Disclaimer: Nothing is mine. Just borrowing the material for my own enjoyment.
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The Lessons a Hokage Needs to Know
Chapter Nine Part Two- A Trip Taken
The eight man team of Kohona-Nins made it to the border of their land in ample time to watch the sun set.
The group settled down among the tree limbs and shadows for a minute, taking in one of the most brilliant sunsets that had graced the country of Fire in awhile.
Hinata sighed happily, which caught the attention of her mentor.
Kurenai's previous worry for her student returned but she was forestalled from confronting the Hyuuga about her behavior by the group chattering about the next stage of their mission. She listened passively as Kakashi explained the situation to everyone.
"Alright. We'll continue on this route until midnight, when we'll set up camp. Everyone will be assigned to camp set-up or watch duty. From this point on, remember that you aren't in the Country of Fire anymore so be watchful of surroundings and as silent as possible."
That said kakashi took off with the other six following after him.
Midnight came sooner than all the Shinobi expected. They jumped down into a secluded clearing and started stretching to relax their muscles after all those hours of running and leaping.
"It looks like we've made good time so far." Kiba commented as he started to dig through his pack for one of the collapsible tents they had brought along.
"I agree, were almost three-fourths of the way to the Country of Earth already." Shino said back as he finished deploying some of his kikai bugs onto the trees to act as an advanced warning system on the off chance that they were attacked during the night.
Sakura and Hinata chose that moment to re-enter the clearing with the two armloads of fire wood they had taken off to get, and after stacking it, both girls immediately started assisting Kurenai with setting up the campfire and making dinner.
Kakashi and Naruto helped out with setting up the tents too, and soon enough all seven adults were eating a quick meal before the smokeless fire.
Kiba looked across the fire from where he was sitting on the ground and addressed Sakura and Naruto curiously. "Hey, you guys just attended the first of the clan celebrations yesterday night right?"
Sakura nodded absently, intent on her food. Kiba turned to Naruto.
"You got to attend the Haruno clan party didn't you?" Naruto shrugged and nodded. "Did you like it?"
"It wasn't bad." Naruto answered back. "It was nice to meet Sakura-San's parents. You have a very nice mother." Naruto told his pink-haired teammate. Sakura ducked her head, apparently a bit embarrassed by the turn the conversation had taken.
Kiba looked like he was considering something before he turned back to Naruto to continue his questioning. "Why did you attend the clan party anyway?"
Naruto stiffened a little at his question, but was saved from answering when his girlfriend came to his rescue.
"If I remember correctly, my father mentioned that it was a directive handed down from the village council." Hinata said.
"Really?" This time it was Sakura who had spoken. The pink –haired Kunoichi set down her bowl and looked at Naruto speculatively. "I didn't know that was why you attended the party last night." She closed her eyes and leaned back in a stretch. "That's pretty unusual."
Shino entered the conversation at this point. "If I remember correctly, I recall my parents telling me that Naruto will be attending our party as well."
Everyone took a minute to mull over the information they had been supplied before Kakashi of all people who asked the question that was on their collective minds. "Naruto, will you be attending all the clan celebrations being held this year?
Naruto nodded sheepishly under their widening gazes.
Naruto caught Hinata's eye as the others in the group exchanged subtle looks. He ground his teeth together. This wasn't going to be pretty if they started to pester him about what he had been up to lately and why all these exceptions had been made for him in the last couple of months. So to forestall the questions he stood up, to the consternation of the assembled group, and crawled into one of the tents.
"Wake me up when it's my turn for guard duty." He shouted as he collapsed onto his sleeping bag, trying to block out the sounds of the fire melding with the whispered voices that were filtering into his ears though the canvas walls.
(Dream Sequence)
Naruto walked along the red line scorched into the earth. On either side of him he could see points of light off in the distance, beams hitting specific spots on the ground. He continued to observe this now familiar sight before looking down to see that the line that he was walking was now suspended in thin air over a vast canyon full of different shapes the likes of which he had never seen. He took another step forward and suddenly found himself transported to a pitch black opening in the side of the rocks. He lifted his right foot and put his hand on the side of the rock to guide himself into the blackness….
Naruto's eyes snapped open suddenly and it took a moment for his sight to adjust to the dark that was permeating the area. He lay still for a moment and let his heart return to its usual calm, regular beats instead of the rapid pounding against his rib-cage that it seemed to want to do at the moment.
Naruto took a deep breath and closed his eyes again. Why did he feel like this wasn't the first dream of this kind that he had ever had? He wracked his brain for a moment but couldn't bring up any other images like the ones that he had had in his dream. Giving the search up for the moment Naruto extracted himself from his sleeping bag and, careful not to wake up the sleeping body next to him, crawled out of tent. He let his eyes adjust again, this time to still partially glowing fire, and took a look around for the person who was currently on sentry duty. He spotted the form of Shino sitting up against one tree, slightly out of reach of the diminished light of the fire.
Naruto stood up and quietly walked over to the bug user.
"Hey Shino, what time is it?"
The Aburame looked up at the blond through his sunglasses, obviously surprised to see him up this late, and or, early, though he answered Naruto's question none the less.
"It is currently three hours to dawn. I am on the last shift of the watch for the night."
Naruto put a hand over his mouth to cover a yawn. "H..uh? I thought I was supposed to take a turn on guard duty tonight?" Naruto questioned.
Shino might have done something that could have been construed as a shrug. "We have enough people on this mission to cover all the watch shifts without inconveniencing anyone unduly, and considering how early you went to sleep last night, we all agreed that it would be kinder to just extend our shifts an hour than to disturb you."
Naruto plopped down beside his fellow shinobi and nodded his acceptance of the explanation, he hadn't really been awake long enough to argue the point anyway.
Naruto gazed into the fire for a minute, trying to let the lingering warmth reach his cold thoughts. He closed his eyes and unintelligible flashes of memory cycled through his head like a movie, imprinting themselves against the back of his eyelids.
"Naruto?" The bug user asked after a minute of silence. Naruto turned his disturbed eyes onto the cloaked jounin beside him a second before letting out a breath.
"Hey Shino, since I'm up anyway how about I cover the rest of you shift? That way you can get a little sleep." He offered.
The Aburame studied him a second before nodding and getting to his feet.
"Naruto…." You could hear the question in Shino's tone.
Naruto shook his head vigorously from side to side.
"I'm fine Shino."
Shino turned and walked towards the tents.
The next morning saw a major shift of scenery as the forest the Kohona –Nins had been traveling through gave way suddenly to towering cliff faces and rugged mountain sides.
Naruto resisted the urge to whistle as he took a look around at the surrounding land.
Sakura let out a gasp and stared at the mountainous region around them. "This is…" She trailed off.
Kurenai spoke up from her spot beside the medical kunoichi. "The Country of Earth got it name for a reason Sakura." Kurenai gestured to the land around them. "As you can plainly see it is a very rocky and mountainous region and it is riddled with natural caves. Both of these act as a perfect defense for this country and allow them to practice their earth-style jutsus with impunity."
Sakura nodded. Kurenai turned to the rest of the group, shouting slightly to be heard above the wind. "We'll have to proceed down these cliffs cautiously. There's a trail that starts about half-way down the mountain. Be careful about loose rocks or falling debris."
Kakashi examined the landscape for a moment before turning to Kurenai. "Can we make a tunnel down towards the center of the mountain and come through the other side?" It was clear the man was hoping to avoid the treacherous climb that ahead of the group.
Kurenai shook her head. "No. These mountains are laced with a jutsu that makes it almost impossible for anyone who isn't a Shinobi allied with the Earth forces to use earth jutsus of any type."
Kakashi nodded and they all started the laborious process of propelling down the ragged peak while trying to avoid being smashed against the cliff face by the strong breezes.
Naruto took the last jump from the foothold and finally touched down on what actually looked like a man-made pathway cut it the mountainside. He looked up from where they had descended and again resisted the urge to whistle. Kiba landed next to him and nodded after setting Akamaru down.
"Yeah. It's a big fall huh?" Kiba commented as the others continued trickling slowly down. Naruto nodded as he concentrated on pulling his rappelling line in.
"Did you know that these mountains are the biggest in all of the five great nations?"
Naruto looked back up at the peaks surrounding him, some of which were wrapped in thick cloud vapor. "No. I didn't know that."
Kiba laughed as he dug through his pack for dog treats. "Yep. And did you know that the winds that occur at this altitude are strong enough that they've been known to thrown rocks onto whole towns?"
This time Naruto looked at Kiba with a strange expression on his face. "No." He said after a moment's silence. I didn't know that either."
"Huh." Kiba looked up at the mountain face in admiration. "If any of us had slipped and fallen or been smacked against the rocks by the wind, then there's little chance they would have survived."
Naruto looked down to the solid ground beneath his feet.
"Hey Kiba. Do me a favor would you?"
Kiba looked at Naruto. "Yes?"
Naruto started walking over to the others, carefully not looking over the side of the suddenly thin and slippery path. "Stop talking."
Kiba stood there and pulled off a perfect Shino pouting imitation, slumped shoulders, black cloud aura and all.
The rest of the trip for the group was relatively simple and uneventful, just a careful and cautious traversing of the winding path with a good hand grip and foot placement required to offset the affects of the blowing winds and before the Kohona-Nins knew it they were looking down on one of the most amazing sights in the whole of the Land of Earth.
Situated below them in a valley surrounded by black mountain ranges on all sides was a veritable hub of life. Iwagakure. The Village Hidden in the Rocks.
Naruto felt a smile makes its way to his face as he imagined that he could practically feel the life thrumming within the boundaries of the valley.
Hinata approached him from the side. "It is amazing isn't it?"
"Not as amazing as you." Naruto shot back to her automatically, still entranced by the sight below his eyes.
Hinata blushed at his comment.
"Hey Hinata?" Naruto turned away from the city below them. "Have you been here before? Kurenai sensei mentioned something about you having a mission in Iwa."
Hinata nodded while pushing some hair away from her eyes. "Yes. Me and my team were recently dispatched here to help the Godaime Tsuchikage take care of a task."
Naruto was about to say something else but before he could he was interrupted by a hand placed on his head.
Kakashi nodded to the rest of their party who had finally managed to bridge the gap that had occurred (naturally or not) in the road.
"Come on you two." He said. "We need to get to the city by sundown."
Hinata and Naruto both followed him, anticipating their arrival at Iwa.
(In Iwagakure)
Everyone, even those who had been to the village before, were visibly impressed when they finally stepped through the massive wooden gates that guarded the town's main entrance.
"Wow." Naruto said under his breath.
One of their Jounin escorts from the village gave him an amused stare as she continued to lead the group towards the inn that they were being housed in.
Behind Naruto Sakura, Hinata and Kurenai were whispering about all the various shops that the former Team eight had encountered in their last trip, and just in front of Naruto, behind their escort, Shino and kiba were talking about a food stand that they had both found mutually satisfactory. Kakashi was, as usual, ignoring everything in favor of his books.
Though no one was ignoring them. The seven man group itself was garnering a lot of attention as they walked through the main thoroughfare of the village, which was, Naruto reflected, a lot like Kohona in many ways. There were people bartering for goods at the various stalls set up, children were chasing each other in the streets while their parents ran after them, there was the usual shopping and eating districts situated down various side streets. After everything he had heard about Iwa during the war, this was not what he had expected. It was all so…
"There are a lot of similarities to Kohona to be sure." Kakashi, who had sidled up next to him said as they continued walking.
"Yeah, I guess so kakashi-Sensei."
The group turned a corner onto a side street and the sight that greeted them was even more bizarre.
Naruto tilted his head to the side. "Kurenai-sensei?" He asked the brown-haired woman walking behind him.
Kurenai walked up until she was matching Naruto's pace. "Yes Naruto?"
"Are there buildings built into the mountains?" He asked with an astonished note to his voice.
Kurenai laughed. "You noticed that did you?"
Naruto nodded, giving the jounin his full attention as she explained.
"You know of course that the Shinobi of Iwagakure specialize in earth type jutsu. So naturally they have built some of their cities to reflect their mastery of the element. It is quite an achievement really. Some of their most sensitive offices and most of their council and the nobles are housed there. From what my team was told the last time we were here, it is quite fashionable to live in the inner mountain districts." Kurenai offered in explanation.
The jounin leading then through the village stopped before one of the buildings on the outer rim of the open part of the village. She bowed to the group.
"This is the inn that you have been assigned to while you are present in Iwa. The Tsuchikage extends his welcome personally and hopes you complete whatever tasks you came here to do. As a courtesy I have been authorized to tell you that we will have you under surveillance at all times that you are in the vicinity of the village as a precaution. We ask that you please forgive the presence of these shinobi, but at the same time we caution you not to slip past our guard or we will consider your actions hostile."
The Konoha Shinobi nodded their understanding and support of the guidelines the village had set down. The Iwa-Nin smiled. "Welcome to Iwagakure." She said before hoping onto a rooftop and disappearing.
After everyone had settled in and unpacked their belongings in their various rooms the seven ninja met downstairs for dinner.
The owner of the inn was personally taking their orders. The Kohona residents looked on in mild amusement as the small, blustery man went from person to person, asking questions that sometimes delved way too deeply into their personal lives.
Naruto grinned in happiness as his ramen was set, steaming hot, in front of him.
The owner bowed before him, apparently in as much happiness as Naruto was, just because of Naruto's enthusiastic reaction. Unconsciously Naruto mimicked the owner's bow.
"Thank-you owner-San." Naruto said before diving into his bowl.
Though he looked almost right back up again up as he heard the clang of silverware against the table. Sakura had dropped her knife in her surprise. And she wasn't the only one. Kiba had paused in the midst of giving Akamaru his cut of prime-rib, which was steadily dripping juice onto the wooden floor of the dining room, and Kurenai was being pounded on the back by kakashi because she had choked on her drink.
Naruto looked at them all in surprise.
"Something wrong guys?" He said after he swallowed his mouthful of ramen.
Those gathered around the table caught each other eyes, expressing their thoughts silently.
Kakashi picked up his tea and took a sip before smiling pleasantly at the blond. "Nothing Naruto. We were just practicing for when you tell us some extremely shocking news that's all."
Naruto looked at Kakashi and mumbled under his breath. "That's got to be one of the worst excuses he's ever come up with, and that's saying a lot."
"What's that Naruto?" Kakashi asked, still smiling.
Ignoring him, Naruto picked his chopsticks back up and threw himself back into his ramen while everyone else resumed their previous activities.
"So where should we go today?" Naruto asked the other adults he was with as they stepped outside of the inn and into the early morning light.
Sakura started rifling through her guide book for the best places to shop. Shino turned to the group.
"If I remember our orders correctly, we are supposed to be looking for Jiraiya-Sama of the Sannin. We were ordered to meet him today for the mission"
Naruto shrugged carelessly. "It's the old pervert's fault that he didn't tell us exactly where in Iwagakure he'd be. And anyway, he usually sticks to the hot springs. Any listed in there Sakura?" Naruto asked his teammate as she rifled through her book.
Sakura emerged from her book and nodded her head. "Yeah it lists several."
Naruto snatched the book from her and took out his map. "Great." He pulled out a marker and started circling the hot springs and bathhouses on the map before handing the map, book and marker to his girlfriend.
"Hinata do you think that you could use your Byakugan to search these areas?" He asked her.
Sakura put a hand to her forehead. "Of course. Why didn't I think of that? Do you think you could Hinata?" Sakura turned an inquiring gaze onto the Hyuuga.
The girl in question put her hand up for silence as she studied the map. "Sure." She said after a minute. "All of these look to be with the range of my eyesight."
Hinata gave the all the materials back to Naruto and started making hand seals. She opened her eyes. You could clearly see that her bloodline was active.
After several minutes the Kunoichi deactivated her sight and took back the map and marker. She drew an arrow to one of the hot springs situated on the other side of town. "Jiraiya-Sama is currently here." She said, looking just slightly embarrassed.
Naruto smiled while putting the map back into his pocket and gave Sakura her book. "Great! Now that that's done with, let's go explore a little bit!" Naruto grabbed his girlfriend by the hand and tugged her into the gathered crowd, the rest of the group right behind them.
The group had a relatively fun day all told. They shopped a little, ate lunch, explored some of Iwagakure's more unusual architecture and then shopped some more. The five adults arrived back at their inn talking excitedly and exchanging stories about their individual days, tons of shopping bags in their hands.
Kurenai quirked an eyebrow at the bags that all of them were holding and followed them upstairs. She sighed as they all headed to their rooms. "I don't suppose it would be too much to hope that you actually managed to track down Jiraiya-Sama along with all the other things that you seem to have done today." She said as the friends unloaded all their purchases.
Naruto dug his worse for the wear map out of one of his bags and handed it to the red-eyed woman. She quirked an eye at the circled places. Naruto opened his room door and threw his bags onto his bed. "The one place with the arrows around it is where Ero-Sennin is. We located him about three seconds after we left here today." Naruto said. Kurenai stood in Naruto's doorway and gave him a questioning look.
"And you didn't think to come tell me or Kakashi when you found him?"
Naruto gave her a sheepish look before rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment.
"Oops?"
Kurenai sighed holding back her exasperation. Naruto was Naruto for a reason after all.
The jounin-sensei turned back to the now shopping bag-less students watching her and Naruto talk.
"Alright." She said aloud. "Let's go get Jiraiya-Sama." And she turned and walked back down the stairs to collect Kakashi.
"You know what this means don't you?" Kiba asked excitedly. Hinata shook her head.
"Hot springs!" Kiba punched the air in his joy.
The assembled teammates laughed at his enthusiasm.
The Shinobi approached the hot springs just before full dark set in and it wasn't as hard to spot the legendary toad sage as either of the two Jounin-sensei's had been expecting. All you had to do was listen to the sounds of girls squealing in fright as something they couldn't see 'accidently' brushed up against them.
Naruto hung his head in shame as he heard this happen for the fourth time. Why were all of his teachers perverts?
Apparently the rest of his group shared his feelings.
Kiba turned to Naruto. "Is that him?"
Naruto nodded his head before sighing. "I'll go in and get him." He volunteered unhappily.
"We could help you." Hinata suggested timidly, seeing how reluctant Naruto was. Naruto looked at her like she was crazy.
"No way!" He said forcefully after a minute of speechlessness. "There's no way I'd allow my girlfriend within a hundred feet of that big pervert when he's like this."
Hinata nodded. Shino turned to Naruto after examining the hot springs outer areas. "So are you going to get him or not?" The Kikai-Nin enquired.
Naruto started walking slowly towards the entrance. "Yeah. Just wait here." 'And be prepared to make a run for it.' Naruto added silently in his mind.
The next two minutes were a blur for the assembled Konoha Shinobi. There was a splash then the sound of a crowd of feet running, but they had only a few seconds to ponder as to where the sound was coming from as an angry mob of girls came running after their two male comrades, apparently chasing them from the premises.
The group screamed in fright as the girls hurled insults at the two men bearing down on them.
"Run!!" Naruto screamed at them suddenl waving his arms frantically for emphasis, and the rest of them, seeing the situation, split hastily.
"Did…Did we lose them?" Naruto asked between breaths, looking around fearfully.
Sakura plopped down on the ground; breathless herself and Shino took a look around. "Yes. I believe so." He said after a minute.
"Good." Kakashi and Kurenai emerged from the shadows, having taken the rooftops to make avoiding the angry mob easier. Kiba and Hinata walked up from behind the corner they had been hiding behind and plopped done bonelessly next to the group too.
"What happened?" Sakura asked Naruto after taking a few deep breaths.
Naruto was about to answer but before he could he found himself being hauled to his feet by a seething sage.
"I'll tell you what happened." Jiraiya said with an angry note to his voice. "The boy interrupted my research!"
Naruto looked at the soaked man in contempt. "You call what you were doing research?" He yelled incredulously. "It was more like spying on girls!"
Jiraiya dropped Naruto after the blond kicked him in the stomache.
"You little brat!"Jiraiya screamed, while trying to grab Naruto, who expertly dodged out of the way, apparently well used to the Sannin's antics.
"Yeah, Yeah." Naruto taunted the white-haired man, still dodging his grasp.
The other shinobi caught each others eyes, seeing the same look as theirs mirrored in the others faces. Apparently they had finally found Jiraiya.
Yes! This is my fastest update in awhile. You guys are lucky, I was having so much trouble writing this chapter I was just about to post a note saying that they go to Iwagakure and find Jiraiya, the end. Ah well. Hope you enjoyed it at least. Let me know what you think. Thanks for reading. KG