Author's note, just so you know

I still do not own Naruto

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Chapter Thirty-One – Aftermath

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Sarutobi glared at the council, reflecting once again that he was definitely getting too old for his job.

"…and we can confirm that Orochimaru ambushed the Kazekage on his way to Konoha and killed him, taking his place." Baki said from where he was standing at the foot of the table. "I was on the team that discovered his body and those of his retainers. Until such time as Suna appoints a new Kazekage, the Suna Council will be in charge. They have appointed me as ambassador with plenipotentiary powers to provide a full, formal apology to Konoha as well as seeking a new treaty."

Before the councillors could start to work themselves up, Hirzen held his hand up.

"Thank you, Ambassador Baki. Is there anything else you would like to add?"

Baki looked round.

"Yes. The three children of our former Kazekage. I am fully aware that they are safe at the Kagetora clan-home at the moment and I wish to extend my thanks to Uzumaki Honoka for modifying the seal on Gaara, solving most of the problems he was having. She assures me that the only way the Ichibi can be released is if Gaara willingly releases it."

"When you return to Suna, they will return with you." Hiruzen said, ignoring the glares from the council members convinced that the three should be kept as hostages. Baki bowed.

"Thank you. At the moment, Gaara is helping to look after Kagetora Naruto. He is quite… insistent that no harm comes to him. I think he holds Naruto responsible for the solving of his problems and his new, and quite frankly less terrifying, outlook on life. If that is all, Lord Hokage?"

"It is. Treaty negotiations will begin tomorrow afternoon, you may wish to get some rest and check on your charges."

Baki nodded and left the chamber. Before the council could startmaking demands, Sarutobi started to speak.

"The recent events have proven that I am getting too old for this job. I have spoken to Jiraiya and he has declared that if he becomes Hokage, he will undoubtably mess things up. As such, I have tasked him with finding my choice of replacement, Senju Tsunade."

Several councillors instantly spoke up.

"But she left Konoha, why should she return?" "Doesn't she owe a fortune in gambling debts?" "It'll be good having one of the Sannin taking over, and not Orochimaru." "With her returning, does that mean that the Senju clan will be resurrected too?"

"Silence!" Sarutobi thundered. The council instantly shut up and Sarutobi continued to speak. "I have sent Jiraiya and a Chunin versed in diplomacy and etiquette to find Tsunade. For security and to increase their speed, six of the Great Tigers have gone with them."

"Speaking of Chunin," Hiashi observed almost dispassionately, "What were the results of the exams?"

"While the exams were indeed cut short, I saw enough during the exams and afterwards to decide the best genin to promote. I am only promoting two genin this year, both of whom showed incredible skill both in the exams and in the recent battle against Orochimaru. Hyuuga Hinata and Kagetora Naruto are hereby both promoted to Chunin. Furthermore, after reviewing the information she offered after discovering what Orochimaru had done to her team-mates, I am provisionally recruiting Tsuchi Kin, formerly of Otogakure, as a genin-recruit of Konohagakure and assigning her to replace Hyuuga Hinata as a member of team 8."

Sarutobi glared at the council. "If anyone disapproves, they can damned well wait until Tsunade arrives."

"May I inform my daughter as to her promotion?" Hiashi asked and Sarutobi shook his head.

"Sorry, I've already done so. I needed to, as I've sent her on a mission."

Hiashi started to nod, then he froze, his eyes wide with horror. "You sent my daughter on a mission with that pervert Jiraiya?!"

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"I brought you some food." Temari said and Gaara looked up from where he was sitting by Naruto's bed, reading from a scroll.

"Thank you, nii-san." He said quietly as she placed the tray on the small table beside him.

"No change, huh?"

"No." Gaara said. "I promised Hinata-sama that I would look after him for her. It seemed… appropriate."

Temari looked down at the sleeping blond and smiled slightly.

"How's the new seal holding?"

"Honoka-san does excellent work." Gaara said with a slight smile which would have gone unnoticed by any who didn't know him well. "Shukaku's voice is… gone, unless I will it. He seems calmer too, for some reason. And my control over my sand has improved."

"And you can sleep." Temari said, pulling up a chair and sitting down.

"YOU'RE A WHAT?"

Gaara looked at the doorway in confusion as Kankuro's disbelieving yell echoed through. Temari facepalmed.

"I think that our darling brother has just met Haku." She said wryly. "To be fair, Haku really does look like a girl…"

"And Kankuro started to flirt." Gaara smirked. "I wonder if this'll teach him a lesson?"

"Nope." Temari said. "He's met up with Inuzuka Kiba, the two of them are so damned alike when it comes to trying to chase anything that's female."

"Konoha has a Kankuro of it's own?" Gaara asked and Temari nodded.

"Except that he uses a dog instead of a puppet, pretty much."

"That is… disturbing." Gaara declared after several moments thought. "Almost as disturbing as that Sunset Genjitsu."

"Nothing is as disturbing as that." Temari shuddered. "Men shouldn't hug that way."

For a few moments, a comfortable silence descended, then Gaara spoke. "I wonder how Hinata-sama is doing?"

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"You know," Jiraiya said almost meditatively, "I could really get used to this.

Hinata glanced over at him from her perch on Kyouka's back, her expression questioning.

"Riding like this." Jiraiya explained. "Toads are almost as fast, but they take giant leaps rather than running like this, and they're impossible to miss. Tigers, though… poetry in motion."

"I'm glad you're enjoying this." Hinata said, and Jiraiya smiled at her.

"Wonderful scenery, beautiful company… and don't worry. Until you get a bit older, you don't need to worry about me acting perverted around you. I may be a pervert, but I do have standards."

"How can a pervert have standards?" Hinata asked despite herself. Jiraiya laughed.

"Oh, it's simple. Don't corrupt the innocent girls, their innocence is to be cherished. Never take advantage of a woman in her moment of weakness, the final decision must always be hers. Never avoid the blows of a single woman, but always flee the group. Things like that. I only really perv on those who appreciate it, or those who are willing and able to defend themselves. Anything else is just wrong."

"That's… actually quite profound." Hinata admitted after a few moment's thought. "I don't know whether that's impressive or just plain wrong."

"That's the difference between a pervert and a super pervert!" Jiraiya grinned. "Besides, I need to get my research for my books somewhere."

"Yes, they're suprisingly quite good." Hinata said absently, then she blushed and clapped a hand over her mouth as Jiraiya roared with gleeful laughter.

"Oh, Kami must love me!" Jiraiya chortled. "You're a fan? I'll be happy to sign your books, no charge at all! Is Naruto a fan too? And how did you get into my books? I know you're father's a great fan, but I didn't expect you to be."

"My father's a fan of Icha Icha?" Hinata gasped and Jiraiya nodded.

"Yep, signed first-print hardback editions and everything. He keeps them in a special box that the Byakugan can't penetrate, keyed to his chakra signature. Now, how about an answer."

"Anko-sensei introduced me to them to help me get over my shyness." Hinata admitted. "I've been introducing Naruto to them, but he's still really clueless about things like that. He read right through Icha Icha Traveller, and he still constantly blushes whenever we bathe together. Keeps trying to look away as well, I have to grab him to get him to actually look at me."

"Wow." Jiraiya said. "That really is something. But you two are happy together?"

Hinata blushed again and Jiraiya smiled gently. "I see that you are. Good to know that the gaki has someone as beautiful as you caring about him."

Hinata's blush deepened.

"So, where are we headed?" She asked. Jiraiya smiled again at her attempt to change the subject.

"We're starting at Shukuba Town." He said. "I have contacts there who should be able to tell us where we need to go next. In the meantime, I have a jutsu or two you may like to learn, although if you grow your hair a bit, they'll become easier to use."

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"Sasuke?" Sakura paused in her training kata, looking over at her dark-haired team-mate. "Are… are you alright?"

Sasuke stopped punching the training log and turned around.

"I couldn't win." He said. "Gaara was too much for me, yet Naruto took him down easily."

"Naruto had help." Sakura protested. "He had that summons and Hinata, she's the one who delivered the final blow. And Naruto hasn't recovered yet, he's still in his coma."

"He had help…" Sasuke mused. "I need to get stronger… but Naruto is already stronger than I am… how does he do it?"

"Teamwork." Kakashi said, causing both genin to jump in shock as neither had seen him arrive. "He trains with others so that they can tell him where his weaknesses are and how to overcome them. That helps him grow stronger. Of course, the fact that he learned from me and Maito Gai explains quite a bit. And then there's his Kekkei Genkai."

Sasuke nodded slowly. "He's fast. Even with my Sharingan, it's all I can do to keep track of him when he goes all out. I need to get faster too."

"Well thought out." Kakashi nodded. "Your fighting style is all about intercepting incoming attacks, speed will help you a great deal. I would advise weights. You'll never reach Lee's level, he's trained too many years for you to catch up now, but with enough training, you may be ableto last against him for more than a minute."

Sasuke nodded. "Thanks sensei. I'll try that."

"And stop measuring yourself against Naruto." Kakashi added. "He has advantages you'll never have, but he has major weaknesses too. Despite what you saw, he isn't invincible. Heck, he's almost defenceless against Genjitsu."

Sasuke nodded again. "I know he isn't invincible, I looked in on him yesterday. I hope that Tsunade gets here soon, she's supposed to be the best medic-nin Konoha's produced. If anyone can help the dobe, she can. After all, he said he'd help me when I confront my brother."

Everyone stared at him.

"What?"

"You… actually accepted someone… else's help willingly?" Sakura asked and Sasuke snorted.

"Come on. He was trained by both Kakashi-sansei and Maito Gai, taijitsu expert, plus Anko-sensei has boosted his stealth skills to an absolutely insane degree. He persuaded Zabuza-sensei to teach me how to use my sword, integrating my taijitsu, kenjitsu and ninjitsu into a single fighting style, I'd have to be a complete and utter moron to turn down help from someone like that. I still have what he calls pride issues, but he's whacked me down so many times whenever we sparred that I've actually got a handle on how good I am, and I'm nowhere near good enough yet."

"If I had known earlier about how you've matured," Hiruzen said from beside Kakashi, causing the two genin to leap in shock again, "Then I would probably have promoted you as well. As it is, I'll mark you as a probable for the next exam you participate in."

"I… um… Thank you, Hokage-sama." Sasuke said, bowing slightly.

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"Are you sure you don't want to check into an inn?" Jiraiya asked as Hinata finished pitching the two-man tent. She gave him a smile and untied the packs that one of the other tigers had been carrying for her.

"Jiraiya-sama," She said, "How many inns would accept the Great Tigers as their guests? If you wish to sleep in an inn, the town is literally over the rise, but I am staying with my friends. Besides, how can I be any safer in an inn without them as compared to sleeping in a tent surrounded by a dozen Great Tigers?"

Jiraiya nodded slowly.

"Well, I'll see you in the morning." He said as he started to walk off.

"Bring cinnamon rolls!" Hinata shouted and Jiraiya waved acknowledgement. Hinata stroked Kyouka's head, then started to build a small campfire as several of the tigers vanished.

'That toad-man is very powerful.' Kyouka noted from where she was sprawled by the tent. 'I find his actions quite interesting and he seems to have quite an honourable personality, although he hides it very well.'

"He has his moments," Hinata admitted, "Although I think that we should never tell Naruto-kun that his parents unwittingly provided a great deal of material for his first Icha Icha book."

'His expression when he realised what he had just said, though.' Kyouka snorted and Hinata nodded, then turned to where the vanished tigers were returning with the results of their foraging. One of them walked over and placed two dead rabbits on the ground.

"Thank you." Hinata said with a smile, picking up the first rabbit and starting to skin it.