Raiders of the Lost Sandcastle

The party of four former members of Konohagakure walked up to the embassy of the Wind Country in the capital city of the Fire Country. Tsunade had arranged for the carts they had taken from Konoha to be used to transport actual medical supplies to Suna. They however would be traveling separately.

The guards bowed properly when the quartet stopped. The children of the late Kazekage had told the guards that the group would be arriving at some point.

"Welcome, Tsunade-sama. Temari-sama informed us you would be arriving today with your party. You are welcome to enter and we shall have someone inform Temari-sama," one guard said.

Tsunade smiled and bowed back saying, "We have one more in our party arriving shortly. She had to do some last minute shopping. She has long purple hair and goes by the name Yuugao."

"I will await her arrival, Tsunade-sama," the guard replied as he left them in.

"Wow, Baa-chan, that guy was practically kissing your butt," Naruto said in a low voice once they were inside.

"I am highly regarded for my medical abilities, gaki. You should be proud to be my apprentice and show proper respect," Tsunade said back with a smirk.

Naruto grinned, "That was proper respect, for me."

Tsunade responded to that by flicking her finger into Naruto's forehead and knocking him backwards across the street into a brick wall.

Shizune and Hinata both chuckled.

Jiraiya called together the Council in the early afternoon. He held the proxy vote for the Hokage until he revealed the fact that Tsunade had stepped down. This allowed him to chair the meeting and decide its discussion. A few Council members seemed quite worried while the elder Ino-Shika-Cho trio looked to be trying to sit up straight as they had come directly from the bar. Danzo seemed quite smug, as his agents had reported to him all the morning's activity in Konoha. He had kept his hands off the village's money preferring payments from sources other than simple and very traceable embezzlement.

Jiraiya smiled broadly and looked at the assembled elders. "The Daimyo has exercised his right to use funds of Konoha as he sees fit to pay off a few items. Namely, he has moved the Namikaze estate funds to a bank of his choosing. It is one in the capital and under his personal control. He also has made the village pay off the outstanding debts of Hokage-sama."

"This led to a problem as the funds were not sufficient to pay those debts. Investigating the books, we found that there was a difference in the banks records and those of the Hokage's office. The Daimyo's representative has called for an auditor to go over the bank records to explain why the bank's records do not match the Hokage's books. Any persons involved will have their accounts frozen until the auditor has completed the investigation."

"You might have noticed that three Council members are missing? It seems they did not have enough to return the funds they 'borrowed' from the village account. They are on their way to the capital now and will be explaining their reasons directly to the Daimyo."

The Councilors began looking at each other until Jiraiya held up his hand. A few voices whispered back and forth as they were appalled at what was done. It was inconceivable to them that the Daimyo would interfere in the running of Konoha.

"The Daimyo is well within his legal rights to do so as the charter of Konoha states. He prefers to leave things alone but this time he felt that it was something he needed to address personally. He felt that after hearing about how the son of his dear cousin lived destitute within these walls for thirteen years and no one aided him. It was his duty as a relative to find out what was going on with the boy's inheritance," Jiraiya said smugly.

This caused an outburst from the civilian Councilors. Many were shouting disbelief at what Jiraiya was saying. One elderly woman stood up, "Jiraiya, to whom are you referring? There are no relations to the Daimyo living within Konoha. We would have known if there were," she said.

Jiraiya put on a look of shock. He just stared at the woman for a full minute. Then he turned to look around the table before focusing on Inoichi. The blonde man was sitting with his head on the table. The blonde man was still very drunk and moving into a hangover. Jiraiya called out to him, "Inoichi, you need to reprimand your daughter. Ino has been back in town for five hours already and someone has not heard the gossip."

Inoichi peeked up with one eye before just lifting his arm up in the air and raising his thumb, "Got it."

Jiraiya looked back to the woman, "Madam Councilor, the person in question is no longer within Konoha. This body decided to throw him out. The boy's name is Uzumaki Naruto, son of Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina, the last member of the royal house of the Land of Whirlpool. We just got back from his wedding to Hyuuga Hinata yesterday."

The silence within the room was so complete they could hear the bugs inside Shibi moving about.

Choza broke the silence by laughing long and loud, "And you idiots threw him out! The son of the Fourth and you threw him out!"

Jiraiya held up his hand for silence once more. "Also, since the Daimyo ordered the payment of Hokage-sama's debts from Konoha funds, we are going to be very tight for cash for the foreseeable future. We need to make a choice. We can pay the ninja or we can pay the workers making repairs in Konoha. But we cannot pay both."

"Surely the missions we get are enough to pay for everything, Jiraiya. The ninja only get a small percentage of each mission's funds as payment," one Councilor said.

"The ninja on that particular mission, yes. But the people on duty as guards, teachers, administrators, and ANBU need to be paid as well. Their pay comes from the pool of money that missions bring in," Jiraiya countered.

Several Councilors were upset at this turn of events. Things should be getting better for them, not worse. Without the workers remodeling their homes being paid by the village they would have to pay the people out of their own pockets for their labor. The ones who had their bank accounts frozen would be unable to do even that much. Even without asking each other, all came to the same conclusion. This was the Brat's fault.

Tsunade relaxed as the last details of the medical shipment to Suna were being finalized. Naruto and Hinata were actually kneeling properly behind her under the observation of Shizune. Hinata was composed and was even able to overcome her nervousness and stutter. Her familiarity with the type of setting allowed her to keep calm and control herself.

Naruto on the other hand needed a lot more help. Even so, it had only taken another flick to the forehead to make Naruto behave. The second finger shaped bruise was still quite visible on his forehead. Hinata sat less than a hand's width distance beside him and talked quietly into his ear.

"Naruto-kun, you shouldn't upset Tsunade-sensei like that. She did ask you once to sit quietly before she was forced to discipline you," she said in comforting tones.

Naruto just grumped as Hinata was on the Old Hag's side in this. He was bored just sitting and waiting. He could at least be allowed to read a jutsu scroll while they sat around. Finally, the time came when they could talk quietly among themselves. "But why do we have to sit here like this while she does everything? Why do we have to just sit and do nothing?" he complained in a whisper.

"By us being here as Tsunade's apprentices, we show the Wind Country respect," Hinata tried to explain.

"But I don't even know this guy. How can I respect someone I don't even know?" Naruto said.

"There are many levels and types of respect, Naruto-kun. By being here, we are showing respect to their country. We may not like the person we are dealing with but our actions show that we respect the authority of the country that person is from has given him. What you show Tsunade-sensei might pass as respect from your view but most people see it as very rude and demeaning," she said in a quiet voice.

Naruto paled slightly. "I wasn't meaning to be rude to her, really I wasn't!"

Hinata smiled slightly, "I know Naruto-kun. No one taught you any better in the past but I can help you if you let me."

Naruto saw the honesty in Hinata's eyes and smiled a small honest smile of gratitude. Hinata blushed lightly in response but with a smile of her own.

Shizune was miffed that this cute scene was being wasted in an area with no cameras allowed.

The diplomat nodded as the last of the papers were signed and taken away. The man excused himself and left the room. Gaara and his siblings entered shortly after that. All three of them looked stern but they sat across from the former Konoha group. Tsunade turned and spoke to Hinata.

"Hinata, come up next to me for this. It is important for you to know everything. We cannot keep a secret of this importance from you. It concerns the true reasons for us leaving Konoha."

Naruto paled slightly but Shizune put her hand on the boy's shoulder to calm him.

Hinata rose gracefully and moved up to Tsunade and sat facing her.

"Hinata, on October 10, thirteen years ago, the Kyuubi no Yoko attacked Konoha. It was stopped by the efforts of the Yondaime Hokage. You know that part from school but it is not the entire truth. The entire truth is that he could not destroy a great beast, only contain one. He along with his wife were forced to seal the beast into a child who had been born that very day; his own son"

Hinata turned to look at Naruto. He looked at her for a moment before closing his eyes and lowering his head.

"For many years, the people in Konoha who knew about this fact were forbidden from speaking of it to the young people who did not know. However, this did not help Naruto. People mistreated him in spite of the Yondaime's desire to see Naruto as a hero and protector."

"The Sandaime would not allow people to abuse the boy so the people who hate with no reason did something just as callus. They shunned him and would not even acknowledge his existence. Trees were given more notice than Naruto was. He grew up alone and unwanted by most of Konoha."

"In his battle to stop Uchiha Sasuke from defecting to Sound, Naruto was forced to tap into the power of the beast to defeat the runaway. That is why he was banished from Konoha. The interim Council still holds sway over some things in Konoha. It was too early in my term as Hokage and their power still overrode my own. I could not prevent his being sent away. But I would not sit by while the very person who convinced me to return was forced to leave. So we have left as well; myself, Shizune and now you and Yuugao with us."

Tonton squealed out her displeasure at being left out.

Tsunade smiled at her precious pig, "Yes, and Tonton as well. The Daimyo decided that he had enough of the power mongers in Konoha trying to expand into regions that are his by right. He might have been a kind and jovial fellow when you met him but he has a will of steel when it comes to people who cross him. His family he treats like family, his friends he treats like friends and his enemies get treated as enemies. Never cross the line to being his enemy. You would not live long if you did."

"I am sure you have some more questions for Naruto. Everyone here already knew his secret except for you. I felt it best that you know why he is looked down upon," Tsunade finished.

Hinata looked over at her husband. The simple explanation answered so much of what she had seen over her years of spying on Naruto. She knew he was not a monster even though some people had called him that. He was a scared and lonely boy who wanted attention. She stood and walked back to Naruto and kneeled in front of him. He looked up and she could see the pain in his eyes. She could forever break his will with a single hateful word right now if she simply uttered it.

She leaned forward and embraced Naruto tightly. It took a few moments but he slowly lifted his arms and hugged her back. Neither one moved from that position for several minutes until she finally let go and sat back.

"All of this time people could not see you, Naruto. They only saw was what you protected us from. I saw you for so long and I am glad that you never gave up," she whispered.

Naruto smiled shakily.

"Does it hurt having the Kyuubi trapped inside of you?" she asked pointing to his stomach.

"No, not really," he replied. "For most of my life I never knew it was even inside of me. It just gives me a lot of energy and heals me a lot faster than most people."

"Can it get out?" Hinata asked a fairly obvious question but one she was worried about.

"It tries to since it woke up after I first used its power. It tries to talk to me, to convince me that it would be a good thing to release it. But I won't let it let out," Naruto said firmly.

"But you could, if you wanted to?" Hinata pressed.

Naruto bit his lip and looked down. This was the hardest part of all.

"If I wanted to … yes … yes I could," he admitted.

Gaara spoke up next. "He is a stronger person than I ever was, Hinata-san. Like him, I was sacrificed to be the holder of a great beast. I had the Sand Spirit, Shukaku, the Ichibi sealed within me as I was born. But I listened to its whispers and grew to hate other people. But where Naruto's father sealed his monster with intent to keep it confined, my father sealed Shukaku inside of me to be a weapon. I have done many evil things before I met Naruto. We met in battle in the invasion during the Chunin Exams and he defeated me. He is the only person ever to do that. In spite of his burden, he never gave in to hatred like I did and he has shown me a better way. Shukaku only has as much power over me as I let it have now."

Hinata was shocked. She had been unconscious during the battle but stories had floated around about massive damage to the forest outside of the village. Many civilians gave the Uchiha credit but anyone who was a ninja gave credit to Naruto. The power of the battle must have been immense and now the boys were good friends. But it also explained her encounter with the red head in the Forest of Death.

Hinata smiled to Gaara who only looked back with a placid stare.

Once all the ritual niceties were done and the group could leave the Wind Country embassy with the Sand Siblings, Naruto was finally able to relax. Tsunade led the group down the road with Shizune at her heel carrying Tonton. Kankuro and Temari walked next. Gaara followed behind them with Naruto and Hinata. Yuugao followed at the rear of the group. Naruto was used to traveling a lot faster than the walking speed and soon was close to making a scene.

Hinata stroked his arm lightly to calm him down. Yuugao closed in behind him and said quietly, "We need to move at a civilian pace in areas we can be seen. We do not want every person passing to know all of us are ninja at first glance. Plus Tsunade is still seen as the Hokage of Konoha so her rushing about would not be taken well right now."

Naruto was about to try to complain again when Yuugao continued, "You also need to look at how your actions affect Hinata, Naruto. She is your wife now and you must keep that in mind before you go doing something rash. Being outspoken is one thing but acting a fool in public where she can be embarrassed is something else entirely."

Naruto paled slightly. He never really considered that point. He was used to just acting out whenever he felt like for the attention it got him; good or bad. Now being married, he had another person to consider beyond his own well-being. He peeked over at Hinata. He might not love her yet but she was his friend and he cared enough that the thought of embarrassing her was not a pleasant one.

Tsunade smiled at the gentle touch of Yuugao on defusing a potential situation while teaching Naruto something at the same time. Yuugao fell back slightly and left Naruto to think about things after that. She noticed him thinking and felt the lesson would be learned best if he thought it over rather than beating it into the boy.

It took the group over two hours of walking to get out of the city and into the outskirts. The forests of the Land of Fire could be seen past the small outlying towns and fields. Naruto felt better being out of the confines of the capital. He could tell the guards had been watching him. Every so often Hinata would smile shyly at him and his heart would flutter. He was not sure about being married being a good or a bad thing yet. He needed time to think over the events of the past few days.

He had family who died the day he was born and not just ninja parents either but to the Fourth Hokage and a real princess for parents. That made him royalty. The Daimyo was his mom's cousin. He was now rich after having to scrape for every bit of cash. Ok, Tsunade was handling the money right now but it was still his. It was a lot to take in all at once.

He would have kept thinking but Tsunade called a halt once the group reached the edge of the forest. Shizune put down Tonton. The dark haired apprentice whispered a few words the pig. Tonton then ran off into the nearby trees. The pig returned and dropped some acorns near Shizune. The small pig ran back and forth into various places around the path and built up an impressive pile over the course of ten minutes. Naruto just looked at Hinata and shrugged his shoulders.

Tsunade turned to her two newest apprentices and got an evil look on her face. "Time to start training, kids. You might not think so but both of you have lousy chakra control. It is nowhere near what is needed to do medical jutsu. Hinata is likely much better with her control but her reserves are far too low right now. Since we cannot stop for hours at a time to train, you will do control exercises as we walk."

Tsunade pointed at the pile of acorns. "Those will be your training tools. By the time I am done with this stage of your training you will both hate acorns with a passion. To begin you will hold acorns on the back of your hands with chakra as we walk. This might not seem like a demanding exercise but don't let it fool you. It requires the amount of concentration and control needed to perform a beginner medical jutsu. You have to hold them in place for a half hour at a time without it falling off."

The Sannin knelt and took a fistful in either hand and held them out to each of her new apprentices. Tonton squealed happily when Tsunade nudged the remaining pile toward her and began to feast.

Hinata just nodded her head and took the acorns Tsunade held out. She placed a seed on the backs of either hand and lowered them to her sides. The acorns stuck as if glued there.

Naruto grinned as he thought the exercise would be easy. He placed one acorn on the back of his hand. He sent some chakra into his hand and the acorn immediately shot off and arced out of sight.

Shizune smiled in her normal way at Naruto. "This is like the tree walked exercise but you need much finer pinpoint control. You flooded your hand with too much chakra and the acorn was repulsed. Just like in the tree walking when you apply too much chakra, you are pushed off the tree."

Naruto nodded slowly as he understood that part of it. He grumbled as he realized this would be a long afternoon.

Two days passed as the small party made their way slowly through the forests of Fire Country. Naruto finally was able to get an acorn to stick to his hand for a total of ten seconds at one point. He was frustrated by his failures but he persistently kept at it. Hinata had mastered the exercise on the first attempt.

In time, the forest thinned and finally disappeared into open range that got drier as they walked. They crossed the border to Wind Country at some point but the only thing to mark it was a line of posts every quarter mile or so. No guards challenged them but they did notice signs of border patrol ninja nearby. Their route became less straight as the towns were built closer to sources of water. Naruto took a look at the map and saw that the next day they would be making a large detour to the north almost to the path the between Konoha and Suna.

The blonde did not want to bother Tsunade since she had given him another forehead flick the day before. He asked Shizune about their course. "Shizune, how come we are traveling so far around this part on the map? It will take days to just walk around it"

Shizune looked at the paper. "The open sand desert starts right in that area. There are few places to get water in that area anymore. The main traffic route goes around the sand on the open range because it has access to water and makes walking easier."

"But there used to be stuff there? I saw a few old signs pointing in that direction and there is even a symbol on it for a town right there." Naruto pointed at the map and if you looked closely you could see an erased mark for a town.

"The sand swallowed it up a long time ago. It was left behind in this area over 50 years ago when some wind users from Suna subdued the Shukaku. The battle extended the desert sands more than 20 miles from its previous point. It wiped entire towns off the map," Shizune said in a low voice.

Gaara heard it anyhow. He tilted his head sideways as if listening. "Yes, that is correct, Shizune. He is complaining about it heavily once you mentioned it. He says he killed over 100 ninja, all jonin level but Suna records only show that 20 died, mainly chunin. The mark on the map is from an old castle town that the sand engulfed during the battle. It had been a major caravan stop as it had extensive fresh water springs and massive cisterns had been built for additional water storage."

Temari spoke up. "It is avoided now because of the land is considered cursed. Not to mention that there is over one hundred feet of loose sand over all the springs and for miles around. It would take too much effort to dig through the sands and the water table is not high enough to let the water form an oasis."

Naruto was grinning as he got a thought. Tsunade knew it would be trouble.

"Well, since we have time to kill by just walking and nowhere to be, how about we go looking for this place? A castle town means it had a treasury and all that stuff just lying around," Naruto said in a devious voice. He hit Tsunade in one of her weak spots. She had a mild case of greed as her gambling debts had showed. The lure of free money was not that easy to pass up.

Tsunade feigned a huff, "Even if we find anything, the Wind daimyo would claim it as his."

Temari had been bitten by the urge to check this place out as well. "Actually, the daimyo has an open reward to anyone who can recover the local treasury for him. The treasury itself is to be returned intact but the rest of the town becomes the property of the people who recover it."

Shizune tried to be the voice of reason. "But if it is so valuable, why hasn't Suna tried to recover it for itself?"

Temari answered, "Because people feel the place is cursed. Do not forget many people of the Wind Country are scared of Shukaku even though it is sealed up. No one wants to be the person who disturbs its last resting place. Many consider it grave robbing in spite of the fact that the majority of the people had fled the town prior to the battle."

"However, I would like to visit the place. I am being drawn to it for some reason. Skukaku is not so pleased with my decision but that just makes my desire to go there increase," Gaara went silent after that.

Shizune huffed as she looked for support to not go on this adventure. Hinata had stood shyly off to one side so Shizune appealed to her. "Hinata, it could be dangerous. Can't you talk Naruto out of this?"

Hinata found herself the center of attention and blushed slightly before answering. "Well, we are all trained ninja and the sand is not really an issue for us. It would be exciting and if it is something we cannot handle, we can just turn around and come back. Plus Gaara-san can control sand and he has the Shukaku sealed inside of him so it would not really be disturbing its resting place."

Tsunade thought about it for a few minutes. No matter what, they didn't have anywhere to be for nearly a week. The route across the sand wouldn't be a problem once Naruto and Hinata got the idea on sand walking with chakra. They would even save nearly three days off their trip by taking the route past the old town. Poking around the ruins for a day would still leave them ahead. Water would not be a problem if Gaara could move enough sand for her to pull some up with a jutsu.

"I say we check it out," Tsunade said at last.

The trip was easier than they had anticipated. The dunes rose up on either side of their path but the Sand Siblings showed the former Leaf ninja the best ways to climb them when needed. Naruto and Hinata took the early part of the sand to master Sand Walking technique. The skill needed was somewhere in difficulty between tree running and water walking. The group made better time once the technique was mastered and the managed to reach the site of the buried town near dusk.

Gaara became worried when the consistency of the sand in the region changed. It became more like dust than true sand but the group had adjusted easily. Kankuro spotted a stick in the sand to one side and the ninja walked over to investigate. The 'stick' turned out to the the flagpole at the top of the buried castle. They had arrived.

Next Chapter: Raiders of the Lost Sandcastle, Part 2

Edited and Reposted January 2011