I do not own Naruto.
Speaking
Thoughts
"So if we want to take over the world." Kira was cut off by Gaara.
"We want to bring peace to the world." Gaara said.
"Right, so if we want to bring peace to the world then shouldn't we start now? Maybe "Bring peace" to the leaf village, and assert our place as a strong "Peace Force"." Kira said.
"If I had a week I wouldn't be able to tell you all the reasons that were wrong with that idea Kira." Aria said simply to him, and he had to be held back by Chrome. "We're trying to bring peace not be feared."
"You're existence here is one I do not appreciate Kira, you've put in no good ideas in all the meetings we've had, and have shown countless times how disloyal you are to our cause here." Gaara (who had been in the village because of a diplomatic meeting between the sand, and leaf) said.
"You want to go raccoon boy!" Zale asked forming around his fists, and Gaara's sand turned into a spike ready to be hurled at any time.
"Children I'm sorry to have interrupted play time, but I've called you all out to my village because I wanted to discuss the battle plan not to fight among allies." Zale said, and they all jumped to attention except for Shiki who lounged on the ground asleep. "How quickly you all fall to pieces without a leader."
"Zale I apologize for." Gaara tried, but Zale cut him off his patience wearing thin.
"It's none of my business, but I want to make it quite clear that if your little fights ever get in the way of what we're trying to accomplish here then I won't tolerate your presence ." Zale came to stand in the center of them as they formed a circle around him. "The council has been making some waves that I'm going to have to deal with, but if things continue the way they have been then we're going to have to make a move sooner than originally planned."
"What exactly is the first move Zale?" Aria asked him.
"If things keep going the way that they do then I'll have to leave the village, all of you will accompany me to ensure my escape." Zale said, and he motioned for them to sit down in their circle which they did. "Now if we do end up having to resort to that then you'll all have to put a stop to the fighting, and Chrome I expect my future followers to be more tolerant."
"Yes sir Zale." Chrome said sitting up straighter trying to not look intimidated, but failing quickly. "If you don't mind me asking Zale, why is it that you called us here anyway?"
"I will be going away for a little while, and if that happens I want all of you here to protect Kurumi, and Sasuke Uchiha." Zale said with a monotone voice.
"Oh Sasuke Uchiha is that the girl that pretends to be a boy?" Shiki asked nonchalantly, and Gaara looked slightly terrified, but instead of killing her he nodded. "Kurumi told me about how she's really nice, and has a great sense of style."
"How did you find out about it anyway Shiki?" Zale asked looking at the former demon.
"She smells like a girl." Shiki said simply tapping her nose, and Zale nodded again. "Gaara I want to get some food; when is this meeting going to be over?"
"It'll be over when it's over Shiki." Gaara said effectively shutting her up. "Zale, how are we going to go about escape if it comes to that?"
"I've been surveying everything as best as I could from my limited position, and the logical conclusion is to go right through the front door. I'll give you more details when I can, but for now make sure that they're safe. The old hag has decided to send me on a solo mission that'll get me out of town, so I'll entrust you two to take care of my," Zale's cheeks turned red, and he turned away. "Girlfriend and good friend."
"Uh boss?" Kira asked, and Zale turned to look at him. "What's that furry thing on your back?"
"Umba, Umba!" it said detaching one arm from Zale's back, and waving cutely.
"I don't want to talk about it." Zale said simply with a scowl, and the others were forced to hold back a laugh. "Alright you've got your job, I'll be going."
Zale dismissed the meeting, and left the others soon following his example. None of them noticed a hidden presence, none of them noticed a black haired girl, and they didn't notice her leap away to a hidden place. "Why did they call him Zale, and who were some of those people?" Satsuki asked herself hugging her knees, but she came to a single conclusion. "It doesn't matter I can't let it come to that no matter what happens. I won't let Naruto, or Zale leave the village no matter what."
Satsuki ran off to meet Kurumi. "Hey Kurumi, how're you doing?" Satsuki asked now in a henge, so she looked nothing like Sasuke Uchiha, or Satsuki Uchiha, and not to be bothered.
"I'm doing okay, but I don't think that this guy tagging along will make hanging around any easier." Kurumi said of course referring to Gaara stood with his eyes closed behind her. "You know you can get out of here I'm only going to hang out with my friend here."
"I apologize, but Naruto's asked me to look after you while you are out of the village, and I've chosen to do him that favor." Gaara said simply.
"Well can you look less imposing?" Kurumi asked, but Gaara's face remained in a scowl. "Fine then, if you're going to have to follow me around everywhere then at least make yourself invisible to the villagers." Gaara nodded before disappearing in a swirl of sand. "You can tag along Shiki."
"Hooray!" Shiki said appearing out of nowhere. "I haven't seen you in ages Kurumi, I'm so happy to see you again!"
"Satsuki, Shiki here is my little sister. We haven't seen each other in a long time because she was settled in the sand village, and I was here." Kurumi said patting the girl's head.
"But you two look the same age." Satsuki said examining the girls closely.
"It's a minor difference." Kurumi quickly covered, and Satsuki left it alone. "I've been in the village for a while now, and I've never seen its shopping district before. Zale's never taken me before."
"Oh well there's a really great shopping mall there, and a few nice shops. It's all on me too because I just got some clan money out of the vault, and I need something to spend it on." Satsuki said, and this made Shiki squeal with excitement. 'What do I tell Kurumi about what I heard? Does she know about Naruto or Zale? Is it my place to even tell her, but if I was living with Zale/Naruto I would want Kurumi to tell me.'Satsuki thought. "Hey Kurumi do you think that Naruto tells you everything?"
"Well I'm sure that he has his secrets, but we all do, so I think that it's okay." Kurumi said with a smile.
"I guess that makes sense." Satsuki said, but she still had doubts, and worries about whether to tell Kurumi about Naruto/Zale. "Let's go in here; I need to get some new kunai, and shuriken."
"Ooo all of these things are really shiny." Shiki said looking over the weapons that gleamed with light. "I like the way that this one looks."
"Shiki stay away from that." Kurumi said pulling the girl back. 'She always was the stupid one of all nine of us.' "So Satsuki, how has the ninja thing been going lately anyway?"
"It's been going well, but since the sand attack we've been having a lot of missions, and not enough shinobi to fill them." Satsuki said. Things had been going crazy left Naruto/Zale had been giving the brunt of that. The council had stacked him with missions making it so he and Kurumi were almost never in the village. "Kakashi sensei's never in to train us anymore."
"What about Sakura, I've seen her in the village all the time." Kurumi said.
"Would you send Sakura on any mission?" Satsuki asked, and Kurumi nodded in agreement. "Um I think that Shiki went chasing that cart."
"Oh no she got hit last time." Kurumi said running off after her sister leaving Satsuki to inspect the weapons. She came back panting holding Shiki who glared at her. "I found her arguing with a dog."
"I don't care what you say he was being a jerk, and deserved that smack." Shiki said with a huff turning her head away from Kurumi who glared at her. "I'm going back with Gaara he doesn't stop me in the middle of an argument."
"It wasn't an argument you were glaring at an Inuzuka dog." Kurumi said, and Shiki stuck her tongue out at her before disappearing in a swirl of sand. "Sorry about her she's always been the stupid one."
"Don't worry about it, I think it's sweet. I never had a really good relationship with my family." Satsuki said trying to ignore what she had just said, and Kurumi seemed to move past it. "This looks nice."
They spent the afternoon shopping, and came back arms filled with bags. They were walking down an alley when Kurumi decided to come clean with what she had been occupied with. "Satsuki you've been distracted all day, what's wrong?"
Satsuki hesitated. 'Do I tell her, but I would want her to tell me.' "Kurumi if you knew something serious about someone that involved me would you tell me?" Satsuki asked, and Kurumi nodded. "What do you know about Zale?" She didn't get the response she was looking for. Satsuki had to dodge a sudden strike to her head that ended up going through a brick wall. "Hold on Kurumi!"
Kurumi didn't give her a chance to explain instead prompting to send of a barrage of punches each one too fast to block, and she was forced to dodge. Being her friend Satsuki wouldn't fight back, but Kurumi didn't seem to hesitate each strike full force, and more than enough to blow her brain out of her skull. She was forced to back away until her back hit the wall, and her path was blocked by two sand walls.
"What do you know about that?" Kurumi finally asked her fist shaking behind her.
"I only saw Zale, and the others talking!" Satsuki said, and Kurumi's arm came down. "I only heard them talking about how they might have to leave the village, and how they wanted to bring peace to the world. That's it, I swear."
"Oh okay." Kurumi said backing away, but she could feel Gaara ready to kill Satsuki. "You probably want an explanation for that huh?" Satsuki nodded. "Well that's going to be a little hard to explain. You see Naruto or Zale has this dream, and in that dream everyone lives happily, and in peace. Ever since he learned how to use Manipulation he's wanted to use it to bring peace to the world. Naruto's real name is Zale the leaf village gave it to him because Zale is so uncommon."
"I also saw how Naruto/Zale was really different from how he usually acts." Satsuki said.
"Well you must have seen how they acted with each other, so he has to be pretty tuff on them, or they'll kind of kill each other." Satsuki seemed to buy this, and Kurumi let out an inner sigh of relief.
"So the Naruto I've known all this time is kind of an unreal form of him?" Satsuki asked.
"Not exactly unreal, but you know how the council is. He has to act the way he did because they might just send him off to die, or something because of being a Jinchuriki, and all."
"Well why did you attack me?"
"Please a Jinchuriki with big dreams like his, how quick do you think the council would have him on the chopping block?" Kurumi asked.
"Still it seems pretty weird." Satsuki admitted curious.
"This comes from the girl that pretends to be a boy." Kurumi said with a smile, and Satsuki smiled back. After a few minutes of that she felt Gaara lower the walls, and the KI was gotten rid of. "You're definitely not going to tell anyone right?"
"Please, I would do anything to keep Zale in the village." Satsuki said, and Kurumi silently thanked Kami that she wouldn't have to kill her friend."