Day 8:

-Thunder country

Zuso crawled out of his tent, walking barefoot across the damp grass. He looked out across the horizon, "Beat you again." It was the third straight day that he had risen before the sun. He walked to the edge of the camp, "Looks like they didn't make proper fortifications last night… not that anyone is going to attack a group of 16 ninjas." He pulled out a picture of Iria, looking her over closely. "I can't believe we let her slip through our fingers. A group of 16 bounty hunters and we failed to capture a target that was right in front our faces. That said, I didn't expect her to be with another ninja, our client failed to mention that." Zuso walked into the center of the camp and placed his fingers in his mouth, letting out a whistle that would've woken the dead if there had been any near by.

His group of bounty hunters came to life, filing out of their tents and forming a triangle around Zuso. He looked them over, their jet black uniforms gleaming in the morning light. He held up the picture of Iria, making sure everyone got a good look.

"This is our target." He paused, making sure everyone get a good look.

"We let her get away from us once, it can't happen again. If anyone sees her, alert the rest of your group, then keep her in your sight, don't attempt to capture her until backup arrives." He paused again,

"Does anyone know why she got away last time?" Someone spoke up,

"I would guess genjutsu, or a disguise. Otherwise we would've seen her. The chaos of all those guards running around didn't help either."

Zuso smiled, "You're correct. And how will we make sure that doesn't happen again?"

No one spoke. Zuso smiled, "I guess that's why I'm the brains of the operation." He held up four shiny metallic balls. "I received these from our client. According to them, they will let out a low humming noise if Iria is with a 300 foot radius. The noise will grow louder as you approach her. I'm not entirely sure how this works, but our client has assured me that they will work. I'll keep one for myself and give one to each lieutenant. Each lieutenant will take 4 people with him and search the town. For this mission we'll wear street clothes instead of our standard black gear, we don't want to stand out. We'll break up into groups now and move towards the town, regrouping tonight if we haven't found her."

One of the bounty hunters spoke up, "Is the thunder country going to come after us? We did attack one of their border guards."

"I paid them off. They won't aid us in our search but they won't hinder us either." Zuso looked around, making sure everyone was ready.

"Move out!"

-Lyra's apartment

The pigeon caught Lyra's eye when it was still several hundred feet away. She watched it fly towards her, descending onto her window sill then pecking at the frame to be let in. She cranked open the window and quickly removed the note attached to his leg. "Your services are not needed today, but they will be tomorrow, come at noon."

"At least he doesn't waste words, although I was hoping for better words, preferably something to take my mind off of the current situation. Or at least a better explanation of what's going on." She sighed deeply, "Maybe I can just sleep till noon tomorrow, I really don't feel like thinking about my current situation anymore." She walked over to her bed and collapsed onto it, closing her eyes and lying still for several minutes. "This is pathetic, I should get up and deal with the situation."

Lyra rolled out of bed. "Wow it smells terrible in here." She spent the next several hours cleaning, finally stopping when the entire apartment was spotless. "Guess I should work myself into hysteria more often." She breathed deeply, "I feel much better now. Alright, time to feel positive, absolutely nothing but extremely positive thoughts for the rest of the day." She smelled her arm pits, "I guess this new body still has B.O., that's something familiar."

She stepped into the bathroom and undressed, starring in the mirror as she waited for the water to warm up. "This body is sort of pretty, in an alien kind of way. It's also much stronger than my old body, moving the couch used to take effort, now I can practically move it with one arm" She stepped into the shower and began her usual routine, filling her hand with shampoo and placing it in her hair. "O right… this body doesn't have hair, that's gonna take a while to get used to…" She closed her eyes and took several deep breaths. "Only think happy thoughts… no bad thoughts, only happy thoughts." She looked down, "I always wished for bigger boobs when I was younger." Lyra pictured her teenage self, looking in the mirror with her shirt off, wishing her miniscule boobs would grow several bra sizes, which they never did. "And now I have them, giant blue breasts. Although I don't remember asking for the blue part." She sank her hand into her right breast, "Feels more or less human. It's smoother and more elastic feeling, definitely a bit heaver too. But other than that, they feel pretty human. Well, except for being blue." She sighed, "Only happy thoughts. They're perfect, just what I always wanted." Lyra soaped up the rest of her body and stepped out of the shower, her mood much improved.

-Thunder country

Iria burst into the room, rousing Zeke from his sleep.

"You're up early."

She rushed up to him, whispering in his ear, "I think I'm being followed."

His face grew serious. "By who? Are you sure?"

"No, I'm not sure, but I'm fairly certain. I went to a nearby inn to see if I could get directions to a bigger city. I figured it would be easier to gather information on the Blue Novas and possibly communicate with them to clear my name if we were in a larger city. While I was talking to the innkeeper, I noticed someone staring at me. Not just a quick glance but intent staring. After I left the inn, I saw him walking several hundred feet behind me, but there were two other people with him. They vanished several minutes later and I haven't seen them since."

"It's not clear that he was following you but we should probably get out of here just in case."

"I agree."

"Any idea where we should go?"

"Yeah, the inn keeper said we will reach Kiri if we head thirty miles north, we could make the trip in one day probably. It's much larger than this village and we could probably find someone capable of establishing contact with Konoha."

"Sounds like a good enough plan for the moment. We should leave immediately." He paused, "If you were being followed, do you have any idea who was following you? From your description it sounds like it wasn't a member of the Blue Novas."

"No it definitely wasn't. It could be a mercenary, bounty hunter, assassin or anyone else they hired. I don't want to stay around and find out."

"Agreed."

Iria peered out the window, looking to see if anyone was outside the inn. "I don't see anybody, we should leave now."

They walked out the door, heading away from the inn. Their pace was faster than a walk but just slow enough that it didn't draw attention.

Zeke whispered to Iria, "We should stay on main streets, try to blend in with the crowd. At least until we're sufficiently far away from this city."

They spent the next fifteen minutes traveling towards the north gate of the village, trying to avoid wide open spaces where they would be easy to spot. Iria suddenly grabbed Zeke's arm, pulling him into an alley.

"I just saw one of them, he's by the gate we have to exit through."

Zeke peered out.

"He's the one with blonde hair and a blue shirt, standing right next to the left post of the gate, he's kinda tall."

"I see him. He isn't moving around much, looks like he's staying put at the gate."

"We can't leave that way if he is there. Can you do something about him? They are only looking for me, they don't know who you are."

"I could take him out, but not without someone seeing, it's too crowded."

Both of them were silent as they thought.

Zeke turned to her, "I could bunshin myself into you, try to draw him away. When he is gone you slip out the gate. Start heading down the road and I'll catch up to you."

"And how are you going to get away?"

"I'll get out of sight then return to normal form."

Iria took a deep breath. "Alright let's do it."

Zeke looked her over then used illusion jutsu to make himself look like her. "Head towards the gate about a minute after I leave."

Zeke casually walked towards the gate, getting to within 100 feet of the suspected pursuer. The man suddenly noticed him. He began following Zeke, making sure he stayed a good distance away. Zeke continued walking away from the gate, drawing him at least 1000 feet away. "He took the bait. Iria was right about being followed. Just a few more minutes then I'll lose him and go meet up with Iria."

Zeke continued leading him on, drawing him farther and farther away from Iria and the gate. "This should be enough time." He ducked into an alley, undid the illusion jutsu and then joined a crowd on the other side of the alley. "They'll never suspect a thing." Zeke jogged back to where he and Iria had been hiding, "Good, she left. Time to go meet up with her." Zeke jogged to the gate and left the city, heading down the road at a decent clip. "I'll catch up to her in no time."

As Zeke continued to run the small huts and shops around him slowly gave way to even smaller huts and shops, then nothing at all. "I must be at least 3 miles away from the village, I haven't seen another person for several minutes." He sat down on a rock, looking at the vast expanse of wilderness around him. "Did Iria really travel this far? She should've stopped sooner so I could catch up. Guess I should get moving again." Zeke continued his search, running down the road for almost half an hour.

"Something's wrong. I should have caught up to her a long time ago. Did she stray off the road? That seems unlikely, she knows I won't be able to find her if she does that." Zeke turned around 360 degrees, scanning his surroundings for any possible clues. "Where could she be?" Panic was slowly starting to set in. "Should I go back to the village? Maybe she couldn't exit out the gate. It's possible she is still there." Zeke wasn't very convinced but he didn't have any better ideas. He turned around and started jogging back towards the city, moving almost at a run this time.

Even though he was in incredible shape, having run over 10 miles was beginning to wear on Zeke, he stopped by the side of the road to catch his breath, looking at the outskirts of the village. "Just about there." He closed his eyes, taking one last breathe before he continued.

A kunai suddenly flew by his head, even though his eyes were closed he could hear it coming. He instinctively took cover behind a tree, looking for the unknown assailant.

"Who's there?!" No one responded.

"I see you! Come out or I'll attack!" Silence filled the air. "Is it possible that wasn't aimed at me?" He suddenly saw the thrown kunai buried in a tree several feet away. "It has a note attached." He rushed over, pulling the note off the kunai.

"We have your friend. Come to the meeting point if you want to negotiate for her." The letter was signed "Zuso" Attached was a map showing the location of the meeting point. It was only half a mile away from Zeke's current location.

"Should I go? This is probably a trap. That said… it sounds like they have Iria." He sighed, "I should just return to Danzo, rescuing her isn't my job. But I can't do that. Ugh, I'm too nice for my own good." He took off through the forest, heading to the meeting point.

-Naruto's apartment

Knock, knock. Naruto walked over to the door,

"Come in."

Sakura walked in, "Is Miranda here?"

"No, she is gone and won't be back for a few hours."

"Good."

Naruto looked her over. "I was expecting you to be furious, you seem surprisingly calm."

"I was furious for a while, but it wore off." She sighed, "You make my life a lot harder by doing stuff like this. Miranda is an unknown outsider, possibly sent by another village. You were supposed to watch over her, not have sex with her. The village elders probably won't be that surprised by your lack of judgment, but it will reflect very badly on me for leaving her with you."

"She came onto me, so it wasn't my fau.." Sakura's glare stopped him midsentence.

"I'm sorry." He looked down, "But I really don't think she is a spy, whenever the high ups decide it is safe to release her, I'm sure she'll just leave and never be heard from again." The thought of that made Naruto visibly sad.

"I don't think she is up to anything either, but that isn't for us to judge. Inoichi still thinks she is suspicious. You can't continue to act in ways that could reflect badly on my judgment. I have spent years getting into the good graces of our superiors, so try not to ruin all that hard work."

Naruto sighed, "I'm sorry." He looked at her, "It'll be hard, but I promise that I won't betray your trust."

Sakura was silent. After a few moments she finally spoke, "When I first found out, I was furious. I was ready to drag you out of your apartment and report you to the hokage. When I calmed down, I realized that I was mainly upset because you're able to have fun and act impulsively, something that I have never been able to do. It was mainly jealousy feeding my anger more than being angry at you for having sex with Miranda."

Naruto couldn't think of anything to say. He settled for putting his arm over her, pulling her into him.

She finally pulled away, "It's alright, I'm not all that depressed." She turned to him and smiled, "So how did you manage to get such an immaculate human specimen into bed with you?"

Now it was Naruto's turn to smile, "Blonde's always have more luck attracting the opposite sex."

Sakura laughed.

-Thunder country

Zeke was only a few hundred feet away from the meeting point. He looked at the clearing from afar, "doesn't look like anybody is there. This is definitely a trap. I'm strong though, I'll be able to handle myself if they try anything."

He walked the final several hundred feet to the meeting point, looking for traps the entire time. As soon as he emerged into the clearing a ninja garbed entirely in black emerged from the brush, surrounded by two others wearing street clothes. Zeke recognized one of the two as the ninja that had been standing watch by the gate.

Zeke spoke up, "Prove to me that you have her."

The ninja in black spoke up. "We're in a position of power, not you."

He paused, "Look up at that cliff; at the edge of it you can see eight of my men with your friend. She was quite a doozy to restrain, fought harder than just about anyone I've ever seen. Fortunately it was pretty deserted outside the village; otherwise half the thunder country would know there was a kidnapping by now."

Zeke looked up, he could see nine people on the edge of the cliff, eight of them looked to be restraining a silhouette that resembled Iria.

"Doesn't look like he's lying."

"So what do you want?"

"We're a group called"

Zeke interrupted, "I know who you are. You're Zuso, also known as the night fang. You're listed in the bingo book as an extremely dangerous criminal ninja."

"I'm flattered. More to the point, we have your friend and our client will pay a lot of money for her. They prefer alive, but dead is acceptable, which should tell you what will happen to her if they get their hands on her."

"He must be working for the Blue Novas."

"So why are you talking to me?"

"Standard procedure for all kidnappings. If you can outbid our client we'll give her to you instead."

"So what's your price?"

"800 gold pieces. And before you try to do something stupid like rescue her instead of paying, remember that you can't take me one on one let alone me and a dozen other ninja."

Zeke knew he was right. "Shit, I can't possibly come up with that money or rescue Iria, what do I do?"

Trying to buy himself time, "So how did you capture her? You had no way to know where she was, and restraining her couldn't have been easy either"

"None of your business."

"Well that didn't buy much time."

"I can come up with the money in one week, maybe even more than 800."

"You can give it to our client, maybe they will sell you her corpse for that much. You have four hours, if you don't have it by then we're taking her to our client. And don't try to contact the authorities. That will end badly for your female friend."

Zuso and his minions left the clearing.

"Shit."

Zeke collapsed onto a tree stump, "I don't think I can prevent them from handing her over."

He looked up at the cliff, "Really don't see anyway out of this."

"Could I get the money from Root? No, that won't work, I can't contact them fast enough and Danzo would never give me so much money for a cause that doesn't benefit Root. Unless bringing her to Root would benefit Root somehow, give them leverage against the Blue Novas. No… that would be out of the pot and into the fire for Iria."

He looked up at the cliff again.

"This will probably get me killed, but I don't have any choice other than attacking them. I can free her and hopefully the two of us can defeat them. Which I doubt will happen. O well, such is the life of those with a conscience, although I'm rather surprised that mine is acting up so strongly over her."

Zeke walked into town to buy supplies, a plan slowly forming in his head. When all his supplies were bought, he waited an hour then made for the cliff, his fake money bag slung over his shoulder.

-Top of the cliff

Zuso smiled as he saw Zeke approaching him, escorted by four ninjas.

"Count the money, make sure he isn't a single gold piece under 800."

"You can't see it until I make sure that Iria is safe."

"Fine. Take him over to her but don't let him get close."

The ninjas escorted Zeke over to Iria. As he approached he could see ropes attaching her ankles and wrists to nearby boulders. There were eight ninja around her, each with their scimitars pointing at her. The look of despair on Zeke's face made Zuso smile.

"Count the money."

One of the ninjas opened the bag and looked in, "Not sure if it's 800, but it's a lot." He reached into the bag and started pulling gold coins out. Zuso looked over at Zeke. "He's trying to distance himself from the bag…" The wheels in Zuso's brain were turning furiously, he knew something was up.

"Boss, most of these aren't real."

"Get away from the Bag!"

Just as Zuso finished his sentence the bag exploded, killing the ninja standing over it and sending five more off the side of the cliff. Zuso braced himself, avoiding being knocked off his feet. He dashed towards Zeke, who had already severed two of the ropes holding Iria. The ninja guarding her had been knocked off their feet by the blast, six of them were swarming all over Zeke, trying to restrain him. The only thing preventing Zeke from being pinned to the ground was Iria's biotics hampering the ninja. It was clearly taking most of their chakra control to resist being thrown off the cliff.

Zuso reached Zeke, knocking him to the ground and slamming his clenched fist into his face. Zuso continued to pummel Zeke, Iria was clearly trying to get him off, but Zuso's chakra was too strong, she could only slow him down a bit. Zeke managed to roll out from under him, drawing a kunai.

Zuso barked orders to his underlings, "Deal with her, I can handle this one!" He rushed at Zeke with his scimitar drawn, parrying his kunai then spinning around and swinging at Zeke's neck. Zeke dodged, then dealt Zuso a vicious kick to the stomach, knocking him off balance and sending him several feet backwards. "He's stronger than I expected. But not strong enough."

Zuso rushed at him, faking a swing. The fake swing had its desired effect, Zeke stabbed forward with his kunai. Zuso grabbed the kunai with his bare hand, releasing a torrent of blood as Zeke tried to rip the kunai free. Zuso sank his scimitar into Zeke's leg, pushing it all the way to the bone. He could see Zeke grimacing as he slid the scimitar down his leg, opening a massive gash as the blade scraped against his femur.

Zuso suddenly lost his balance, falling to one knee. He stood up then fell again as he tried to gain his balance, "What the hell is this?" A deafening crack sounded, followed by several smaller ones. "The top of the cliff is breaking off." Zuso whipped his head around to Iria, her eyes were glowing white as blue light emitted from her entire body. Another crack, even louder than the last one. And then the top of the cliff broke off.

Zuso was free falling, the trees below coming ever closer. He frantically tried to use chakra to grip the side of the cliff, hoping to stop his fall. He couldn't stop the fall but he did slow himself. Zuso hit the ground, immediately losing consciousness.

-Several miles away

Zeke woke up. The ground was moving below him.

"Iria is carrying me."

"Where am I…?" He clutched at his leg, suddenly becoming aware of an overwhelming pain.

"Don't worry you're safe. We're several miles away from the cliff, I don't think we're being followed."

"My leg, I think it's broken."

"I can't help you right now, I'll look at it when we find somewhere safe to stop."

Zeke blacked out.

-Naruto's apartment

Naruto pushed open the door, walking into his apartment. He threw his sweat soaked shirt on the floor then dumped his shoes and socks on top of it. "I haven't trained that hard for a long time." His legs felt gimpy as he entered the bathroom and turned on the water. He stepped into the ice cold water, not waiting for it to warm up. He closed his eyes and sighed, letting the cold water run down his back.

"Did the shower curtain just open?"

"Hey there." Miranda wrapped her arms around his chest. Naruto jumped, his eyelids flying open.

"Where did you come from?"

She kissed his neck, "I hid in the closet when I heard you coming."

"That's a very stalkerish thing to do."

"I prefer to be called a surprise lover, stalker suggests that you don't want it." She wrapped her fingers around his shaft.

"Miranda, we can't do this anymore."

"We can't? Why not?" She kissed his neck.

"Because… we just can't. We have to stop."

He felt Miranda's lips wrapping around his shaft. He opened his eyes just in time to watch his shaft disappear between her crimson red lips.

"Miranda" His voice was quivering, "We really can't do this, I mean it."

She responded by swirling her tongue around his shaft.

"I guess there is no way Sakura or anyone else will find out about this."

He looked down, watching his shaft slide in and out of her mouth. He placed his hands on her head, running his fingers through her hair.

The warm feeling of her slippery soft tongue sliding up down and around his cock just about drove Naruto over the edge. As she looked up and made eye contact with him he began lightly thrusting into her mouth, increasing the pleasure even more.

After several minutes he could feel himself coming close. Miranda apparently sensed it too, she pulled off and stood up, wrapping her arms around the small of his back.

"Take me."

Naruto lined his tip up with her opening, pushing inside. He watched her cameltoe spread apart as the entirety of his shaft slid inside.

"You're so warm and soft inside." He sunk his fingers into her butt cheeks, gripping as he pumped in and out. Miranda wrapped her arms around his shoulders, lifting up her legs and wrapping them around his waist. Naruto was now supporting her entire weight, lifting her up and down to slide his shaft in and out of her. Miranda moaned as his shaft slid in and out, the two of them going at it for several minutes. Miranda looked up at the ceiling, her breathing speeding up as she felt herself approaching the point. They came at the same time, gripping each other tightly as they did.

Several hours later they fell asleep, Naruto's arm over her back as they lay in his bed.