Heya, folks. Seems like you all enjoyed the last chapter well enough, and that's good. I tried hard with it, and knowing that it was well received makes me happy. Five is my favorite chapter so far.
As for this chapter, we aren't moving into the next arc yet. I know, you're all crushed. I felt a buffer chapter was in order, as I didn't want to rush right into the next bit of the plot.
IMPORTANT: Some of you might not have noticed the fix last chapter, but I edited the document so that the URL to my blog was actually, y'know, there. Again, I'm posting a lot of stuff that would usually hit my Author's Notes to the blog now, as one of my goals with it was to decrease the word count in my AN's. So, to get to the blog, either follow the URL provided at the end of chapter five or go through my profile. There's a link to it there.
All right. Chapter six, INITIATE!
One Month Later
Naruto ducked under the curtain covering the entryway into the shop. It was a smaller shop that forged all of the weapons they sold, as opposed to buying and reselling them. Tenten had highly recommended it to him, but he had never had an occasion to visit before now.
"Hello, and welcome!" said a muscular man. He easily stood six and a half feet tall, and his eyebrows (the only hair present on his head) were a silvery white. Had it not been for the wrinkles, Naruto could have easily believed that he was far younger than he was. "What can a humble smith and proprietor as myself do for you today?"
"Hi," Naruto said. He took the half of his sword he had from the sheath and placed it on the counter. "My sword broke during the invasion."
The man sighed. "Were it all that was broken." He remained silent for a moment. "Do you have the rest of the blade?"
"No, I don't. It shattered and the pieces were everywhere. I couldn't recover them."
The smith picked up Naruto's sword. "Hmm."
"What? What's wrong?"
"I do not have the materials to reforge this blade. The metals used in its construction are foreign and expensive to import. I'm sorry." He handed it back to Naruto.
Naruto took it. "Well, could you make me a new one?"
The old man smiled. "Of course I can, boy! How do you think I make a living?" He came out from behind the counter and retrieved a few swords off of the wall.
"Uhm, I wasn't looking to just buy a new one, I was going to ask you to actually make one."
"I understand. But you must show me the style you want, no? And we must discuss length in addition to shape. The weight of the hilt, the construction of the handguard – if you desire one, that is – and especially the sheath. An integral part of any sword, to be sure."
"The sheath? But isn't it just for holding the sword?"
The man scoffed. "Just for holding the sword? My friend, look at any great swordsman! You'll find that almost all of them have used the sheath of their blade in combat! Not only is it an excellent bludgeoning tool, but if you should be disarmed, it can be used to parry your enemy's strikes!"
"I had never thought of that."
He grinned. "I'd suspect that's because you haven't fought against another swordsman while disarmed."
"No, I haven't," Naruto agreed. "At least, not while I've had a sword myself."
The smith laid out the blades on the countertop, their sheathes set to the side. "First, the blade. Which shape calls to you?"
Naruto looked at the collection of swords. He could see the merits of each of the styles, but none particularly 'called' to him. "Just the standard katana, I think."
"Mm. You can't go wrong with it. How much do you know of metals?"
"Uh...Not much."
"Then you have no preference to the material?"
"Just whatever's strongest, I guess."
He nodded. "Of course. And the length?"
"My last katana had a blade of about thirty inches."
"I can do that easily. Now, let me show you what handguards I can fit it with..."
Naruto walked out of the shop about thirty minutes later. He had placed the order for the sword and made a down payment to cover the materials. He would pay the rest when his katana was completed in a month's time.
"Hey there, Naruto."
Naruto jumped. "Damn, Tenten, you scared me. Don't do that."
Tenten laughed. "Try and make me stop," she said.
He rolled his eyes. "Were you waiting for me?"
"Mmhmm," she said. "I wanted to ask about your sword. What's it going to look like?"
"You can wait and see like everyone else," he said, grinning.
She stuck out her lower lip. "C'mon, please? Pleeaaaase?"
Naruto chuckled and started walking. "Puppy eyes have no effect on me, Tenten."
"Aw, c'mon, Naruto!" she said, running after him. "Why won't you tell me?"
"'Cause I don't feel like it."
"Why not?"
He shouldered her to the side. "'Cause I don't."
"Jerk." She pushed him back. "Well, I'm cleared to return to active duty now. Want to start training again?"
"Well, I would, but I kind of don't have a sword."
"We can stop by my place. I have a spare or twelve you can use."
"I'm sure you do. All right, let's go."
They wound through the streets, continuing to joke and push each other while they made towards Tenten's apartment. When they arrived, Naruto leaned up against the side of the building.
"What are you doing?" asked Tenten.
"I was just going to wait here."
"No, come in. You don't need to stand out here."
He shrugged. "All right."
Naruto followed Tenten to her apartment, which was on the second story of the building. He shoved the grim realization that the complex was established under the Stipend Act for Orphans to the back of his mind.
She opened the door and let him in. "Take a seat on the couch or at the table," she said. "I'll only be a minute."
He sat down on the couch. It was very comfy. He wasn't sure exactly how he felt about being in Tenten's apartment. On the one hand, it was whatever. She was a friend, she was grabbing some swords to practice with. Who cares. On the other, Naruto wasn't an idiot; he was acutely aware of the silent feud between Tenten and Tsumeki. Or at least, he was sure that there was one; every time he and Tsumeki tried to get together to discuss their feelings for each other, Tenten or a close friend of hers managed to interrupt. Tsumeki also seemed to be adamant that Naruto's skill with a sword now far outshone Tenten's and he therefore no longer needed to practice with her. Naruto knew this wasn't true, and he was positive that Tsumeki knew this as well. He had also heard from Hinata, who was a close friend of Tsumeki's and at least a good accomplice to Tenten, that the two sometimes would get into hushed arguments intense enough that Hinata could practically feel their disdain for each other. He didn't know Hinata terribly well, but he knew her well enough to know that she wouldn't lie about something for no reason, or for personal gain (though Naruto was unsure what gain she'd have in lying about that). What all of this meant was that being caught in her apartment could spell disaster.
The only thing that baffled Naruto is what the two girls might be feuding about. He had thought it might be him, but that was a vain and self-centered thought. Naruto passed it off as improbable almost immediately, but still had no satisfactory alternative explanation.
I mean, they could be fighting over me, he thought. I'm close with both of them, and if by some miracle both of them have fallen for me... The thought of convincing the two to share him briefly flashed through his mind, and he shook his head vigorously while fighting down a blush. Such a thing was unthinkable. Or should be, at the very least.
A loud crash, followed by Tenten crying out in surprise, came from the other end of the apartment. Naruto jumped up and ran toward the source of the noise. It came from behind a closed door, and, without thinking about it, Naruto threw the door open.
What he saw was a collection of many different swords scattered about the floor, along with Tenten's shirt, which had been cut neatly in half across the front. The aforementioned girl stood clad in her pants and a bra, standing on one foot. She had presumably jumped back from the falling blades, and they had claimed her shirt as a prize.
Naruto was suddenly acutely aware that Tenten's breasts were about half again as big as Tsumeki's.
Naruto was suddenly also acutely aware that not only did he know exactly how big Tsumeki's breasts were, but he had committed the size to memory. This development was not unwelcome in the lower brain, but the upper brain was concerned and more than slightly embarrassed.
"Oh, Naruto. Sorry if I scared you. The swords fell out of the closet." She quickly resettled back to having both feet on the ground.
Bounce.
"Just give me a second to grab these..." she leaned over quickly.
Bounce, bounce. He had a clear view of the swell of her chest.
"Uhm... I'll just..." Do I help her clean the swords up, or do I leave her alone? She's shirtless!
Chivalry won the day, and he helped her to pick up the swords.
"Thanks, Narut—ooph!"
Oh God.
If Naruto's lower brain hadn't been standing at attention before, it certainly was now. As he had stood up, a small dagger that was lacking a sheath had caught on Tenten's bra, which was now floating down to the ground.
Bounce, bounce, bounce.
"Uhm. I. Uh. Sorry. I didn't mean to, er, ah, uh, sorry."
Tenten's face was red, but she didn't seem to be in a hurry to cover up. She set the swords she had down, and took the ones Naruto had to do the same.
"Uh. Shouldn't you. Uh. You know. Bra?"
She stepped in close to him and kissed him. She was deliberately pressing her breasts against his chest.
"Mmph. Mm. Mm-mm!" Naruto pulled back. "Tenten, what are you-"
She grabbed his hair and kissed him again and tried to pull him towards her bed.
Naruto pulled back again. "Tenten, what are you doing?"
She blinked. "What do you mean? I thought it was fairly obvious."
Naruto finally just shut his eyes and turned his head. "Look, I don't...I mean, you're a great friend, but I'm not...romantically inclined in that direction."
"You mean you're gay?"
"No! No! I mean, I don't...I'm not..." He paused. "There's no good way to say this. I'm just...I'm not interested in a relationship with you."
Naruto felt, rather than saw, her face darken. He wasn't sure if it was in sadness or anger, however. "Oh. Well, then."
The cogs in Naruto's head were working overtime. "You weren't cut," he said. "And neither was your bra. The swords didn't cut your shirt when they fell, did they?"
He heard her sigh. "No, they didn't. I admit, I didn't intend for my bra to actually come off that fast, but it wasn't an unwelcome touch."
Naruto wasn't sure the image would be leaving his brain any time soon. Either of them. "I...I think I should go," he said.
"Naruto, wait."
"No, Tenten. I really do think I should go. I'll...I'll talk to you later."
Naruto had been wandering the streets of Konoha for the better part of an hour. He was confused and unsure how to deal with Tenten. She had tried to bait him into sex. Or at least some rather heavy petting. On the one hand, he was hurt that she had decided to take that route out of all of the others she could have taken and insulted that she thought that it would work. On the other, he was sympathetic towards her. It was NOT easy to tell someone that you were in love – or at least heavily infatuated – with them. That wasn't the best way to do it, sure, but he couldn't blame her for trying something. Anything was better than suffering in silence, right?
One way or the other, the friendship had been damaged, and not because of any unrequited feelings. It had been damaged because she had tried to get him to have sex with her, and kind of because he had seen her gigantic knockers and couldn't get them out of his brain and there was just no way he could look at her and not see that image and it would make training with her so hard and distracting and...
Naruto stopped and took a deep breath. He expelled it early when he was struck in the back by a projectile he knew had red hair and beautifully clear and pale skin.
And nice boobs. Ugh. There was no way he was walking out of this day without thinking about boobs more than he wanted to. Well, not more than he wanted to, but more than he kind of wanted to...
"Hiya, Naruto!"
"Uh...hey, Tsumeki."
He felt her chin rest on top of his head. "What's wrong?"
"It's...nothing, really. Just thinking."
"Bullshit. What's going on in that noggin of yours?"
"Really, Tsumeki, it's nothing."
"Lie to me one more time and I'm going to ride you around Konoha like a horse. Spurs included. What's wrong?"
He sighed. She was persistent and would not relent as long as she thought he was troubled. Her aggressively compassionate personality was one of the many paradoxes that made him love her so much.
And her breasts. DAMNIT, Tenten!
"We should go somewhere private. Ish."
"We could go back to one of our apartments."
Naruto's reply was instantaneous. "Let's not."
"Uh...okay...Hokage Monument?"
"Yeah, sure, that works."
She rode his back the entire way there. They didn't talk at all, and Naruto could tell that she grew progressively more concerned as they went on.
The second they reached the top of the monument, she climbed up on his back a little higher and leaned over so that she was looking into his eyes upside-down. "What's going on? You're scaring me."
"Could we...you know..."
Tsumeki hopped off of his back and came around to his front.
"Thank you."
"Now what is it?"
"Promise nobody will die."
"What?"
"Tsumeki, I want your promise that you aren't going to kill anyone when I tell you this."
"Yeah, I promise."
"Or maim, or injure."
"None of the above."
"Tenten tried to have sex with me."
"I'll be back."
"Tsumeki."
"Naruto, she -"
"I know. I was there."
"Please don't cut me off."
"Sorry. Look, I was in her apartment because she was grabbing some swords so we could practice -"
"Why didn't you wait outside?"
"She insisted that I come in."
Tsumeki sharply exhaled through her nose. That was one of the tells she had that clued off anyone attentive enough to notice that she was beyond a little unhappy.
"So I was waiting, and then there's this crash, and I go in and she's there in her bra, and it looks like a sword cut off her shirt when a bunch of them fell."
"Yeah, right."
"Tsumeki, please let me finish."
She sighed. "'Kay."
"So I help her pick up the swords, and then a dagger nicks her bra and cuts it off -"
It was less of an exhale and more of an explosion through her nose, this time. Maybe I could have left that part out. "And then she kissed me and tried to pull me to her bed, so I left."
"Yeah? You sure you didn't tap that before making a quick escape?"
Naruto's heart split in half at the distrust Tsumeki showed him, and he knew that she saw it. Her eyes widened and her hands snapped over her mouth. "Oh my God, I'm so sorry. It just...popped out. I didn't mean it. I'm sorry."
They stood there in silence for a few moments before she spoke again. "So...who's bigger?"
Naruto's face flushed red. "Uh...well...I know you're a medium C... I think she's probably...D? I don't know. Half again. God. This is weird. Can we not?"
"Yeah."
Silence.
"What a whore. Having bigger boobs than me. What's her problem?"
"It's hardly her fault."
"Who cares."
Silence.
"Tsumeki -" "Naruto-"
Silence.
"I think it's time we talked about us, Tsumeki."
"Yeah."
Silence.
"What do you think?" she asked.
"About?"
"Me," she said nervously.
"Everything," Naruto said. "You're everything I could ever want. You're beautiful, inside and out." He made sure to look her directly in the eyes. "I'm in love with you, Tsumeki. Deeply, madly in love with you. Ears, fangs, tails and all."
Tsumeki smiled widely. "I'm in love with you too, Naruto. Every bit as much." He thought he saw her start to tear up, but he didn't have time to fully register it, as she began to pull him in for a kiss.
"The Elders require your presence," said an ANBU who had approached unheard.
Naruto growled. "The Elders can wait two damned minutes for me to have an emotional moment with my new girlfriend here."
"They insist -"
"They can wait," Tsumeki snapped, and she and Naruto resumed the kiss that was so rudely interrupted.
"You know it isn't your fault that Sasuke got to Orochimaru," Tsumeki said. "You said it yourself: the power of the Cursed Seal was too much for you. You had to retreat, or he'd have killed you."
Naruto didn't reply.
"I'm glad you let him go," she said. "If you had fought with him longer, you might have died, and..." she let out a shaky breath. "I don't know if I could have lost you so soon after getting you."
Naruto smiled, just a little. His stay at the hospital was more of a formality; he hadn't been beaten up too bad. He had retreated before the worst of the fighting with Sasuke had started. Mostly, it was chakra exhaustion from fighting so many people in a row for so long. That Kimimaro had been unnaturally strong; inhumanly, even. Rock Lee's presence on the mission was a great boon; it allowed Naruto to continue pursuing Sasuke, even if it had been fruitless in the end.
"Even the greatest cannot always win," said Gaara. Gaara and his siblings, Temari and Kankuro, had shown up to aid in the retrieval mission. Their arrival couldn't have been more timely; Gaara had saved Rock Lee's life, and Temari and Kankuro had likely saved Shikamaru and Kiba from the clutches of death as well. Their assistance was a sign of goodwill and, hopefully, the beginning of a lasting alliance between Konoha and Suna.
"I know," Naruto said, speaking for the first time since he had returned. "It still doesn't mean that I've failed Sasuke as a teammate. I should have been able to stop him."
"Don't beat yourself up over it," Tsumeki said. "He deserted, he wasn't kidnapped. Screw him."
Naruto smiled again. "You're usually so quick to tell me to leave him alone."
"He wasn't a traitor when you were giving him shit."
"Naruto." The mentioned looked at Gaara, who had spoken. "You are an able ninja. Sasuke was simply more able. It simply means you must be stronger. You have someone to help you with that." He looked at Tsumeki as he said this. "If you are half the ninja that the Fox says you are, then I have no trouble believing you will be able to far surpass Sasuke."
Naruto was glad no hospital staff were around; he knew that Temari and Kankuro had seen Tsumeki's true form, but nobody wanted it to get around more than it had to. "Thanks." He sighed. "I just...I think that if I could figure this damned jutsu out, I might have been able to bring him back. Even if it was just as a prisoner."
"Your Fierce Dragon or whatever?" Tsumeki asked.
"Fierce Deity," Naruto corrected.
"Right. Well, hey. I'm not going to steal it, and we don't have to fight each other. And we're dating. That all together should mean that I'm allowed to know about it before it's done, right? And then I can help you with it!"
Naruto smiled. "Yeah. Of course. Thank you." He looked at Gaara. "And thank you, too. And tell your siblings the same. You saved the lives of several of my friends on that mission. I owe you big."
"No need to incur a debt," Gaara said. "We were simply following orders. Even if I did count this on a tally, I would simply consider it repayment for lessons learned and services rendered." Again, he looked at Tsumeki.
Naruto looked between the two. "I think you need to tell me exactly what you did for and/or to him, Tsumeki. I'm still not clear on that."
"Maybe some other time. For now, rest. You need to hurry up and finish healing, because the Elders have another mission for us."
"Do they? What is it?"
"They won't say. But it's you, me, Kakashi, and Shikamaru. It's important, I guess, but not so much so that we can't wait for you."
"Why me? Why not grab another ninja?"
Tsumeki shrugged. "Who knows. Ask them when it's time." She stood up. "All right. You sleep. I'll see you later."
"I love you."
"I love you too."
She left the room. Gaara inclined his head to Naruto and took his leave as well.
Naruto lay back in the bed. "Another mission already, huh? Should be interesting."
Just a short, dinky little filler chapter. It's not even that good. I don't really like it, and I think it might be rushed, but it's the best I'm going to do with it, so, whatever. I didn't want to jump straight from the Konoha Invasion to the next arc, so I needed something here, but I didn't have much to put. I hope you liked the little bit I did give you well enough, and I hope to have Chapter Seven out soon. Till next time.