Author's Note: It is I and I have returned from a long spell of… heck I'm just lazy and afraid of the science side of this story. Well anyways here is Chapter 2 and I must apologize for the long wait. I'll try to avoid that next time….
Please Read and REVIEW! They keep me motivated. Especially the ones that tell me that they're getting telling me to get with it.
Temari exited the Konoha airport terminal with little vigor as she silently made her way to the baggage claim. After a long flight she was happy to be back on land and ready to jump onto action. Normally she didn't mind flying but, truth be told, she didn't really want to be here right now knowing that her skills as both a CEO of her family's company and a crime fighter was better being used in Suna than here in this city. The sooner she completed this task the sooner she could get back to where she belonged. Once to the baggage claim area she immediately spotted a sharply dressed woman with platinum blonde hair wrapped in a stylish loose bun. Her crystal blue eye scanned the area- seemingly looking for someone in specific and was holding a small sign that read: "Ms. Sabaku" in perfect penmanship. It didn't take Temari long to deduce that this woman must be her escort to Nara Labs. Temari briskly walked toward the young woman with a trained stride of unparalleled confidence. Years of bilingual lessons kicked in as she switched into their language.
"I am Temari Sabaku and you are my escort to the facility I presume?" The young woman turned and her eyes widened momentarily as she took in Temari but her look of shock quickly turned into a perfect, if not a bit forced, smile.
"Yes, Miss Sabaku. Hello, my name is Yamanaka Ino and I am indeed your escort today. I hope your plane ride was comfortable." She chirped cheerfully. Too cheerfully.
Temari shrugged, "as comfortable as a long plane ride could be I suppose."
"That's nice," she commented, as if she didn't really care what Temari's response was either way. " If you'll excuse me a moment." She brought up a highly technical computer pad and pressed a couple of objects on the touch screen. "Kiba."
"Ye-" A voice on the other end began.
"Miss Sabaku is here. Bring the limo around."
"All-" He was quickly cut off by Ino who curtly ended the message.
"Shall we collect your bags?"
Giving a silent nod she turned to the conveyor belt and the two women watched as the passenger bags began to rotate out of the wall, circling in a rotating arch. As others began to pick up their possessions and leaving Ino took this time to hail an airport employee with a cart to carry Temari's luggage to the limo and after what seemed like an unusually long time, placing the uneasy feeling of lost bags in the back of her mind. Eventually Temari's luggage finally began to pull around and she pointed them out to the airport employee. He grabbed her luggage immediately and began to place them on the luggage cart.
"That's all of them." Temari stated.
Ino eyed the two bags on the cart suspiciously. "One large suitcase and a duffel bag? That's all you brought with you?" She asked incredulously.
"That's all I need." Temari replied nonchalantly. She even felt, personally, that she had over packed.
"My shoes would take up the large suitcase alone."
"Very interesting. Will we be leaving for the labs now or what?"
"The labs? Don't you want to go to your hotel and freshen up a bit first?"
"I'd rather get started immediately. I can "freshen up" later." Temari stated, quickly turning and heading to the pickup entrance with Ino and the baggage man in a rushed tow. Once outside she noticed the black limo parked in front with a young man with wild looks dressed in a driver's suit waiting outside.
"Kiba!" Ino exclaimed as she exited the building. "Hurry and get the bags. We're heading back to the labs."
"What about the hotel?" The man revealed to be Kiba asked.
"Change of plans. She wants to go the labs."
"Man, all right." He opened the door for both Temari and Ino to enter the limo, closing it behind them.
"Would you like a drink?" Ino asked courteously.
"No."
"All right. So, are you excited to be in Konoha? We are quite the tourist attraction."
"Not particularly."
"Have you ever been here before?"
"A few years back."
"Business then too?"
Temari irritable waved off her question. She had a long day, had a headache and Ino's chipper voice was not helping. Ino apparently took the hint and stayed silent. Temari heard the driver enter and they began to pull away from the airport. Once at a decent cruising speed Temari looked around for the button to bring the windows down wanting some fresh wind to circulate in the car.
"Can we roll down these windows?"
"No." Ino replied curtly.
An hour in and she's all ready made a friend. Garra would be so proud.
For a long while all Temari did was look out the windows as they drove by while Ino typed away on her computer pad. Looking out the car window Temari watched as they made their way through the busy streets at an unusually slow speed and it wasn't long before they came to a complete stop. Ino huffed as she punched a button next to her seat.
"Is there a problem?"
The chauffeur's voice came through to the back via speaker. "It looks as if we hit a traffic jam. Sorry ladies- looks like it might take a while."
Temari sighed and sunk into her seat.
"Do you see what's causing it?" Ino asked curiously.
There was a short pause. "Nope." Suddenly a quick bark was heard on the other side of the speaker. Temari raised an eyebrow to Ino who looked increasingly annoyed.
"Kiba… please tell me you didn't bring that mutt with you?"
"Akamaru isn't hurting anything. He likes to ride in the limo with me."
Ino opened her mouth in protest but a sudden crash outside drew everyone's attention away. In didn't even take a second before Temari was outside the car scanning her surroundings ahead. Further down the road she saw the commotion. A lone young man with spiky blonde hair stood proudly atop a well-groomed Porsche wearing a white trench coat and facing a worn middle-aged man. Temari couldn't tell what they were saying from this distance but it was obvious that there was some sort of pursuit involved between the two and the younger man had checkmate.
Temari then noticed the beaten man pulled out what looked to have been a small bomb. Her eyes widened by the fact that curious civilians surrounded the area. Multitudes of the young man's image began to appear all around the crowded street. Many things began to work at the same time. One copy grabbed the man from behind while another ripped the bomb from the man's hand, tossing it to the original on the Porsche. While all this was occurring the many other copies were busy, quickly grabbing the bystanders and moving them away. The original jumped down from the car and broke the window with the hand holding the bomb. The Porsche then exploded in a loud, thunderous burst catching him in the sudden explosion.
The ground rippled beneath Temari as she watched on. As the dust settled the once beautiful car laid now in ruin as the windows and doors are completely blown off and the outside was now warped and charred. The immediate surrounding area also didn't fare well as the cars surrounding had their windows blasted out and covered in thick dents. The closest building had metal debris lodged in its side and the door is halfway gone. She quickly searched for any signs of the original anywhere in the area but all she could see were the copies that quickly vanished from sight in a puff of smoke.
"Ms. Temari," Kiba said as he grabbed her arm. "I need you to get back in the car. It's not safe out here."
"What about him?" Temari replied. "That was Naruto right? We need to make sure he's okay. I'm going over there."
"I'm sorry, Ms. Temari but I can't let you do that." Kiba responded as he pulled her slightly to the limo. "I have to get you to where you need to be safely and right now this isn't the best place to be right now. He'll be fine- trust me. This is nothing for him."
Temari knew she could easily overpower him and do as she wished but that would most likely make her look suspicious and that was the last thing she needed as the new temporary liaison for Gaara. Surly Naruto was fine. He wouldn't be much of a crime fighter to be taken down so easily. She knew a bit about him, as he is one of the "better known" heroes of their time.
He grew up here in Konoha as an orphan and apparently didn't have that great of a childhood according to the news. Though he made the best of what he was given and held the desire to be great and protect this city the best he could. Somewhere in his childhood he discovered that he had a special ability that enabled him to create a vast amount of duplicates. He is also decently fast and strong for a person and those combinations gave him the ability to become what he always wanted to be: Konoha's protector. Oddly enough he broke the common trait of a secret identity and has always had his true self out in the open, never once hiding whom he really was. Temari thought the notion was ludicrous as the idea of everyone knowing who she was and what she did everywhere she went tiring- but Naruto seemed to love it.
Temari reentered the limo and took her seat across Ino who looked increasingly nervous.
"Too much excitement for you?" Temari asked amused.
"I prefer things to go a bit more smoothly. This doesn't exactly give the best impression of Konoha, does it?"
"Lighten up Ino." Chided Kiba. "Geez, when did you get so high strung all of a sudden."
"What an interesting chauffer," Temari thought with a smirk. "Did these two used to date or something?"
"I happen to have a lot of responsibilities Kiba and having to deal with you isn't helping my concentration. Now can we please get going? I'd like to get to the labs as soon as possible. I'm starting to get a headache."
"All right, all right." Kiba said as he closed the door. "But we're probably going to be stuck here a bit longer, but it looks like we can turn on the next intersection if we can get over.
"That's fine." Ino replied. She sighed as she turned to Temari. "I'm sorry for my outburst earlier."
"It's all right. A bomb just went off a block over I'm sure it was quite unnerving for a lot of people."
"Right, but I guess I can take this time to give you your id and explain lab protocols."
"That sounds good."
Ino reached into her bag and pulled out a small envelope. Opening she pulled out a scan card id on a clip with Temari's picture on it with the Nara Lab logo on it which just reminded her of the "prohibition sign" with Nara Labs written underneath it.
"There you go. This will get you into the facility and most low level areas by yourself; I suggest you don't lose it, but for the most part you will need to be escorted by myself or another at all times. I hope you understand."
"I understand. Top secret and things."
"Yes, I have access to most levels but we'll have to be let into the laboratories by someone with the proper authorization. All the laboratories have retina and thumbprint reorganization that I can't bypass.
Ino glanced out the window to check their progress. "We should be there shortly. We have a couple of more things to go over and we'll be all set.
The limo pulled down the long driveway that led to the large building beyond. They slowed to a stop when they reached a security booth. They were there for a moment as she presumed Kiba was speaking with the guards. After the moment passed they continued on until the reached the entrance to the building. Kiba promptly stopped the limo, exited, and opened the door for her an Ino to exit.
"Welcome to Nara Labs Ms. Sabaku." Ino greeted with her practiced smile as she ushered Temari towards the door.
The walked passed the watchful guards and through the automated doors into the rotunda. It was simple, yet sleek. A number of elevators moved up the walls and in the ceiling was tall and looking up she could see a large skylight letting in natural light.
"What do you think?" Ino asked.
"It's nice, but the complex does not look like it holds all of the facilities you claim it does. It's large to be certain but is this enough space to conduct research on all of your fields of study?"
Ino smiled and motioned Temari to follow her to a terminal near the front desk. "This place is larger than in appears Ms Temari. What you saw as we pulled up are mostly offices, meeting rooms, and other facilities for the staff members. As you may also know that though this is the main scientific facility there are other Nara Labs in the Fire Country that focus on other projects."
Ino pressed a button that brought up a holoprojection of the building and showed where they where by a yellow point at the entrance. "This is the directory. We have these terminals scattered at main intersections throughout the facility. They show where you are and each of the upper levels. You can select each level specifically and it will give you the layout of that level." As she explained this she switched the view to reflect her explanation. "And by pressing this you pull up the laboratories." A large view of multiple levels appeared. "These are located underground. Because of how large the lower laboratories are we can only view detailed sections in portion. There are twenty-three levels below the rotunda. The farther down you get the higher the security or importance of the project."
"Impressive," Temari observed honestly. "Which level is our project located?"
"Nineteen."
"Nineteen? Really? I was hoping to be at least in the twenties." Temari thought. "Very well. Are we ready to head there?"
"Would you like a tour first?"
"We can save the tour for tomorrow. I'd like to check in and head for the hotel to relax for the rest of the day."
"As you wish. We'll head there straight away." Ino turned away and lead Temari across the large entryway toward the elevators.
People nodded toward and greeted Ino as she passed by and with her promises to chat with them later. Temari wasn't surprised at all that she would be the social butterfly here. People eyed her a bit and gave her a quick nod and smile as she passed and Temari could tell that their gears were turning wondering who she was.
Looking up Temari caught sight of someone standing in the glass observation deck overlooking the rotunda. He wasn't the only one up there but for some reason he caught her eye. Perhaps it was because while the others looked about the rotunda while the talked amongst themselves he had his eyes upward toward the skylight, seeming uninterested in the conversation going on about them. He was young, probably around her age and had dark thick hair pulled into a tight ponytail. An odd hairstyle for a man but she wasn't one to talk, at least in one ego. Judging from his attire she deduced that he worked in one of the labs because he wore casual clothes under a white lab coat. She was almost out eyesight when he glanced down and panned across the people but suddenly stopped on her. Their eyes lingered on each other's for the short time before she walked passed his line of vision.