Once the shock of their Queen's statement wore off, the two Petal ninja began to passionately protest. Naruto eyed his predecessor and read the document in front of him. They were keeping the Queen as insurance that the Petal village would follow the agreement. If the Petal attacked any of the five countries the Queen's life was forfeit. In the event the Queen tried to escape the Petal would be attacked by not only the Leaf but the other countries as well. It kept them on a short leash but their ambitions had been to high and gruesome. Naruto was a little surprised that there were no marriage arrangements in the document. Sasuke must not have had a hand in it. The Queen held up a hand and silence fell on her ninja.
"Do not belittle my sacrifice. I am doing this to protect my children. By giving up the life I loved with all of you, you get to go home and live as you have," the Queen spoke mournfully but with purpose.
"It won't be the same without you," cried Yuriko, flinging herself to grasp the hand of her leader.
"Let us stay with you," Reika requested, still kneeling.
"I can't, its not in the treaty. Besides, our village is going to need everyone to cope with the losses of today and of all the yesterdays and all of the tomorrows. Two of its main pillars must be there to stand strong," Kamiko told them with a sad smile.
Naruto signed the paper in front of him, they wanted to spare lives, this would do it. He was going to hand it to Tsunade but she was over by his wife healing her and Ino. Nine had slipped in by Sakura as well. He looked back to Kamiko, she nodded to him, she was officially a ward of the Leaf.
"I won't allow this," snarled the usually calm Reika as she charged Naruto, sword ready to kill.
He was prepared to fight but Kamiko was before him, taking the woman down in swift moments. She locked up the attackers arms with one of her own and her body. She flipped the dark haired woman intent on harm around so she was looking to the sky and with her free hand Kamiko drew a line with a kunai she stole from the pinned ninja through the flower on the forehead protector of the taken back Reika.
"I hope the actions of this Petal rouge will not damage our bond of newly laid trust," the former Queen stated as she released her captive and shoved her away.
Her fate may have turned her into a bargaining chip in a treaty but to Naruto she still held all her regal bearing in that moment. Her stance challenged both Petal ninja to do anything about the actions she had just took to insure the well being of their village. It seemed all the crazy has drained from the dirty blond as she looked from her partner to her Queen. Like a scolded child Reika stared a hole in the ground.
"Of course not," Naruto decided, she had made a hard choice for the sake of lives. He would not punish everyone for the rash behavior of one.
"My last order as your Queen is to take everyone back to the village and wait for a copy of the treaty, then live your lives as you see fit," Kamiko declared.
The Petal women headed for the South wall, to take all their comrades back home. Kamiko watched them go with a longing look. She wasn't the kind to let things bother her for long. She would find a way out of this or a way to enjoy it. Ripping her attention from the South and home she focused on the Hokage whose wounds were healing fast.
"Why were you toying with those two?" she accused. This man had defeated her strongest chimera and yet two women had seemed to put up a good fight but she was certain he was holding back.
Big blue innocent eyes met her golden stare. If he was going to play dumb she wasn't going to stand for it. Sakura noticed the two stubborn leaders sizing each other up. Rather than allow a brawl to break loose she called to her husband.
"I miss Takara, will you take me to the hospital now?" she asked him.
He moved away from his new charge, when his back was turned she moved to strike him in his blind spot trying to test him. She was stopped by a man in a snake mask.
"That's not very nice," he scolded lightly, putting minimum pressure on her slender wrist.
Her eyes grew big as she recognized the voice as the man who claimed to want to marry her. She tore her wrist away from him and put a few feet between them for her comfort. If she could see behind the mask, she would have seen the wicked grin on his face. Uzumakis were a lot of fun to tease. Naruto knew she hadn't come at him with deadly intent so he moved on and took his wife to the hospital followed by Shikimaru taking his teammate. Ino insisted she was fine with Tsunade patching her up but it fell on deaf ears. She didn't know it but she hadn't been out of his arms once after he picked her up. Tsunade headed off to the front lines to make sure all the Petals cleared out. The redhead refused to be left alone with the creepy snake man and jumped down to the street to explore her new home, she was being shadowed by two of the Fifth's ANBU.
Nine strolled up to her husband and placed a hand on his shoulder and said, "no."
"But," he started.
"No and Jun will agree with me," she ended the conversation there, patted him on the shoulder and vanished to follow her Hokage.
He was no where near done with this discussion but for the moment he had a bigger fish to fry. A pink haired medic was going to get what was coming to her, he'd make good on his word to kill her. Naruto got her back and secured in her hospital bed and this time made her promise to stay in it until her doctor gave her the clear to leave. He had a few things to take care of so he left her there guarded by a few of his ANBU.
Sasuke had no problem slipping into her room, no one questioned the head of ANBU. Resting with her eyes closed and arms by her side, Sakura felt cold metal rest against her neck. It was a strangely familiar sensation. She peeked open an eye to see an emotionless Sasuke holding his short sword to her neck.
"Oh good, I thought with your newest conquest wondering about you'd forget all about trying to kill me," she sneered.
"If you ever put me in that position again I will kill you," he warned.
"What position?" she growled.
"Watching you destroy Naruto or crushing you. Next time I'm crushing you without a second thought," he answered, no clues on his face as to what he was feeling.
"You're going to have to explain better than that if you want me to understand," she stated, her eyes narrowing in annoyance.
"You don't know what you did to him when you left, he was a shell of the Naruto we knew growing up. His old light started to flicker that night you came home. I held a blade to your neck then because if you kissed him and ran again it would have shattered him into so many pieces there would be no putting him back together. Obvisouly things got out of my hands fast but you're both adults, and turned out for the better for now. Getting yourself killed is a good way to hollow him out again," stated the man with empty eyes.
"I think your exaggerating my influence on him a bit," she defended, not wanting to believe her friend's harsh words.
"You can ask anyone, I'm not. You could have killed yourself with that illusion technique if it hadn't been for Tomo and I. So next time you get it in your head you want to die, I will stop you. Naruto means too much to me to let me sit back and do nothing to protect his happiness," Sasuke stated starting to show a little emotion.
Guilt wiggled around and settled in her chest, with him not coming after her she had always amused he was fine. So much had happened between the two of them since she came home. He had seemed reserved with her at first but he was the same impulsive idiot she remembered. She didn't want to talk to Sasuke anymore, she needed some time to think.
"Are you going to kill me now?" she questioned, the cold blade still lingering on her neck.
Swift hands returned the sword to its home, "Next time you get it in that thick forehead of yours that the only way to protect Naruto is for you to put your life on the line, remember I'm his protector just as much as you. I was of the understanding you and I had an agreement that between the two of us nothing would harm him. I know you're an Uzumaki now but stop being such an idiot with your life," he sniped.
Naruto sneezed, rubbed his nose and continued looking over the reports of damages done in that mornings attack. No lives were lost yet but a few were in critical condition. With the best medic in the hospital herself, others were dealing with it along with Tsunade, which meant Naruto was stuck with the paperwork again. He was aggravated that he was stuffed away in his office while he would rather be where his daughter was. Demon finally showed up in his office after being checked over by a doctor.
"I'm ready for punishment," she stated before her sensei could say a word.
"Don't worry about it, Sakura has a way of making you feel like she isn't a threat then you get sent flying through the air from a punch to the face, just ask Sai sometime. In training this week we'll have the team go over how to avoid those kinds of attacks medic like to use," Naruto waved off her concerns.
"I know how to dodge them, I was distracted, therefore punishment is necessary," countered the girl.
"Fine, go do a round at the hospital, see to whatever Granny needs," he decided, he had planned on sending her there anyways but now she thought it was punishment since she wasn't one to like hospital work, out on the battle field she was fine with patching fallen allies.
"I'll be off then," sighed the girl behind the demon mask.
"Here, I'll give you a ride," he held out a hand, he was going to sneak away for a minute to dote on his daughter.
They flashed into Sakura's hospital room to find her and Sasuke arguing.
"You don't need to protect him, idiot, he's stronger than you," snapped the Uchiha.
"He may be stronger than me in some ways but that doesn't mean I stand back and watch, you jerk!" roared the temperamental woman.
"Enough," barked Naruto in his Hokage voice, "look, I'm not happy with either of you at the moment but now is not the time to be harping on Sakura. When she is back on her feet you two can spar and pick each other apart about who is wrong and who needs who to protect whoever. Sasuke make yourself useful and see to all the ANBU, Sakura rest up, and Demon go find Granny. I will be going to find my daughter, when I come back, this room better be peaceful!"
