Chapter 6

Naruto glanced at the scroll on his desk and a small smirk appeared on his face. The guardians had been in the leaf village for almost two whole days now and they were no doubt furious with him. He knew he was being childish but in all honesty the young hokage couldn't care less. His mind began to wander to the subject that had been plaguing him for the past couple of days; Hay Lin. Naruto smiled softly as he again thought about the woman she had became. He wouldn't deny that he still cared about her, but Will's words about the air guardian not belonging in the leaf kept running through his mind.

Naruto's thoughts were cut off when the door swung open and Kiba and Neji stepped into the room.

"You know there's a new thing they invented called knocking," the blonde said glaring slightly at the two of them. "You guys should try it sometime."

"Have the guardians left Naruto?" Nejii demanded, completely ignoring the knocking comment.

In response, the hokage grabbed the scroll and held it up, never taking his eyes off his friends.

Kiba gritted his teeth. "Dang it Naruto! We told you to get them out of here as soon as possible! What part of that didn't you understand?"

Naruto narrowed his eyes as he studied the frustrated and angry expression on the dog ninja's face. "You ran into Elyon didn't you?"

"More like she appeared out of thin air and slapped me as hard as she possibly could," the fanged young man replied crossing his arms over his chest.

"What about you Neji? Have you seen Cornelia recently?" Naruto asked with a slight grin.

The Hyuga genius scoffed and looked away. "As if."

Their friend let out a loud sigh and did a face palm, making a loud smack as he did so. "You guys are impossible! We finally have the chance to have the girls as part of your lives again and you're running away from it!"

"Hey I don't see you running to sweep Hay Lin off her feet!" Kiba cried.

"I'm working on it!" Naruto muttered.

"Cornelia, will you slow down?" Will asked as she and Elyon half ran to keep up with the earth guardian's pace.

"Heck no!" the girl replied. "Naruto has been asking for this for the past two days and oh man is he going to get it!"

The three of them were on their way to Hokage's office to "talk" with Naruto about why the treaty had not been signed already and Cornelia was anxious to get there.

"What exactly are you going to do Cornelia?"Elyon asked. "He's the Hokage. You can't just walk into his office and start beating the crap out of him!"

"Oh yes I can and I will!" the blonde cried as she reached Naruto's door. Using her telekinesis powers the door swung open and Cornelia stomped in.

"Naruto you are so-!" She stopped mid sentence and all the color drained from her face when her eyes locked with Neji's pale ones.

It was dead silent for the next few seconds. Kiba's eyebrows had risen in obvious surprise and Naruto couldn't keep the grin off his face to save his life. Will and Elyon appeared seconds after Cornelia did and once they saw the situation, the redhead shot her brother a look before doing a face palm while the queen and dog ninja glared daggers at each other.

Neji, as much as he tried not to, couldn't help but notice that Cornelia was just as beautiful if not more so then she was when he last saw her. But he didn't care about that anymore. At least that's what he told himself.

"Hello Cornelia." The prodigy said breaking the silence. His voice and face were both emotionless and his eyes were cold as he looked at the woman in front of him.

"Hello Neji," the earth guardian replied, just as cold.

"Well look what majestic royal decided to grace us with her presence, no matter how unwelcome it is," Kiba said scathingly at Elyon.

"Really Kiba?" She asked, both annoyed and angered by his attitude. "You're being so childish."

"Okay guys listen," Will said stepping forward. "Neji, Kiba, the girls and I have something to discuss with Naruto. I would appreciate it if the two of you would leave so we could talk."

The two shinobi narrowed their eyes at Will, but did as she asked and left the room. The second the door shut, Cornelia whipped around, reached Naruto's desk in a single stride and punched him as hard as she could sending the poor man to the floor with a large and resounding thud.

Neji paused slightly when he heard the commotion and shook his head. 'That was most likely Cornelia's doing. She always did have a bit of a violent side to her.'

Naruto groaned as he rubbed the side of head. "I know exactly what that was for so I'm not even going to ask."

"We told you to sign the treaty immediately!" the earth guardian shouted. "What part of that didn't get through that thick skull of yours?"

"Dial it down a bit Cornelia," The queen said placing a hand on her friend's arm.

"Naruto have you even read the scroll at all since we gave it to you?" Will asked her brother.

"Nope," he replied instantly.

"And have you sent the other one to Gaara?"

"Not at all."

"May we ask why?" Elyon asked.

"Why do you think?" the hokage replied.

The redhead sighed. "If you're doing all of this just because you want Hay Lin to stay, I already told you that she doesn't belong here Naruto. She has a life back in Heatherfield, we all do. We have families back there too. Do you really think that we would willingly leave that all behind?"

It was silent for a moment. "You, Hay Lin, and Irma have family here too you know," Naruto said softly.

"It's not that simple Naruto," Cornelia said, much quieter than before.

"Oh and it was five years ago?" He demanded. When none of the girls answered him he let out a deep breath. "What if we make a deal?"

"What kind of deal?" Will asked narrowing her eyes.

"I still can't believe you kissed Irma," Chouji said shaking his head at his best friend.

Shikamaru scowled. "And I can't believe that you and Ino still won't shut up about it."

The Akimichi Head sighed. "Well you have to admit it wasn't a very smart move."

"I know it wasn't! I just wasn't thinking," the genius replied angrily.

Chouji placed a hand on his friend's shoulder. "I know you've missed Irma buddy, and I know you still love her, but it's best to see what she'll do. Who knows maybe she still cares about you."

"I just don't understand why she left in the first place. There has to be something she's hiding," Shikamaru said.

"Don't do anything reckless Shikamaru. It'll end badly for both you and her, so don't take that risk," Chouji said.

"Well what do you think I should do?"

"Wait and see if she comes looking for you. If she does then talk with her and try to clear this whole mess up." With that Chouji stood up and began to walk away. "I gotta now. Ino needs my help at the shop and if I don't show up soon she'll kill me."

Shikamaru forehead furrowed as he thought about his friend's words. He knew there was another possibility that could happen if he just waited on Irma. She might never come to look for him and if she didn't he wouldn't be able to do anything.

Quite frankly, neither of those possibilities suited Shikamaru, but he didn't really have anything else to work with.

The lazy man let out a sigh. "This whole thing is such a drag."

"Well Will, what do you say?" Cornelia asked after Naruto had explained his deal to her, Will, and Elyon.

"I'm okay with it," the keeper replied.

The blonde man smiled. "Thanks guys."

The girls nodded before leaving. "So how do you think she's going to react when she hears about this?" the earth guardian asked.

"Knowing her; not good," Will replied.

"Well at least Naruto gave us his word that he would sign it," the blonde woman said. "That way we'll be getting out of here no matter what happens."

Elyon however was thinking about something entirely different. 'Why does Kiba act so cold towards me? I knew that when he found out I was a queen there would be some reaction, but I sure wasn't expecting something like this? There has to be something else going on.'

Determined to find out what Kiba's problem was the queen decided that she would later seek out Hinata and Shino to see if they could shed any light on the situation.

In the apartments, Taranee glanced at Irma and shook her head. "Are you going to be like this for the rest of the time we're here?"

"I just can't stop thinking about Shikamaru!" the water guardian cried. "Ugh why did that idiot have to kiss me?"

The two guardians were alone as Hay Lin had gone off to Ichiraku's for some ramen and were discussing their love lives. Or former love lives anyway.

"So Taranee have you thought about going to see how Lee is doing?" Irma asked.

The fire guardian sighed. "I don't know what exactly I'm going to do about that. I mostly want to play it safe and hide out here."

Her friend smiled. "You know once you get past the hair, eyebrows, and spandex, Lee's a really sweet guy."

"Yeah I know," Taranee said with a small smile. "It doesn't matter if I want to see him though. He probably doesn't want anything to do with me anymore."

"You don't really believe that do you?" the brunette asked her friend.

"I don't know," The dark skinned girl said. "Lee and I didn't even go on a first date. He just told me that that he wanted to be with me, asked me to be his girlfriend, and then I kissed him. That doesn't even qualify as a freaking relationship!"

"Do you still care about him though?" Irma asked. "I mean I hate that I do, but I still care about Shikamaru and I know Hay Lin still has some issues concerning Naruto, but what about you?"

"Irma this is-" Taranee was cut off by a knock at the door. The two girls looked at each other with panicked looks.

"You go get it," the water guardian said nudging her friend.

"I'm not going to get it, you go get it!" the fire guardian cried.

Another knock came and Irma began to panic.

"What if it's Shikamaru?" Irma asked. "I can't answer it. Taranee you do it please."

Seeing how freaked out her friend really was, the dark haired girl jumped from the couch and went over to open the door. When she saw who it was, her heart may as well have stopped.

"L-Lee?" Taranee stuttered.

"Hello Taranee," the spandex wearing man replied, looking very nervous.

"Bushy brow?" the blue eyed girl asked coming to the door. "What the heck are you doing here?"

"I heard that you and the others were back and I wanted to talk with Tarane," Lee explained.

Irma glanced at Taranee as she waited for her friend's answer. After several seconds, the fire guardian nodded. "Okay."

Lee smiled a little and nodded politely to Irma as he and Taranee walked away. The water queen looked after them and shook her head. "Oh man we're screwed."

"I know you must be surprised to see me," the taijutsu master said as the former couple continued their walk.

"Yeah a little," Taranee honestly replied. "What was it that you wanted to talk about?"

"I wanted to see how you were doing. It has been five years after all," he said with a grin.

The girl couldn't help but smile back. "I've been fine. How about yourself?"

"I have been given the opportunity to join the ANBU recently. Neji is an ANBU already," Lee explained.

"Good for you guys," Taranee said. Then she sighed. "Lee, I…I just want to say that I'm sorry about what happened five years ago."

"I am sorry as well."

"And I wanted to thank you for getting me to that medic in time to remove the poison when I was stabbed," she added with a smile.

The green beast smiled in return, trying to ignore the way his heart was beating. The fire guardian had become a lovely young woman over the past five years. She'd gotten slightly taller and her hair was now waist length. He would not deny that he still wanted to be with the girl in front of him, but he was not about to force her if she didn't feel the same.

"Taranee I should tell you that there is no need for you to be uncomfortable around me. I would like for us to be friends again if that is possible," Lee said.

Taranee stopped and looked up at him in amazement. "You really want us to be friends?"

"Yes I do. If you have to leave again soon then I want us to be on better terms with each other this time."

"I would like that very much," the dark skinned girl replied. "Now what would you say to hug?"

Lee smiled and immediately wrapped his arms around Taranee in a friendly embrace. After a few seconds he pulled back and was surprised to see a look of slight confusion on her face.

"Taranee what is the matter?"

"Nothing Lee. Um I should be getting back. Irma's probably wondering what's taking so long. I guess I'll see you later then," Taranee said quickly turning around and leaving the man behind her.

It took Lee all he had to not run after her.

The fire goddess walked away she closed her eyes willing herself to not look back. The second Lee had hugged her she had remembered the night of her first mission and how the shinobi had kept her in a protective embrace for almost the whole night. At the time she had been thrilled to have his arms around her because she had been falling for him and now those emotions were rushing back to her all over again.

'Oh this is special,' she thought sarcastically.

Hay Lin smiled as she swallowed the last bit of her ramen. 'Man Ichiraku's ramen is without a doubt the best!'

The old man and Ayame had been surprised that she was back, but were glad to see her none the less and had given her a free bowl of ramen.

"Hey Hay," Will said sitting down next to her.

"What are you doing here? I thought you, Elyon, and Cornelia went to see Naruto," the air guardian said.

"We did and he will sign the treaty," the keeper said.

Hay Lin raised her eyebrow in surprise. "He's willingly going to sign it? How hard did Cornelia hit him?"

"We actually made a deal with him," Will explained.

The black haired girl began to feel a little nervous. "What kind of deal?"

The redhead hesitated before she sighed. "He'll only sign the treaty if you talk with him."

END OF CHAPTER