Disclaimer:Not mine.
There's not much to say about this chapter except that it's part two. Enjoy
The Lessons a Hokage needs to know
Chapter Seven Part Two-Bumps and bruises
Fire. Burning fire all throughout his body. He lifted his hand weakly to touch the wall of glowing flames that held him captive and the floor suddenly gave out from under him. He yelled as the scenery shifted yet again. This time he was looking at the scenes of some battle. A giant red-orangish fox was burning the forest to the ground while a force of Shinobi calmly walked towards what could only be certain death. He spotted the person who could only be the leader of these brave men and women walking calmly out into the red tinted night in front of his forces carrying a bundle.
Naruto tasted surprise in his mouth as his mind finally made the connections and he realized what this was. October Tenth, twenty-three years ago. The Kyuubi had attacked the village. The Fourth had died. He had become the prisoner for…he wrapped a protective arm around his navel as the scenery shifted yet again.
This time he was looking in the face of the terrifying beast himself. The Kyuubi.
Or was it the Kyuubi? There was something off about the image that he was looking at but he couldn't decide quite what it was. Naruto mused on this as he casually spun around in place. He then repeated this action as he couldn't quite believe what he was seeing.
Indistinguishable points of light where inventing themselves before his eyes. He reached out to touch one of them and they all rushed at him at once, causing him to scream out in panic yet again.
"Ahh!" Naruto sat up in bed abruptly, sweat pouring down his face. He looked around at his surroundings, all his nerves tense and when he ascertained that there was no immediate danger he focused on trying to figure out just what it was he had been frightened by, the dream that he was having already slipping out of his mind.
He tried to lift his left hand to wipe his forehead but found that it was pinned down by something. He looked and found himself letting out an involuntary smile.
Hinata. His girlfriend was slumped over in a chair on the side of the bed, holding his hand for dear life.
From her rumpled clothes he had to wonder just how long she'd been like this. It spoke volumes about how long she'd been sitting there and watching over him if all the noise he was making wasn't prying her awake.
Naruto glanced about the bare white walls and covered window and quirked an eyebrow. Just where the heck was he anyway?
Naruto put his bare feet on the cold floor and carefully slipped his hand out of the girls grasp. He tiptoed across the room to the door, opened it and peaked to both sides. Nobody there. That puzzled him. This wasn't the hospital then, as someone there would have immediately noticed his presence.
He ventured a little farther from the room he had exited and walked down the hallway, growing more confused by the second.
He opened first one door, than another, and, finding no one around decided to continue his search when the door at the end of the corridor opened and a female Hyuuga (one of the branch members) stepped through it with his clothes (it was only then that he noticed that he was clad only in a t-shirt and shorts) and shoes folded in a laundry basket. She gasped in surprise as she saw him.
"Uzumaki-san!" She dropped the basket and hurried over to him. "You shouldn't be out of bed; the Hokage says you need your rest!" She grabbed his elbow and vigorously led him back in the direction that he had come from.
He grabbed his arm back forcefully. "Hey, hey! Just where am I?"
The female Hyuuga stopped before the door that he had emerged from and looked at him. "You're currently on the Hyuuga compound, in the infirmary wing, by Hinata-Sama's request."
"Hinata wanted me here?" He asked, more touched and surprised then he was letting on.
She nodded. "Hinata-Sama has been quite worried about you the last couple of days."
Naruto felt his heart drop into his stomache. "Days?"
The Hyuuga nodded and gestured for him to get back into bed. "Yes. You have been here, unconscious, for a week."
Naruto collapsed heavily on the bed at this news, not realizing that he had sat on his girlfriend's fingers until she leapt up with a shriek.
Tsunade wrapped the last of the surgical tape and gauze around Hinata's swollen left hand and looked over her shoulder to where Naruto was watching them both worriedly and addressed him.
"Naruto, why did you sit on her hand?" Naruto face-faulted and looked apologetically toward where Hinata was sitting with an ice-pack.
"I didn't mean to!" He said indignantly. "I just…just…"Naruto gave up trying to explain (it really was an impossible situation) and brought up a new subject instead. "What happened anyway?"
Tsunade looked at him impassively. "A lot. You'll have to be more specific."
Shizune, who was sitting in one corner trying to be unobtrusive, dropped her head into her hands in what could only have been taken as a defeated demeanor. She, at least, recognized Tsunade's taunting for what it was.
"Oh, I have a bad feeling about this situation." Shizune muttered.
Naruto's next actions didn't lessen her trepidation in the slightest, especially when he stood right up from the bed and took to standing nose to nose with Tsunade.
Hinata, who had rarely seen this side to either the Hokage or her boyfriend, whimpered slightly (though that might have just been the hand) and looked at the two with an expression of morbid curiosity on her face.
"I meant," Continued Naruto, "What happened to the giant burning symbol in the forest? And what caused it. Did you ever find out?"
"Oh. That." Tsunade pasted a thoughtful look on her face, to the further fury of Naruto.
Naruto only prevented himself from punching her because of the presence of Shizune, who he was sure would come up with another hellish punishment if he even so much as raised a threatening fingerto Tsunade. He settled for clenching his jaws together instead, and spoke out through tense teeth.
"Yes. That."Tsunade cooked her head.
"Well, why didn't you say so in the first place?"
Shizune and Hinata leapt out of their seats simultaneously to drag Naruto off of a cackling Tsunade.
"So what happened?" Naruto questioned his teammates as he dug into the bowl of ramen that had been delivered directly to him by a member of the Hyuuga branch family (sent to get it especially from Ichiraku's).
Sakura folded her hands in her lap and exchanged a look with kakashi. Naruto sighed silently. That was never a good sign.
"After you collapsed and were brought here It was determined that there was no threat to the civilian population of the village and the evacuation order was lifted."
"Well, that's good I suppose."
"There's more Naruto." This time it was Kakashi who took over the conversation.
"More?" Naruto asked around a mouthful of noodles.
Kakashi nodded his head. "Yes. The symbol that was in the forest disappeared about twenty-four hours after we first found it. We still, however, do not know how it got there, or who put it there."
Naruto considered this. "So you really don't know anything."
"Basically." All three occupants turned to see the two women who had materialized in the doorway. A more composed Tsunade and Shizune stood in the entryway, looking at the hasty conference among the teammates.
They entered the room quickly and Tsunade turned to Kakashi and Sakura. "Kakashi, Sakura," she gestured to the open door. "If you would please excuse us, me and Shizune have something that we want to discuss with Naruto."
At these words Sakura's cycled through a mix of emotions that included curiosity, jealousy, anger, and something else that Naruto couldn't quite place. Exasperation maybe? He was trying to make up his mind when Kakashi tugged at Sakura's arm and practically dragged her out of the room. The door closed with an ominous click.
"Now, Naruto" Tsunade got straight down to business. "Here are your books." Shizune set the pile of books (bigger than the last time he had seen it, if that was possible) on a recently vacated chair. "We expect you to have at least skimmed them all by the time Friday rolls around."
Naruto articulated his shock elegantly. "Huh?"
"You didn't forget about the clan meetings with everything that's been going on now have you?"The look on Naruto's face spoke volumes. Shizune cleared her throat as Tsunade sat down on the edge of Naruto's bed and started running a chakra covered hand lightly over his body.
"Anyway, the first meeting will be with the members of the Haruno clan, this Friday. Which means…"
Naruto almost shivered at the sweet honey-laced tone that Shizune's voice had adopted.
"Which means..?" He asked apprehensively as Tsunade finished her examination and nodded, apparently satisfied that he had made a full recovery.
"Which means," Shizune continued, "That tomorrow you're going to get a crash course on etiquette, dressing and manners."
She stepped over into the hallway where her teacher was already waiting.
"What?!" Shizune poked her head back into the room and nodded solemnly.
"Get some rest Naruto," She threw over her shoulder as the two departed. "You're going to need it."
Naruto would never admit it later, but he almost started crying as soon as she left.
The Next day (really, really) early morning.
"Naruto." Said a voice he couldn't quite identify through the haze of half sleep, accompanied by a set of cold fingers on his bare chest. "Naruto."
All he did in response was to roll over and wrap the covers more firmly around his torso. The person trying to wake him up just took this in for a second before starting a renewed attack, by slapping him around the face a couple of times and practically shouting in his ear.
"Naruto! Wake Up." He still gave whoever it was no response. 'Except for the ringing in my ears' he thought. This seemed to upset the person sent to wake him up because he vaguely heard whoever it was spin on their heels and quickly exit the room.
He had almost fallen completely back to sleep again when two people walked into the room (banging the door against the wall in the process) lifted up separate ends of the lavender covers that he was entangled in and unceremoniously dumped him out of the bed and onto the floor. Hard.
This time he did respond by jumping up and glaring at the two who had dared to rob him of his sleep like that, only to be met by the eyes of all of his female acquaintances, Half of whom were giving him feral looks, while the other half were giggling uncontrollably. He looked down at his state of near undress and blushed furiously.
Naruto yawned into his hand for the umpteenth time as he walked down the street surrounded by a gaggle of girls who were debating the qualities of this clothing shop and that clothing shop among themselves.
He looked around at them all and then whispered out of the side of his mouth to his girlfriend. "Why are they coming with us again? In fact," He looked around at all the shops in the district they had made their way to. "Why are we doing this at all?"
Of course being ninjas trained in the art of listening for various sounds, all of the aforementioned women heard his question. Ino slipped an arm around one shoulder while Tenten sidled up and occupied the other.
"We are here," Ino started.
"Because the Hokage has asked us to personally get you ready to attend the various clan celebrations that are being held this year." Tenten finished.
"Clan celebrations?" Naruto glanced behind him to where Shizune was walking with the Hokage and filed that question away for later.
All the girls gathered around him gave him odd looks. "You didn't know that that's what you were going shopping for?" Ino questioned.
'Ah, Damn.' Naruto cursed the situation in his mind. Outwardly he just let go of Hinata's hand (not the injured one) and put his hand behind his head while giving the various Kunoichi a sheepish grin.
You could almost hear their collective sigh. "Well anyway, that is what we are going shopping for."
He just played along by nodding his head. Then Ino and Tenten abruptly stopped before a store.
A men's clothing store.
A very expensive looking men's clothing store.
Naruto gulped. But the women just ignored his as they examined the merchandise set in the window.
"So," Ino asked the people behind her. "Do you think that we should dress him in a Kimono? Or would a tux be better?" She mused.
Various answers were bounced back to her. "A tux." Three voices called back.
"No, a Kimono." Two more voices chimed in.
"Tux." Said a couple female voices, this time laced with hostile tones.
"Kimono." The other two just snapped right back.
"Tux."
"Kimono!"
"Tux, Tux, Tux!!"
"No, Kimono, Kimono, Kimon…"
"Enough!!!"
As one, the group (and curious and, or, scared passerby) turned to look at the Hokage, who was massaging her temples exasperatedly. Tsunade looked at Sakura.
"Sakura, it's your clan that's hosting the party. What do you think he should wear?"
Fivee voices immediately rose up in protest, but were quickly silenced by one look from Tsunade's flashing amber eyes.
"Well…"Sakura trailed off, glancing around her cautiously. "Most of the people at my clan's party won't be dressed too formally." She Shrugged. "I guess just a nice pair of slacks and a dress shirt will do. But," She cautioned, "They'll have to be in gray or red or pink."
This caught Naruto's interest. "How come only those colors?"
This clearly exasperated Sakura. "Don't you know anything Naruto?"
She just got a blank look in return. Sakura sighed. Fortunately for her headache Shizune decided to finish the explanation.
"Because those are the primary Haruno clan colors."
Naruto tilted his head to the side. "Huh. They are?" he turned to Sakura with an enlightened look on his face. He pointed to her excitedly.
"So that's why you always wear red!"
Multiple groans rang out from every direction.
"Of course it is, idiot!" sakura hit Naruto upside the head. "Why did you think I did it?"
"Because you liked red?" He shrugged. "I don't know."
Sakura let out a strangled noise, which was Ino's cue to wrap her arm more firmly around Naruto' shoulder and with some assistance from Tenten, drag him bodily into the fancy looking store.
"I can see why Hinata likes him." Ino whispered out the side of her mouth to Tenten. Tenten nodded appreciatively before turning to Sakura.
"You didn't tell us he looked like that under all those clothes." Tenten said in a slightly husky voice.
Sakura got a disgusted look on her face. "That's because I wasn't looking!" She hissed out.
Tenten didn't even blink. "Shame. He really does have some nice…" Tenten trailed off as she felt a kunai being pressed against her throat. She saw Sakura out of the corner of her eye and raised an eyebrow.
"Don't even think about finishing that sentence." Tenten held up her hands in the universal sign of surrender and was about to start a new line of conversation when Naruto, looking a bit disheveled, hesitantly walked out of the dressing room and into the waiting area, where all eight of the girls were waiting to appraise his outfit.
"Hmm." Tsunade leapt out of her seat and started tugging at the shirt and pants, adjusting them a bit here and there. Finally Tsunade stepped aside and let the rest of the pack at him. It was Temari of all people who made the first comment.
"I do not think that this particular outfit will work."
Naruto looked down at the shirt and pants he had donned and let out a confused. "Huh?"
Ino examined the outfit with a critical eye and nodded. "I have to agree. That color grey with that color red just isn't working."
There were nods from various spaces around the room.
"Alright Naruto, outfit number two." And Ino pushed him back towards the dressing room door.
"Ah, Hinata, are you blushing?" Said a voice from Ino's right. And sure enough a red faced Hinata was looking down at the thin blue carpet.
Several of the girls giggled. "Ah, that's so cute." Several of them chimed. This only caused Hinata to mumble something and try to sink even further into the wall. There was more laughter all around at her expense before Tsunade joined in with the teasing.
"Well, at least we know of one person in the room who agrees with Tenten's previous statement about Naruto." There was a squeak and a growl at this statement (from Hinata and Sakura respectively) that set everyone into gales of laughter, which lasted through the next six failed outfits and checkout.
"So," Said Naruto as he walked along next to Tsunade and Shizune, "What exactly are these clan celebrations?"
Shizune gave him a questioning look before sighing in realization. "I'm sorry Naruto. I forget sometimes that you didn't grow up around this stuff." She gazed ahead at the Kunoichi walking ahead of them and slowed her pace to widen the gap between the two groups.
"Basically, the clan celebrations are held every few years to encourage unity within one clan. It's mostly just an excuse to throw a big party and have fun, but" She said thoughtfully, "it does serve the dual purpose of keeping the clan connected and up to date with recent events, new family members and the like. All the clans celebrate in different ways and at different times."
She looked at Naruto. "These celebrations are obviously too extravagant to throw every year, so all the elders vote on a date set every two or three years too hold them. All the various clans participate in this."
"In my day," Tsunade joined into the conversation suddenly, "All the clans tried to outdo each other. When I was ten, for instance, the Hyuuga clan was the last to throw their party that year. Not to be outdone by the Akimichi clan, who actually rented out a dance hall and held an all you can eat buffet for all of Kohona to attend, the Hyuuga retaliated by throwing an all day festival for everyone."
"So you see Naruto," She looked at him. "These parties aren't just about the clans internally, but about the competition between the clans in Kohona itself. This helps to alleviate the tensions that run so high between some of the members of various families. Do you understand?"
Naruto nodded in understanding then voiced another question. "So how come I'm going? Isn't' this just for clan members?"
"Technically." Shizune said. "However under unusual circumstances, and with the elders backing, these rules can be bent a little. We all want you to attend these parties. It really is the simplest way to get you introduced to the majority of the people that you'll interact with as the Hokage."
"So then," He asked looking at the back of Sakura's shirt. "What's with the clan color thing?"
"A very old tradition that dates back to the time of the first, it's mostly about clan pride."
Naruto tilted his head to the side. "Huh?"
"Haven't you ever noticed that the Hyuuga all tend to wear the same color scheme, or the Akimichi, or even the Yamanaka?"
Naruto considered this and then nodded excitedly. "Hey that's right! They do! So that's why they do it!" he said in a wondering tone.
Shizune nodded. "Exactly."
"Hey what's taking you guys so long? I thought we were going to get dinner?" Said Sakura as she approached the three of them (now a considerable distance from the main pack)
"So we were." Tsunade said as she lengthened her stride. "Come on you three." And they obediently followed.
Naruto set down the bags in his hand and sighed as the lights to his apartment flickered on. He stretched out his tense muscles and collapsed on his couch that immediately protested the harsh treatment with an almost silent groan.
Naruto glanced bleakly at the bags before ruffling through them resignedly. He pulled ten books out of one of them and set them on the counter hard enough to crinkle some of the covers then walked into his bedroom and put away his new clothes and miscellaneous items.
He had three new red dress shirts, two pants, a tie, a set of cufflinks in the shape of circles (to honor the Haruno clan, or so he was told) hair products and, he cringed when he thought about how hard and long the girls had argued about this one, cologne.
He sniffed it curiously but couldn't seem to find the difference between this one and the twenty others that had been splashed on his skin. Speaking of which…He looked at the clock he read the time. Twelve-thirty. He had to be up in a little over seven hours which meant…He grabbed his pajamas and walked over to the bathroom door. Shower time.
So that's that. I hope it was worth the wait. Unfortunately I have some bad news.(And I hate to do this to you again) I'm starting school on the 22nd of this month and will need a little time to work out balancing school and work, so the next chapter probably won't be out till February at the earliest. Sorry. I'll try to make it sooner, but I'm not commiting to anything. So see you guys soon. As always please reveiw and let me know what you think. KG.