
And lastly find some way to restore Naruto's trust in others, make sure Tsure doesn't blow up any progress with his insane plans and explain Konoha's actions, her husband's 'help' and Naruto's current state to the Uzumakis and the council. Preferable without starting a war. Oh joy...
XxXxXxXxX
two o'clock at night with the Kin-clan:
Kuraiko strolled confidently and a little bit annoyed into the room. She had planned her trip to the beauty-saloon tomorrow and put together a list of clothes, jewelry and beauty-products she had to buy before school started. But was summoned to Reiko-sama before she finished. Well, she could continue later.
"You wanted to see me, Reiko-sama?"
"Ahh, Kuraiko-chan. Good, your still awake. We just received new information about the Prince. He lived indeed in Konoha and has apparently already a girlfriend. One Sakura Haruno. She'll be send from Konoha for sure. It sounded like Konoha's leader spend a lot of time to get them together. Of course you should be her first friend here.
As for the girl herself. She'll become a joke sooner or later for sure. Apparently even western people consider her pathetically weak. She is - how was it put? - a fangirl, abusive, cruel and arrogant. Also lazy unless it's concerns pretty clothes or the Prince. Looks like she has a crush on him. Anyway, since Prince Naruto had already asked her to a number of dates, she can easily arrange a date with him for you.
As for his taste in girls... Well, I suppose he likes pretty girls with a good fashion sense. So, go with the trends and take good care of your look. You can use the clan funds if your own savings and allowance isn't enough. Don't be shy about bashing others, he is most likely used to see this from his Sakura and will consider it a sign of strength and leadership. Make sure Prince Naruto sees you're just as confident as Sakura if not more so. I'm sure you'll have no problem to act according to our plan.
Obviously he must be used to commoners adoring him. As far as I know his father - Minato Namikaze - was a hero for the people of Konoha, so they must have favored him greatly. Of course he'll be used to getting preferential treatment, praise and presents. You should heap praise on him in great amounts. Or else he'll just consider it normal since he's used to it from Konoha.
We also found out, that the Prince lived on his own since he was five and went to a normal school despite needing different exercises. Most likely he values his independence, a bit of alone-time now and then, being around commoners and showing off. At least those are the only reasons I can image for why he would go to a normal school instead of taking private lessons and living on his own in a village where everyone loves him.
You should ask Sakura about Prince Naruto to get a better understanding of his character and his interests in girls. Anyway, our last piece of information is that he had spend a lot of time in the hospital. Though, I don't know how much time exactly or why he was there. Only that it apparently could have been avoided if he hadn't lived alone. I guess he simply didn't took care of himself enough and ended up with a cold a bit too often. Well, that's all we could find out until now. I doubt we'll get much more before Sakura arrives though."
"Mhh... I see. At least I don't have to change much of my plans. Just be a bit more throughout with the preparations. Thank you Reiko-sama. This will help me a lot when I finally meet the Prince. So if that is everything..."
"Of course. Have a good night."
Kuraiko went back to her room to finish her shopping list. Granted, it would probably be early in the morning before she had everything written down, but the mission was too important to delay. And far too much fun too. Besides, she could sleep in tomorrow anyway.
XxXxXxXxX
Silence. Complete and utter silence. And worry. That was all one would find if somebody had looked into Naruto's room that night. Midnight had long passed, but sleep never came. Not for any of the girls and sure as hell not for Naruto. They hardly talked after he returned from meeting his grandfather and uncle. Well, they hadn't talked all that much beforehand either.
Ever since Haruhi-chan was released from the infirmary Naruto and his guards had been lost in thought. Each trying to come to terms with what had happened. Each worrying about a possible repeat-attempt. Each trying to find clues about who was responsible for drugging Haruhi. Well, at least those who didn't know yet...
With a sign Naruto started to get up.
"Naruto-sama? What are you doing? It's almost three in the morning..."
"Sorry, Maya-chan. I just can't sleep. Too much has happened... I just want to get some fresh air and think."
"I see... okay, who wants to come along too?", Maya asked while putting on a cloak.
"Err, actually... I wanted to go alone, Maya-chan..."
"But that's too dangerous! Especially now! Someone in this castle wants to harm you! ...er, sort of... Probably..."
"Maya-chan, please calm down. Whoever drugged Haruhi-chan could have also just wanted to rape her. We don't know who it was, so the attack could have simply been against her.", pointed Rika out.
"Either way, it's still too dangerous for the Prince to be alone!", Maya insisted.
"Actually, I know who drugged Haruhi-chan...", Ayame admitted quietly.
"WHAT!", almost everyone shouted.
"Come on, don't keep us in suspense!", Miyuki-chan prompted.
Ayame shoot a questioning look to Naruto and he just knew that she knew. He shrugged. To him it didn't really matter how many people knew about what his jiji had done. Not anymore at least.
"I heard how the queen ranted at the king. Apparently he tried to drug the Prince with aphrodisiacs. So he would 'have some fun'. Queen Sari may wasn't in on it, but she still protected him from the fallout."
"What! The king drugged Haruhi-chan?", Kyoko couldn't believe it.
"Yes. And tried to drug the Prince. Tsk! The royal couple wanted us to protect their heir, but then they're the biggest treat to him! Typical.", Ayame spat out.
"Holy shit! That's insane!", exclaimed Tariko.
"No kidding. Also he'll likely get away with it, too. Worse, he'll probably try again at some point! So we'll have to be extra careful, even with Naruto-sama's family. Especially with his family! Regardless that they had actually been the ones who had ordered us to protect him. Damn it, I hate hypocrites!", ranted Ayame.
"Ayame-chan... Are you absolutely sure about this? I mean... It's kind of hard to believe... Could it be a misunderstanding? After all, you didn't hear the beginning and you had kept some distance, right? So maybe, he said something different and you just misheard him...?", Miyuki tried to reason.
"No, Miyuki-chan... Ayame-chan is right. I heard them too... It was pretty obvious. Besides, do you remember how jiji didn't want Haruhi-chan to eat my ramen? I'm sure that's how he drugged her. Gran-gran was pretty angry. The whole mess is actually part of the reason I want to be alone right now..."
"Naruto-sama... I can understand that, but... Well, you know... We have very specific orders to never let you out of our sight...", mumbled Miyuki uncomfortably.
"Yeah? So what? We also have very specific orders to follow Naruto-sama's orders.", Kaji scoffed.
"It doesn't matter. Even if we want to let Naruto-sama have his privacy, we would get caught for sure! Especially now. The queen may know who drugged Haruhi-chan, but none of the other guards seem to know. If they see Naruto-sama without us they'll raise the alarm. Then he wont be able to take his walk in peace anyway and we'll be in more trouble than we could handle to boot!", pointed Maya out.
"Kaji-chan... Ayame-chan... Do you two even realize that you're talking about treason?", Rika asked calmly as if she was talking about the weather.
"Oy! How can it be treason to help and protect the Prince? I thought that were our fucking orders!", hissed Ayame back.
"Ayame-chan! Calm down! ...The question is: Do we follow Naruto-sama's orders over the queen's? Or the queen's orders over Naruto-sama's? I never imagined that we'll have take a side... I thought following one would always automatically mean following the other as well...", Kazami asked completely bewildered.
"I agree with her. It's ridiculous, but we'll probably have to protect Naruto-sama from the queen and the king at some point.", Mariko added.
"Well, I for one will stand with Naruto-sama. Treason or no!", declared Tariko fiercely.
"And I'll stand with you!", Kaji agreed.
"Naruto-sama will be king one day. We have seen how hardworking and kind he is. He'll make a great king. So I will follow his orders over the queen's and the king's orders as well. Especially as they have betrayed not only Naruto-sama but Haruhi-chan too.
Granted, I always knew that being a Cristall was dangerous. That any failed mission was likely to end in permanent injury, death or capture. But that we'd also be in trouble if the mission went perfect... Just because the king or the queen have certain plans... That's too much. Prince Naruto is apparently the only trustworthy member of the royal family. And I will protect him! No matter against who!", exclaimed Ayame.
Everyone else agreed as well, much to Naruto's surprise.
"That still leaves the problem of the other guards. What if Naruto-sama isn't here when others come looking and we don't know where he is. Not to mention, it still is dangerous for him to be alone.", Kazami put in.
As an answer Naruto just made a clone and the original transformed into his sexy jutsu. Though for once he/she actually kept clothes on. After the guards picked their jaws up from the floor, everyone began their preparations.
Kaji gave Naruto a seals and explained that it would trigger automatically if he got into any danger. It would shunshin him to the other part of the seal, which got hidden in his bed under the covers. Not to be outdone, Tariko and Mariko added a communication seal. In case Naruto-sama simply got lost or just wanted to talk to his guards. A bit sheepish the twins admitted that they usually used those seals for pranks. And his clone took an adventure novel and started reading. After all, he couldn't go to sleep either or he would disappear.
With everything set Naruto opened the painting to the basement and gratefully slipped into the darkness and quite it provided. He had some thinking to do about his future and his family.
XxXxXxXxX
Beats of sweat tripped from his nose. His muscles screamed at him and his lungs ached as if they had been on the wrong end of a biju-sized sledgehammer. But he was used to it by now. Had been used to it for years. He usually ignored it. After all that sort of pain was far easier to ignore than the pain of losing his family. Far, far easier.
Ever since the Uchiha's massacre, Sasuke had trained himself into the ground every single day. Partly to become strong enough to kill his brother. And partly to distract himself from the memories, the pain and most of all the loneliness. Though by now Sasuke trained less to escape those feelings and more often to let off steam. Well, that and out of habit.
Imagining the faces of his fangirls on the dummies as he dotted them with kunais and shurikken... Thinking about a stupid and useless assignment while doing push-ups... Picturing an teacher's face that refused to share some good jutsus while beating another idiot up during spars...
That was how Sasuke Uchiha trained by now. Some of his teachers actually told him to tone it down a bit. They talked about something called 'overtraining'. Pshaw! They're just jealous! Surely his parents would have told Itachi to take a break sometimes if there really was such a thing. But they didn't. And Sasuke had to catch up with and get ahead of Itachi. He simply didn't have time for petty, jealous teachers!
Granted, he didn't exactly have time for such a useless teacher like Kakashi either, but there wasn't anything he could do about it. The Hokage was unreasonable, the civilian council not authorized to do anything about ninja-related matters and the ninja council indifferent. Worse, some of them trusted that stupid Kakashi. It was maddening! Sasuke didn't know who else he could ask for help.
So, for now he was stuck with his teacher. If one could call him that. Seriously, the man did nothing besides annoying the hell out of everyone. He always came hours too late, didn't help with any sort of training. He didn't give any jutsus, hadn't supervised a single spar, didn't give pointers on forms or any pointers at all for that matter and didn't help with these chores the senile Hokage called 'missions'.
Really, the only thing Kakashi ever does is reading his porn, taking missions from the Hokage and giving reports afterwards. Nobody wants to see people reading porn. And Sasuke could do the rest himself. ...If only he had been allowed to do so! Heck, Sakura would be able to do that. Maybe then she would actually be useful. ...Well, somewhat at least.
So far Sakura was actually even more useless than their teacher. As surprising as that was. She always made so much noise it distracted him from his work. Of course she didn't help during D-Ranks either. Heck, she probably wouldn't make a difference anyway. Sakura was so scrawny a little wind could probably knock her over. And of course she just had to wear the most impractical and hampering clothes she had. Just as she had to wear her (way too long) hair loose.
Seriously, what was wrong with that girl? Either her dress or her hair could get caught up in something. Not only during missions but also during training. Well, at least they could if Sakura ever did train or take part in any missions. ...Did that count as a reason for doing nothing? Naah, not really. After all it was her own choice and she could always change it. Sakura was just useless. Plain and simple.
With a sign Sasuke started to remove his kunais from the targets and put them back into his holster. It was getting too dark and he couldn't really practice throwing kunais when he couldn't even see the targets. Though he would have preferred to continue as it helped him to cope with his so-called 'team'.
Walking home he thought back to the 'real' graduation test as Kakashi put it. Sasuke would have called it annoying or stupid or useless. Probably all three together. Unfortunately it was also incredibly telling in regards to future issues. If he had paid attention Sasuke could have seen every single fucking problem he now had to deal with within those few hours! Everyone could have seen it! It was pretty amazing to be honest. In a rather disturbing way...
From Kakashi being hours late to Sakura being useless, it was all there. Even the goddamn porn Kakashi read was the same for crying out load! Somehow Sasuke doubted team seven was ever going to work out. After all they didn't exactly work out that greatly during the stupid test either.
Sakura had gotten herself knocked out hardly ten minutes into the test and remained unconscious for two hours straight. When she finally woke up they only had half an hour left to get those blasted balls. At least Sasuke had managed to touch them during his fight. Even if he wasn't good enough. Not really surprising against a jonin. After failing the test the first time, Kakashi bound Sakura to a pole and offered another opportunity.
He explained how important teamwork was and then gave him the order to not feed Sakura. Seriously, could you be any more obvious? Of course Sasuke shared his meal with her. Maybe she would even be useful after eating something. Though Sasuke still cringed at the mere thought of having to put a strategy together with only him and Sakura against a bloody jonin. In the end all that was needed to graduate was for Sakura to eat something. What an amazing and reliable test...
The only good thing about his team was that it was the only team with two instead of three genins. One spot was left for Naruto Uzumaki. Luckily, with the idiot gone, Sasuke didn't have to put up with yet another team-member holding him back. Sakura was more than enough, thank you very much.
Of course Sasuke had heard the order to not fight Uzumaki. One more proof the old Hokage was getting senile. Come on, they had fought so often Sasuke had lost count ages ago! And Uzumaki had never won. Not even once! So clearly Sasuke could bring him back by force if he wanted to. Then again, bringing Uzumaki back to Konoha was about the last thing Sasuke wanted. Because then the idiot really would be part of team seven.
No, better Uzumaki stayed wherever he had run of to. Though Sasuke wouldn't have said no to the scroll the idiot took. Rumor has it, it contained some very powerful ninjutsus. Ahh well, it didn't really matter either way. Surely Uzumaki was long since dead and the scroll has most likely been found already. The one who found it must have kept it himself. Sasuke couldn't really blame that person. He probably would have done the same. After all, as long as Konoha benefits from the scroll, it shouldn't matter who had it, right?
As for Uzumaki... Well, Sasuke remembered his skills good enough. Or more likely - his lack thereof. Uzumaki was a clown and always scored the lowest in any test. Heck, he was the only one who managed to fail the first academy graduation test. Why the Hokage insisted to leave a spot on any team for that idiot was beyond Sasuke. Oh whatever, it didn't really matter. A dead person can't join a team after all. And with Uzumaki dead, team seven would stay a three man team.
Sasuke was actually convinced after that disaster of a test, things really couldn't get any worse. Simply, because it wasn't physically possible. ...But then came the D-ranks...
Whoever called those 'missions' should be put in jail! Painting fences, walking dogs, catching this blasted cat! Those were chores for badly behaving academy students! But they were sure as hell not missions! And they were absolutely not worth his time! Unfortunately, team seven had to do those D-ranks. And with Kakashi not wanting to be helpful and Sakura not able to be useful, he ended up doing all the work himself!
Great! Graduating as the top student just to end up doing stupid manual labor. It was beyond frustrating. He had asked for other missions, but again the Hokage didn't want to see reason, the civilian council couldn't do jack shit and the ninja council didn't care.
He would likely be stuck with D-ranks even longer than others, because team seven was smaller than normal teams. As such they had to be stronger individually before taking a C-rank, because they had to make up for that one person. Personally, Sasuke thought he had to make up for two persons, not just one. After all Sakura didn't contribute to any missions. And he didn't think that was going to change anytime soon.
After Sasuke had lost his family, he had trusted his village and his teachers to help him getting strong enough to avenge them. But now... It looked like Konoha was holding him back instead. Sasuke would have to find his own way to get stronger...
XxXxXxXxX
Cool air pushed against his back. As if to urge him further. Naruto took a deep breath, not caring how his current breasts stretched his clothes almost beyond the ripping point. It was still the middle of the night and the stars sparkled beautiful in the sky. It was a calm, serene and almost sacred night. Well, as long as you ignored the pitiful crying.
Of course Naruto couldn't ignore something like this. Strangely enough the thought of helping others calmed him down a bit. Other's problems seemed sooo much easier right now. After a few steps he found the source of the noise. A young girl around his age cowered behind a tree and sobbed inconsolable.
Not knowing what else to do, Naruto sat beside her and asked what was wrong. The girl whipped her head around surprised, "W-what are you doing here? And who are you? ...Do you have any idea how late it is? You should have been in bed hours ago!"
"Heh, so should you! Anyway, I couldn't sleep and went for a walk to clear my head. What about you?"
"Oh, er well, it's nothing...", she hesitantly answered (while rubbing her tears away).
"Okaaay... But if you want somebody to talk to..."
"Thanks... Though I don't think you can help me all that much. Unless you have a good rapport with the people in the palace. Haha, yeah, as if I would be that lucky."
"...Er, to be honest I know a few people there. Why? What do you need from them?", Naruto asked a bit suspicious.
"Really?! Wow! Who do you know? And how well? Maybe you can really help me after all."
"... ... Why? What do you need to know it for...? And who exactly are you?", after jiji's betrayal Naruto was rather safe than sorry.
"Oh, sorry! I'm Akira! Akira Fushigi. And I need to know more about the Prince. Though I would be grateful for information on queen Sari and her husband too. As for the reason... well, I need to become one of the prince's wives."
"You need to become one of the prince's wives?" repeated Naruto incredulous.
Akira sighed. "It's complicated... And you could give me your name too, you know."
"Huh? Oh it's Na- err ...Nanako." he quickly recovered. "So why don't you explain to me why you actually need to marry? You're just as young as I am."
Granted, Naruto too had to get married. More than once even. But only if he wanted to go along with his family's plans. Which wasn't all that likely right now. Either way he doubted Akira had the same reason.
"You're not from here, eh Nanako-chan? I guess I'll have to start at the beginning... Alright. In Diamond live a lot of clans, small or big, but only three are considered major. Or at least it used to be three. A major clan is basically a clan with the strength and potential to rule Diamond should anything happen to the royal family. The Kin-clan and the Momiji-clan are now the only major clans in Diamond, but some time ago the Fushigi-clan was also one.
Back then it wasn't really important. While a small family, the queen, the king and their daughter Kari were all very strong and healthy. So everybody assumed Kari-sama would get some more kids and that was that. Nobody could imagine the royal line would ever be in danger. Even when the princess ran away, the people only laughed and thought she'll come back soon enough.
At that time opinions like 'Let her have some fun', 'Maybe the princess will even bring back a husband' and 'Seeing the world will help her rule with wisdom and kindness' and others could be heard everywhere. I can understand them. After all from what I heard Princess Kari was incredibly strong and she even left a letter, saying she would return before turning 30.
But then Kari-sama's 30th birthday was suddenly over and the princess was nowhere to be seen. At this point some people started to worry. Queen Sari was already past childbearing age and there was no other heir either.
It was also the time my clan started dying. We didn't notice it at first. After all there was always a risk that not everybody came back from a mission. At some point we noticed that we had lost a lot more members than usually, but we simply believed we went through a rough patch. A bit of bad luck. Unfortunate, but nothing more, nothing less. Besides the entire country had quite bad luck at the time.
Of course we did consider fool play at some point, but we didn't know who. Much less had any proof. It wasn't until our clan was reduced to twenty-some people, that we noticed our majority of loses appeared during missions where another team-member was from the Kin-clan. But we lost already too many to influence the compositions of teams. Unlike the Kins...
By now the only ones left are those too young for missions - meaning my three cousins and myself - and our clanhead, who is too old for missions. But even now, we don't have any proof. It's maddening.
So, my family needs the protection of the royal family and that's why I need to get the prince to fall in love with me. Even if he's a spoiled brat. Pleeeeease help me!"
"Wait! Spoiled brat?!"
"? What do you expect? I know noble people. The higher their stand the worse they are! And the prince is the future king of Diamond and the only known male ever with the nature-bloodline. That alone would give anybody a better-than-you-attitude. But he also had to be raised elsewhere! Everybody would try to gain his favor and grant his every wish. Making him even more arrogant. If he had been raised here with his own family, he would have probably at least sometimes been pestered with actual morals.
As things are, the prince most likely never had to follow a single rule in his entire life. He'll be used to people praising him for the smallest things and falling over themselves to help him. I doubt he's even able to dress himself without help. Heck, if he's anything like the nobles I know, then he'll start yelling the moment he doesn't get his wish or crying in pain if a little bee stings him. Good grief! And I'll have to flirt with him... Urg! I feel like puking just thinking about it."
"Actually Akira-chan, I know a bit about the Prince and the way he grew up. And believe me, there weren't many people who wanted his favor. Or grant his wishes. In fact most didn't seem to know he was related to the queen. Any way, I'll help you. What do want to know?"
"Really? Thanks a million! So what do you think the prince likes in girls. What does he hate? What can I do to get his attention?"
"Hmmm... Well, I don't hav- err, I mean I don't think Prince Naruto has a particular type. But he really hates people who are arrogant, mean to others or tell lies. But how to get his attention... I don't know."
"... Wow. You already told me far more than I expected. Maybe he really isn't that spoiled, if he doesn't like arrogant people. You actually know the prince personally, right? Are you also involved in this madness of matchmaking with him, Nanako-chan?"
Thinking about Haruhi-chan and jiji and the upcoming fiancées yet again, Naruto couldn't help but weakly smile."... err...well, yeah kind of...haha..."
"? Okay...? Ohh, right. Why don't you tell me why you came here... It is after all the middle of the night."
"... It's complicated." Naruto tried to dodge the issue.
"Come on, Nanako-chan. I told you my trouble too." pouted Akira.
Relenting he sighed. "Okay, okay. I have a problem with my grandparents. Grandpa hurt one of my friends and grandma kept his secret even though he had probably broken an actual law. Not to mention his real target was me! I can't even trust my own family!
I also found out only recently that basically anything I believed about my dream was wrong! I dreamed about being a great leader since I was four. But everything I was told about it was a fucking lie! Even if I still wanted to be that leader, it's impossible now, because I just can't go back there again. Not that I know if I still want it. I just don't know what to do anymore..."
"...Say, Nanako-chan...? Were those lies the reason for your dream? Or did you ask about being a leader and then got lied to? I mean, if you already had that dream before ever hearing those lies, then it shouldn't matter, right? At least for your dream."
That got Naruto thinking. When had this dream of becoming Hokage started? And why? It had been so long ago, he had almost forgotten.
That cute little girl, that ran right past him. Crying. She must have been around the same age as he was back then. Not even in the Academy yet. Naruto was curios and wanted to comfort her, maybe even become friends. She looked as lonely as he felt and twice as heartbroken. It was a bit difficult, but Naruto managed to follow her.
But then she suddenly ran into some older boys. Literally. All of them got knocked down and the girl immediately apologized. But it wasn't enough for those boys. Three boys just brave enough to bully a lonely girl, that was obviously at least two years younger then them and already truly sorry.
Of course Naruto couldn't let that happen. He jumped in and told those guys to get lost. Well, in the end all he had gotten, was a beating from those three older kids. Then again he was used to far worse. And it looked like the little girl had gotten away. Heh, she sure was fast. That was actually part of the reason he wanted to be friend with her. Playing tag would have surely been epic.
After that fight, Naruto had been depressed. Getting beaten up did that to you sometimes. But soon after, he had sworn to himself to become the strongest person in the whole world! If he had been strong enough to beat those guys up, maybe he could have talked with the cute girl and become her friend.
He wanted to protect nice people and become friends with them! That's what started his dream about becoming the best and strongest leader there ever was. And later he thought the Hokage would be such a leader. Just like that his dream to become the best Hokage of all times was born.
Well, becoming a Hokage of any kind, whether good or bad, was impossible now. But his original dream - becoming the strongest and best leader of the entire world - was maybe even more possible now than ever in Konoha. And Naruto could still hold to that dream. Gran-gran at least wanted to make him a good king for Diamond, so she wouldn't mind his original dream for sure. She even said it was his duty to protect his people. Or will be at some point.
As for jiji... Well, after the 'horny Haruhi incident' Naruto couldn't find it in himself to care about him.
Naruto will just have to become the best king Diamond had ever had instead of a Hokage. Yeah, that was what he should do.
He briefly wondered what became of the little girl from back then. Not exactly for the first time, but he hadn't thought of her for ages. He could still remember her short, dark hair, pale face and almost white eyes. Hang on! That had been Hyuuga eyes! He was sure of it, after all that color wasn't at all common. But Hinata had them. Just as she had a pale face and short, dark hair. ...and she was just as shy and easily depressed as the girl from back then...
But- was it even possible? Surely there must have been a lot of girls his age. ...But had any of the other girls such eyes? No. Then again maybe the girl from back then never met him again? If she had gone to a civilian school, it was possible. But that didn't make sense either. She had obviously been wearing training clothes. She must have went to the academy with him. And only two people there had such eyes. One was a prick from the year above them and the other was - Hinata!
Well, that explained why she liked him so much. She must remember him too.
Naruto - or rather - Nanako smiled at Akira. "You're right! I guess, I can still become the best and strongest leader. And have a lot of Friends. Thanks a million Akira-chan."
"Hihi, you're welcome. Your dream sure is impressive. And you're such a nice girl to boot. We could be friends! Well, only if you want to of course..."
Friends? Nobody had ever offered to be his friend! "You mean it? Sure! Let's be best friends forever!"
"Yeah! You know, we're a really good team. And we could help each other to get the Prince's attention. Maybe even his love. Please, let's work together to become princesses." Akira stared at her hopefully.
"Sure thing! Friends stick together after all!"
"Really? Great! You have no idea what a relief it is to hear that. I was so scared about what could happen. And that I would make a fool of myself next term. Now we can- hey! Look, a shooting star! Fast! Make a wish!"
Naruto looked up to the stars to see a beautiful, bright streak across the sky. Closing his eyes he made his wish. 'Star light, star bright, the first star I see tonight; I wish I may, I wish I might, have the wish I wish tonight. I want a lot of friends! Who like me for who I am, not just my title! Who trust me and whom I can trust!'.
After his wish, Naruto opened his eyes. Staring at the sky which had more stars shining down on them than Konoha had people running around. On the horizon to the east the sky was already getting a little brighter. The sun would rise soon. Somehow the night was almost gone. And somehow it had taken Naruto's doubts with it.
Naruto - or Nanako - smiled at his - her? new friend. Somehow it felt different from those girls, who had played with him when he arrived in Titan. Deeper, stronger somehow. They had plans together!
It also felt different from his girls, the guards that never left his side since their first meeting until tonight. And even that was only because he had insisted. His guards knew he was the prince. And they didn't really have a choice about staying with him or not. He sort of was their actual mission. No matter how nice or mean they were to each other. Akira on the other hand was Nanako's friend. Not Prince Naruto's. She wanted to be his friend without any prompting.
And it felt even more different from hanging out with Kiba and the others in Konoha. Somehow they had only tolerated him. And even that, just barely. They didn't want him around, but simply didn't bother to run him off. They never were truly friends at all. No. But Akira was an actual friend. His first one.
"You know, the sun will be up shortly. Going to bed now wont help much. How about we go to the mountaintop and watch the sunrise?", Akira cut into his train of thought.
"Yeah, sure! But we should probably go back afterwards. Before our families notice that we're gone."
Chattering about these and that, they made their way uphill. When they reached the top, Naruto immediately decided that this was his new favorite place. The view was amazing. The mountain was surrounded with trees and the palace was close by. A little in the distance was the city, with countless houses and a net of streets.
They both stood in silence. Each enjoying the calm and quite - and current company. With the sunrise the view was even more impressive to look at. Bathing everything in a warm glow. Beginning a new day and waking up life anew. It was sort of humbling, but also encouraging. And it felt oddly right to share this with Akira.
After a while Akira asked Nanako to meet again tomorrow- err, that means today - on the mountaintop at nine o'clock in the evening. Of course Nanako couldn't agree fast enough. Soon they parted ways. To sneak back home, hopefully without getting caught.
On his way back to his own room through the basement, Naruto decided that this walk had indeed helped him a lot. It may not have made a difference about jiji or the fact that he had to be careful with trusting others. But it did clear his head. And even lifted his heart. He may not be able to trust his own family, but he could still chase his dream and make this place his home. And find friends.
He couldn't wait for tonight. They had plans to make! And Naruto was a great planner. It sort of came with pulling so many pranks. Suddenly, he remembered what exactly these plans were going to be about. Did he just, in the heat of the moment, actually agree to help someone to become the girlfriend of himself?! Ohh, shit! But he had said he would help her! He couldn't take it back! Naruto would have to think of something. But that could wait until later. First he had to get this day over and done with. Preferable with some sleep.
