Chapter 12
The Calm
"Ahhhhhhh! Damn you Mabrryyyyyy—!" Nagi screamed as he careened up the wind tunnel to Tengoku. The Capoiera fighter had refused to jump in when the mechanics of how he was supposed to get to the city were made clear to him. When pressed for a reason, he refused to say. That is until that bastard Mabry had guessed he was afraid of heights, laughed, then picked him up and threw him into the ravine.
With a puff he burst through the cloud bank and landed unceremoniously on his face, his rear end high in the air behind him. He muttered some choice curse words he had picked up in his travels and pushed up onto his hands. This place is amazi…
His thoughts were interrupted as Senjii burst through the clouds as well, and headed right for him. With a yelp, Nagi rolled out of the way just as Senjii landed.
Naruto grinned down on the ground with Mabry and the three kids. He hopped back on top the wagon and shouted down to Mabry. "Well? What are you waiting for?"
Mabry laughed and settled down, holding the reins and clipped them, sending his entire wagon into the ravine and letting the wind pick it up and shoot it into the air. Somehow, whether through some form of magic, chakra control or perhaps sheer force of will, Mabry managed to keep the wagon perfectly straight as it shot up into the cloud banks and his mules perfectly calm.
Seconds later the largest wagon the world has ever seen was landing with a 'whoomp' on the cloud banks of Tengoku. It giant wheels grabbing a foothold on the white surface and immediately rolling forward towards the dirt shore.
Naruto laughed and stood on top of the wagon, looking at the progress of the white tower, the orphanage and street markings. His clones had sent along the memories, but it really didn't have the same impact as seeing it for yourself. He shouted at the top of his lungs, sending a flock of rare birds flying out of the treetops.
"I'm home!"
Later that evening, Naruto sat at large table in the first floor of the white tower. Around the table sat Jiraiya, Tenchi, Tsunade, Old Man Tora, Guerrera, Sakura, Hiroka, Senjii and Nagi. Standing on one end of the table was Milford Mabry, grinning like a madman.
"Tsunade, I have to hand it to you, you weren't kidding." He looked out the opening where eventually a glass pane window would fit and stared out as hundreds of brand spanking new Naruto clones worked feverishly to make up for lost time. Some were also playing with the children at the Orphanage while the clones working nearest were scowling in jealousy. "This place is mind blowing."
Tsunade smiled and nodded. Spirits were high around the table. "Yes, it truly is a one of a kind location. Naruto you couldn't have found a better place."
Naruto grinned sheepishly. "So how's everything going here? I mean my clones gave me a good bit of information, but they were mostly just workers, so what else should we know about?"
Jiraiya nodded in satisfaction, Naruto was becoming more mature as the responsibility of building this village brick by brick was teaching him.
"Well Mabry here has arranged our food and medicine supply line," Jiraiya nodded to Mabry.
"That's right," Mabry replied. His voice taking on a much more serious tone. "Once a month a caravan with goods will be at the ravine waiting for pickup. Cash on delivery." He cocked his head to the side. "How are we paying for things now by the way?"
"We?" Tenchi asked him with a sly grin. "Have you decided to join our ranks?"
Mabry looked back at the orphanage and sighed. "I've always been afraid that one day when I'm traveling some warlord would find my children. You've offered them a safe place to live. For that you have my allegiance. I will fight for you."
Sakura cleared her throat. "I hope this isn't rude, but I've been meaning to ask. You're not a ninja, but when you told me about your fight with the Hokage, I got the impression it wasn't a one sided battle."
Naruto looked wide eyed. "You fought with the old man?" His expression was one of confusion.
Mabry laughed. "We had a disagreement over how one particular urchin in his village was being treated. We worked it out." Naruto seemed to take that explanation, but Jiraiya and Tsunade laughed.
"Worked it out?" Tsunade asked. "You battled each other for the better part of an afternoon. Shizune was in Konoha at the time and she told me all about it. You were both bloodied and tired and it was only after Sensei used his summon staff to knock you out did it end."
Naruto, Sakura, Nagi and Senjii stared wide eyed at Mabry, seeing him in a whole new light.
Mabry shrugged. "Like I said, we worked it out."
"What's your fighting style?" Naruto asked excitedly. "We already have ninja, samurai, a luchador, so what's your style? Can we use it to teach the students in the academy?"
Jiraiya nodded. "Mabry is a down and dirty street fighter Naruto. Toe to toe one of the toughest bastards you will ever meet. The man is a tank, just takes damage like there's no tomorrow but dishes it back out too."
Mabry sighed and sat down. "When you learn to fight on the streets you just learn what works and what doesn't. I don't have a 'style' Naruto. I just win because I have to."
Naruto nodded and looked pensive.
Jiraiya cleared his throat and changed the topic. "Well we should formally welcome the new additions to our Archangel fighting force. Sakura and Nagi." A smattering of clapping accompanied Jiraiya passing Tengoku armbands down the table to them.
"Now, I have a couple things to talk about," Jiraiya continued. "Firstly, I would like to broach the subject of leadership." The table went quiet, unsure of where this was going.
"I would like to formally ask if we will accept Naruto as the village leader," Jiraiya said in a deep voice. You could have heard a pin drop as the wind whistled in through the window frame. All eyes turned to the suddenly very still Naruto.
"I second that," Tenchi said. Naruto glanced at him too, his eyes getting wider and wider.
"Wai…wait..." Naruto managed to stammer out. He stood up. "The village isn't complete as yet. I'm still learning how to get stronger, how to deal with...so many things. I can't possibly be ready to lead this village." His voice was plaintive. This was a dream of his, but to have it thrust upon him, like this…
"Naruto," Tsunade said in a motherly voice, seeking to calm him. "No one is ever ready for the mantle of responsibility. What matters in a leader is the ability to inspire and lead."
Senjii grinned. "You have that in spades Naruto. You saved my life and gave me a purpose."
Nagi nodded in agreement. "You saved my life too. I'll follow you."
Jiraiya chimed in. "We all have faith in you Naruto. You will get stronger, you will get smarter. Those things come with time. But your heart is already in the right place. No one is saying you will have to do this alone. Tsunade and I are volunteering to be your advisors, and Tenchi will continue to teach you."
Naruto sighed in relief. "Well OK, once you guys are still around."
They all laughed at that one. "So are we in agreement?" Sakura's eyes became teary, realizing her teammate's dream was about to come true.
"Naruto is now officially the leader of the Heavenly Village; Tengoku," Jiriaya said with a sense of finality. He took out a gold version of the armband and passed it down to Naruto.
Naruto held it up, the light catching the gold and gleaming back at him. Tears streamed down his face. Tenchi cocked an eyebrow at Jiraiya.
"Well he'd just look stupid under a Kage's hat wouldn't he? Plus he's not a Kage, we're not a recognized village as yet," Jiraiya said by way of response.
After a few congratulations to Naruto, they continued with the business at hand.
"I have my spy network spreading word that families that are looking for somewhere safe to live can find such a place. We need citizens to inject life into this village. Now the spies are checking on all the families, and we'll be going to meet them in a week's time at a village twenty miles to the west of the mountains. Mabry and I can handle it."
"Wait," Naruto spoke up. His eyes going to the armband he hadn't put on as yet. "I want to come too. I want to know every member of this village personally."
The adults in the room all smiled. Naruto would grow into a fine leader.
"That's great Naruto, but maybe we should work on your clothing?" Tsunade suggested. Sakura nodded vigorously, an evil gleam in her eyes.
Naruto looked down at his white clothes which were brand new; so what was Oba-san talking about?
Mabry nodded. "It's a good battle uniform, but it's not very statesman like. As the village leader you have to be looked upon with respect, command a certain level of awe and admiration."
Senjii looked across at his friend. "Well Naruto, I'm sorry but I have to agree. All the big shots will look down on you dressed like a common warrior. They'll just see a kid. They won't see a leader."
Sakura chimed in. "Now that white suit that Senjii-san is wearing…that's the kind of thing you should wear."
Senjii smiled, "I'd gladly donate this suit. I have others like it I got as payment for a small job from a tailor. Maybe someone can tailor it to fit you Naruto."
The look of abject horror on Naruto's face was priceless as Sakura, Hiroka and Tsunade dragged him out of the room to get measured.
Senjii stood on the platform that would be the fifth floor of the white tower. The view was spectacular. The entire island could be seen from this height, above the canopy of the trees that grew here, above the clouds. It felt as if he was at the highest point in the world. He looked down at all the Naruto clones working as hard as ever to build this city. Some were stamping the main road flat as they could in preparation for the cobblestones Guerrera had prepared. Others were erecting poles that would connect the orphanage, then the white tower, to the Power station that wasn't operational as yet. Soon they'd have electricity to add to the already working plumbing.
He saw Hiroka and Sakura talking under a shady tree by the 'training grounds'. He hadn't spoken to her since she'd arrived in Tengoku. Senjii knew he should but just couldn't bring himself to do it.
"I can face down an army of demon warriors…but one girl…" He sighed and turned to head back downstairs and have a talk with Nagi.
Twenty miles to the west of Tengoku
Kakashi stared up at sight before him. A caravan of people had camped out in the valley Jiraiya had told him was the rendezvous point. At least twenty families with what looked like every worldly possession that they had.
Kakashi approached very carefully, it wouldn't do to frighten these people.
"Stop!" A girl with a crossbow ordered him. She couldn't have been more than sixteen, with her hair in pigtails and her white dress spotless despite what had to have been living in that caravan for a while.
Kakashi obliged and put his hands up, smiling as best he could under the mask.
The girl scowled at him. "What's your business here?!" she demanded.
"I'm here to meet a friend," Kakashi said as matter-of-fact as possibly. These people may be here by accident or design, but he wasn't about to give any information away that wasn't necessary.
"Do you mean the Toad Master?" she asked, the hostility fading from her voice.
Kakashi nodded and lowered his hands as he saw her breathe a sigh of relief and lower the crossbow.
"We're here to meet him as well," she said, motioning to the wagons arranged in a defensive circle. "But he's not due for a couple more days. You're welcome to wait with us."
Kakashi smiled at the girl, she was pretty when she wasn't pointing a weapon at him. "Sure if you don't mind. My name is Hatake Kakashi."
She smiled right back at him. "I'm Calamity. Yes it's a nickname, no don't ask, and no I won't tell you my real name." She turned on her heel and walked back inside the circle leaving Kakashi stunned and grinning.
Palace of the Fire Daimyo.
The lone figure dropped soundlessly to the floor behind the guard and planted a kunai into the back of his skull. He died soundlessly and fell forward, but before he hit the floor the intruder was streaking like a crow straight down the corridor. For this part of the mission, he was not supposed to attract attention, so he did his best to be invisible. His all black clothes, his face hidden behind a dark metal mask, only his eyes showing, all designed to make him hard to see in the dark.
Three dead guards later, he stood at the door to the Daimyo's office where lords and ladies of the court would meet with him. Certainly some would be there, it wasn't that late in the day that the place would be emptied.
Which was perfect as this part of the plan required witnesses. Swiftly he dug into his pouch and pulled on a headband that declared him a ninja of Iwagakure. With a sharp intake of breath he crashed through the big oak doors and rolled into the room.
The intelligence had been right. At least ten courtesans were present, as well as five guards. He dodged the attacks coming from the guards and flung kunai at them in a spread pattern, it was meant to distract more than kill, although it did have the effect of taking out two of them.
No matter, he was within striking distance of his target now. The Daimyo stood stunned at what was happening before him. The intruder leapt high into the air and bellowed the rehearsed script. "For the glory of Iwa!"
He plunged his kunai hilt deep into the heart of the Fire Daimyo amidst the screams of the witnesses. Without stopping, he grabbed the body and jumped out the window. The glass shattered easily and they plummeted to the earth four stories below.
The intruder positioned the body under his and at the best possible moment jumped up and across using the body as a platform. His fall was by no means smooth but he was unharmed as he rolled again and headed into the darkness of the alleyways, his mission accomplished flawlessly.
Tengoku
"So what's the story with you and Naruto?" Hiroka asked Sakura. The two of them had hit it off right away. Besides being the only girls their age in the village, they genuinely liked each other. Sakura thought Hiroka was a no-nonsense warrior and respected that, and Hiroka thought Sakura was a dedicated Kunoichi and Medic. Plus they both loved playing with the kids.
"No story there," Sakura said smiling. "We're friends. That's all we'll ever be." Sakura knew that to be true. Despite his…decision…her heart would forever and always belong to Sasuke.
"What about you and Senjii? What's going on there? You guys always seem so awkward around each other, and he never speaks to you." Sakura asked.
Hiroka sighed. "He's my fiancée," she replied.
"What?!" Sakura exclaimed. "You guys are going to get married?"
Hiroka shook her head. "Not until…well…lets say not for a while."
Sakura practically growled at Hiroka. "Oh no. You're not clamming up on me now. Spill!"
Hiroka stood up and watched the sun begin to set.
"Two years ago, Senjii and I were engaged to be married. My father approved of Senjii, he was an up and coming student of my uncle who was recognized to be the best swordsman in the world. Senjii was handsome, dedicated, and loving." Hiroka sighed and sat back down.
"Senjii also loved his brother. The two of them were inseparable. I would have sworn that on our wedding night we'd have had a witness in the room." Sakura blushed at that but motioned for Hiroka to continue.
"On the morning of our wedding, the school where Senjii studied was destroyed. Every person in it massacred. Senjii wasn't there, in fact he didn't even hear about it until he arrived at the wedding. I begged him not to go but he ran to the school. His brother was killed. My Uncle, his sensei, was killed. Children who studied there, all slaughtered."
Sakura's eyes brimmed with tears.
"Senjii fell to his knees and cried for his loss. I know my fiancée, his heart broke that day. He told me that very evening that he could not marry me until his brother and sensei had been avenged. I told him do not think he could walk away from me, I'd not let him out of my life. He set out to find the killers anyway."
Hiroka looked up at the top of the white tower and was sure she saw Senjii's silhouette looking down on them.
"He's been lost ever since, looking in the wilderness and the badlands for any clues. He stops by my dad's place every so often. I will not marry anyone else because I know Senjii is the one for me. I have to say though, that this is the first time I've seen him genuinely happy. I think he's found a new brother in Naruto."
Sakura smiled. "Well Naruto does have that affect on people." She looked around at the village being built around them. "He's truly a most unpredictable ninja."
Naruto looked at the two frogs in front of him excitedly.
"Sage Arts?" His voice hid no emotion, his excitement bared open for all to see.
"Yes Naruto. Young Jiraiya has told us you are beginning to feel the natural energy around you. Tell me, is this true?" Pa Toad asked.
Naruto looked pensive for a second and nodded. "I feel something. This presence all around. I thought it was the wind. I have a wind affinity, so I thought because of how much wind there is up here, how this island is kept up by the wind, that I was just feeling an…abundance."
Pa nodded "Mmhmm. Yes what you're feeling is the natural energy of this place. It is not only wind that keeps this island afloat, but unfathomable amounts of chakra flow. Natural energy flows through here like a stream, but because this is what we'll call the center of the worlds wind and wind chakra, it pools a bit allowing the wind to lift the island. It is nature at its most powerful."
Ma looked Naruto up and down. "You're very young to learn this Naruto. Sage Arts are not to be taken lightly. We need to teach you how to recognize it and learn to control it before Natural Energy consumes you."
Naruto looked scared. "That sounds bad. What happens if Natural Energy consumes me?"
Pa laughed. "You turn into a toad statue Naruto. The energy is too much for your natural body to handle and you become petrified."
Naruto scowled. "Why a TOAD statue?"
Ma smiled. "Because you have the toad contract, any natural energy that courses through you interacts with the contract. So you take on the form of a toad. If you had a dog contract you'd become a petrified dog and so on."
Naruto grinned and stood up. The training ground they were on was clear of clones, children and all the current residents of Tengoku. The Toad elders had asked for some privacy to have this discussion with Naruto.
"Well let's start! I have one week before I go to greet some more possible villagers." He pumped his fist in the air, excited to begin.
"Well we probably can't teach you much more than to recognize the energy, so hopefully you won't petrify before you come back," Pa said. He pulled out a large stick and smiled at Naruto. "Let's begin."
Konoha.
The Hokage looked down at the city of Konoha. It had begun to take on a darker more serious feel to it. The carefree and happy lives of the citizens in it seemed to be clouded over by fear and a seriousness that hadn't been there before.
"Good," he muttered to himself. "We're a damned military village, about time these fools recognized that fact."
He felt the presence in the room behind him and turned. It was one of his root members, one that had just carried out a particularly sensitive assignment.
"It is done Hokage," the man said from behind his mask.
Danzo nodded and turned back to look down at Konoha just as lightning flashed and thunder rolled across the village. "Now we await word, but we will be going to war soon. Prepare the ROOT."
One week later
Naruto stretched, not feeling one hundred percent comfortable in the suit he was now wearing. Hiroka was an artist with her needle and thread. It didn't take much to get Senjii's suit to look perfect on him. Naruto sighed, he did look a lot more respectable he supposed wearing it. His hair was still long though, as no one in the village knew how to cut hair properly. He looked in the mirror and let a small smile escape him. He was starting to look like the face on the Hokage Monument in Konoha.
He slipped on the gold arm band and almost didn't recognize his own reflection. He looked…serious.
Naruto grinned and walked out to meet his friends. Senjii had found a different style suit for himself and Nagi, one that didn't have a collar. Both of them wore the white suites with an elegance that Naruto never thought he'd be able to match.
Sakura was talking to Hiroka at the main table when the three of them walked in. She was literally stunned. Naruto looked...simply amazing…in his new clothes. The other two boys (although she was younger than them, they were Naruto's friends so she thought of them as boys) also made her heart beat a little bit faster.
Hiroka grinned devilishly. "Hope you're not staring at my man Sakura."
Sakura smiled back. "They make a great trio don't they?"
Hiroka laughed. "Well at least this island has some good eye candy."
Mabry and Jiraiya walked in and looked over the three boys. They smiled.
"Now you look like a village leader Naruto. And you boys cleaned up nicely," Jiraiya said.
Nagi looked very proud, dusting his sleeves a bit and adjusting the jacket. "We're just born to dress in style."
Mabry's booming laugh was heard all through Tengoku. "Come children, let's get on my wagon and see how it fares on the ride down."
Sakura and Hiroka watched them ride off on the wagon and turned to look at each other.
"Does it seem to you that those boys are always going off on their own adventures and leaving us behind?" Hiroka asked.
Sakura nodded forcefully. She turned around and saw who she was looking for. "Hey Guerrera!" She shouted across the dirt street. "You mind if we take off for a couple days?" They had been helping out a lot with the orphanage. He smiled and nodded.
Sakura glanced towards the white tower and saw Tsunade nod at her with a smile too. With a grin, she and Hiroka launched themselves after the Wagon.
"Wait for us!"