Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or The Last Airbender.
Bodyguard of Azula
Chapter 59: Saying Goodbye and Saying Hello
"Talking"
"Thinking"
"Bijū/spirit talking"
"Bijū/spirit thinking"
(Location: Coastal Hotel)
Anko and her team waited in silence in their suite. It had been their job to take the scroll holding the swords away while the others fought the Akatsuki members. They had gotten back to the hotel with relative ease and were now dealing with the hard part: waiting. "How long has it been?" Jūgo asked Anko. He was worried about his teammates. He had wanted to help them, but he also admitted the fact that he might lose control wouldn't be beneficial, even if Anko was there to calm him down.
"It's been well over three hours." She answered, checking the time on a nearby clock. For a quiet moment, she studied her student. "Jūgo, I'm proud of you. It took courage to admit you would be more hindrance then help in the fights."
"Not to mention a good deal of pride." He replied, making both her and Karin smile. He was right, of course. He was willing to put what pride he had aside and dispute the fact he would be helpful in fight when both Sokka and Suigetsu suggested it.
"Nevertheless, I am proud of you." She repeated. "Perhaps, when we return to Konoha, it will be time for you to write your name in the Snake Summoning Scroll."
He was surprised by those words. "Are…are you sure about that?" He asked, making sure he hadn't heard wrong. When Sasuke had refused to become the Second Snake Sage, they had offered it to Anko. She had also refused, but promised to take possession of the Scroll and pass it onto the student she thought deserved it.
"Yes, yes I am." She answered. If there was anyone who deserved to be called the Snake Sage, she believed it was Jūgo. "And I'm sure that Lord Jiraiya and Lady Tsunade would agree with me."
"I hope so." It was every possible that he would be a part of the next generation of the Densetsu no Sannin. Tsunade and Jiraiya would probably look at him and be hard-pressed not to see his predecessor. But it also made him pause for a minute. If he was to be the next Snake Sannin, then who would be his teammates? Sakura would probably be the next Slug Sannin, but the question lay with Naruto. It was still unknown if he would actually stay when the Akatsuki were finished. When Jiraiya had been pushed to take a new student, he had replied that he already had one and nothing would change that. If Naruto didn't stay, there could be no new generation.
They all heard someone banging on the door to the suite. Getting up from where they sat, both Karin and Jūgo moved to either side of the door while Anko looked through the peephole. "Who is it?" She demanded.
"It's us." Chōjūrō answered. She could see him standing in front of the peephole, with Suigetsu and Raimu behind him. Looking over at Karin, the redhead got the point and quietly clasped her hands in a handseal, closing her eyes. After a quiet moment of focus, she opened her eyes and nodded.
"Come on in then." She opened the door as her students stepped back. The Kiri team walked in, Raimu closing the door behind him. "So, how did it go?"
"He's dead." Suigetsu said simply, holding up the bag that held Kisame's head. The bottom of it was dark and if they felt it, they would've found it wet. But it was not wet enough to drip, so they wouldn't have to try and explain why there were spots on the carpet that smelt funny.
"What about the body?"
"We hid it for the time being. We had used the explosive tags we had in the fight and none of us know a Katon jutsu. We'll take care of it tomorrow once we get the right stuff." Which would mostly be lighter fluid and some matches.
"Next time, just try learning a Katon jutsu, moron." Karin told him, albeit without her usual amount of scorn. If anything, it looked like she was glad to see the Hōzuki clan member.
"Could you two lovebirds save the fighting for later?" Raimu asked as he all but sank into a chair, putting Samehada at its side. "I'm too tired to care about it right now."
Even though they had glared at him, they didn't yell that the other wasn't his/her girlfriend/boyfriend. Those who had noticed that little fact didn't have time to say something about it as the door to the suite was banged on again. "It's us." Jiraiya's voice spoke through the door.
After Karin quickly checked and verified that it was Team Paragon, they were let in. "So? How did it go?" Anko asked as they all settled down into the surrounding chairs.
"I've got a head in a bag that'll get me a whole lot of cash." June said with a smirk, holding up a bag of her own. "Mama's happy." She eyed the bag that Suigetsu placed to the side. "Is there any chance of me getting that bag too?" The fact that all three members of the Kiri team scowled and reached for their swords was enough of an answer for her. "Fair enough, I had to ask."
"You've already got one head, June." Naruto told her. Both he and Azula laid back on the love couch in the suite's living room. Their legs were tangled together and it almost looked like they had been like that for a while. Naruto lay against the right side while Azula lay on the opposite side. "You don't need another one." The blonde told the bounty hunter, putting his hands behind his head.
"You're the one who told me that there was money to be made on this side of the planet." She replied, lounging on the other sofa in the living room. "Besides, I wasn't serious."
"Well, that's good to know." Sokka remarked from where he sat against the kitchen counter. "The bounty hunter wasn't serious about getting more cash."
"Sarcasm noted and ignored." She replied, looking over at the Tribesmen "But I want to know one thing, Sokka. When you said that Kakuzu was there and you drew your Zanpakutō, you opened your eyes. How did you know he was there if your eyes were closed?"
"I felt him coming by feeling him through the earth." He replied with a shrug of his shoulders.
While the others were confused by what he said, Naruto knew and let out an impressed whistle. "You've already figured out how to feel vibrations through the earth? That's impressive, Sokka. How long did it take you?"
"I asked Toph for a couple of pointers during the month in Ba Sing Se, it went a lot faster after that." He chuckled a little. "She sure was surprised when I could do it."
"You did it in a month? It took me more than half a year." He was even more impressed. When it came to learning things that dealt with being a Paragon, the whole seismic sense had been one of the more annoying ones (it had been right up there with the ability to cut off the link to the Avatar State. The mere memory of the "Avatar dummy" that Sifu had used to help him still grated on his nerves).
"Yeah, I don't have the full grasp of it. I don't think I'll be able to be a human lie detector like Toph is." Sokka admitted.
"That's okay, I can't do it either. Probably out of the four of us, Suki will be the only who could."
"What makes you say that?" Suki asked, looking at the blonde from where she sat next to her boyfriend.
"Well, you are the Paragon of the Earth Kingdom." He replied simply. "I wouldn't be surprised if you could understand a badgermole like Sokka understands Akela." Both the Tribesman and the wolf shot him the exact same look. "It was a compliment, you two. Relax."
"Anko, may I ask you to do something for me and my team?" Raimu said to her, getting her and everyone else's attention. "Can you show us the rest of the swords?"
"Sure, it's not a problem." She replied, pulling out the scroll that held them. She unrolled it on the table in front of her. She placed her hand on the paper and muttered a quick "Kai." After the smoke that had sprouted from the scroll dissipated, the four remaining swords of the Seven Swordsmen lay on the table.
The Kiri team stood there, staring at the swords in awe. "It's almost hard to believe that we still got them." Chōjūrō said with reverence in his voice. For a long time, Kiri had only one of the swords. But now all seven were returning and he was glad to be one of the carriers. And all three of them looked forward to when four more shinobi were able to join them.
"Personally, I'm amazed that it was these seven swords that caused the First Shinobi World War." Jiraiya remarked. He had gone into the kitchen and found the sake. As he poured himself a drink, everyone looked at him. "What?" He asked when he finally noticed the stares.
"How do you know that?" Karin asked the Toad Sage.
"I read my history." He replied before taking a drink. "It was a few years after the villages had been created and began vying with one another for resources and power. Even though the Shodaime Hokage tried to bring peace via a summit, it didn't last long. Everyone was ready to test out the power of their village, they just needed an excuse. In the end that excuse came in the form of Kiri shinobi kidnapping an Uzumaki clansman."
"What? Why the hell would they do something like that?" Raimu demanded. He knew that Kiri didn't exactly have a stellar history but as far as he knew, they weren't the ones who started the war, merely the ones who joined it.
"Apparently, they had discovered the secret of the clan, but what they didn't know that the secret only laid with one person in the clan. So thinking that every member of the clan knew it, they kidnapped one of the younger members who were was talented at the forge and forced him to supposedly create the secret. In the end, they got those seven swords." He gestured at the swords lying on the table and the swords by the Kiri team's side.
"What's the secret?" Suigetsu asked. Sokka cleared his voice and lifted his Zanpakutō to answer his question. "You mean…?"
"That little show during the duel between the dead woman and me and my teammate was real. You can thank our teacher, he helped us forge ours." The Water Paragon told him.
"So does that mean…?" Chōjūrō left the question hanging as he and the rest of his team looked at the swords.
"You're not listening." Jiraiya said with a shake of his head. "I said that only one person in the clan knew the secret and Kiri had grabbed the wrong person. The swords are just unique, nothing more." There was just the slightest look of disappointment on Suigetsu's face when he heard that.
"So what happened after that?" Karin asked.
"What do you think happened? Once it was revealed that Kiri had kidnapped an Uzumaki, his clan demanded the return of him and Konoha agreed with what he said. Kiri refused, saying that he had come willingly and Kumo back their claim. Everyone had their excuse and made more of them to either start fighting or join in the fighting. Next thing you know, there was a war." He finished with another drink from his cup.
"So…by right, these swords belong to the Uzumaki clan?" Karin wondered aloud, looking at the swords. "They belong to me and Naruto."
"…Karin, are you an Uzumaki?" The blonde asked the redhead quietly. There was a small look of surprise on his face. He didn't know that he had kin that was still alive. Then again, he hadn't made an effort to find them (especially after he left). But still, it was a surprise.
She too was surprised, but more by the fact she had inadvertently revealed who she was. "Um…yes, I am." She admitted, not looking him in the eye.
"I see." He fell quiet for a moment, letting the information sink into his head. "But even so, let's not try and go there. The swords have been in Kiri since their creation. They belong to them." He finally told her.
"Yeah, you're right." The redhead agreed. All three of the Kiri team gave him a look of gratitude when she said that. They were half afraid that he would agree with what she said and would try to take the swords by force. And they had no doubt they would be outnumbered if it came to a fight.
"In any case, let's celebrate!" Anko declared, springing up from her chair. "We took out two Akatsuki members! Bust out the sake!"
"The sake is already out." Jiraiya told her. "And what do you mean 'we'? Your team went ahead with the scroll."
"And you sat in the tree." June retorted, looking up at the Toad Sage. "So you have no right to speak about the fight."
"I was giving moral support!" He protested.
"And so were they." Azula replied. "They were just doing for both teams and at longer range. In terms of moral support, they win."
"In any case, let's party!" Anko announced.
"You'll have to give me and Raimu a few minutes before joining the fun." Sokka told her as he got down from his chair. "He and I need to speak in private."
"We do?" Raimu asked with both confusion and surprise. He really didn't have anything to say to the Tribesman.
"Yeah, we do. Come on, we'll talk in the next suite down." Both of them went out onto the balcony as the small celebration began. Sokka went down the ladder first, climbing down swiftly with Raimu right behind him. As they reached the lower suite, the Tribesman hopped off the ladder and walked into the living room.
"So what do you want to talk about?" Raimu asked him as he entered the living room as well, closing the balcony door behind him.
"Do you still have your father's kunai?"
"Uh…yeah, I do. Why do you want to know that?"
"Can I have for a moment?"
"What? Why?" He was very cautious now. His father's kunai was one of his precious possessions. He wasn't one to give it up so easily.
"Just give it to me. I promise I'm not gonna kill you with it." He held out his hand, waiting for the kunai to be given to him.
Raimu was hesitant but gave him the kunai. When he took it, his eyes turned black and he was engulfed in a cocoon of energy. The bright light made Raimu close his eyes on instinct. When it faded and he opened them again, it wasn't Sokka who stood in front of him. "D-dad?" He asked, unsure if it really was who he thought it was.
But it was true. Kenji Touken stood before his son. "Hello, Raimu." He said with a smile. "It's good to see you again." He was exactly same as Raimu remembered him. Black shirt and pants underneath a Kiri Jōnin flak jacket and his headband pushing his hair back. He held his kunai in his right hand.
"But…you're dead. You've been dead ever since that night!" He protested.
"That much is true. I am dead. My soul is currently being used by this young man."
"Why?" He demanded.
"If I had to hazard a guess, I would say…so I could talk you?" It was a rhetorical thing to say and yet he did it with sarcasm and a grin.
"Oh…right." Raimu had been too surprised by the fact that he was talking to his father that he hadn't thought of that.
Kenji looked over his son. "You've really grown a lot up, haven't you?" He asked quietly. When he saw Samehada's hilt sticking out from behind Raimu's back, his eyes widen slightly when he realized what that meant. "Kisame's dead, isn't he?"
"Yes, he is." His son answered with vicious pride in his voice. "And I took Samehada from him before he died."
"I see." He fell quiet for a few seconds before speaking again. "…Are you proud of what you did?"
"What kind of question is that, Dad?" He demanded. "Of course I'm proud of what I did. Why shouldn't I be? I'm one of the Seven Swordsmen now."
"And in order to become that, you killed your own uncle." Kenji pointed out.
"Kisame lost the right to be called my uncle when he killed you!" He replied angrily. "He had bashed your head in with Samehada in case you've forgotten!"
"Of course I remember. I was the one who got bashed in the head." His father replied. His tone was casual, like it was nothing serious and yet, there was a subtle rebuff in it. "Raimu, you can't hate your uncle forever."
"I can if I want to." He replied stubbornly. "He's the reason I was tormented through the Academy and my Genin years." Every time he had tried to fight back against his tormentors, he somehow always managed to be the one who got in trouble. He had hated every single day of those years. "And I know I've got a way to make those assholes pay for what they did." He got a slap up the back of his head for that.
"Raimu Touken! I thought I taught you better than that!" Kenji seemed to loom over him, his face set in anger. "Don't go looking for payback just because someone insulted you!"
"Well, why not!?" He shouted back. "They put me through hell! Why shouldn't they feel what I've felt!? Why shouldn't they suffer by my hand like I suffered by theirs?!"
"That doesn't make you a shinobi! It makes you a vengeful man! If you hurt them, they'll just try to hurt you back." His stern gaze softened. "You can be the better man."
"What if I don't want to be the better man?" Raimu turned around and looked out the balcony window. He couldn't keep eye contact with the soul of his father when the conversation went like this. He wanted to so desperately beat his tormentors into the ground when he got back to Kiri, but he knew that his father would be disappointed in him if he did.
"If you weren't the better man, you wouldn't be one of the Seven Shinobi Swordsmen of the Mist, would you?"
He didn't look back, but he knew that Kenji had a smile on his face. "…I hate it when you do that." He said after a few seconds of silence.
"I know." His tone was melancholy, like he too was remembering better days. "Does your mother still think of me?"
"She never stopped. She didn't remarry after you died and when I came home the first day with my headband, she thought I looked just like you." He still remembered that day with happiness. It was one of those few memoires after that night he was glad to have.
"I see." He walked forward and laid a gentle hand on his son's shoulder. "When you get back, tell her I still love her."
"I will." He promised. It was the least he could do.
"I am proud of you, Raimu. Despite what you may think about my feelings about your hatred to your uncle, I am proud of you and I love you."
"I know you are." He kept his voice guarded. If he didn't, he would lose control of his emotions.
"Goodbye, Raimu." He took his hand off of his son's shoulder.
"Bye…Dad." He finally said, keeping his gaze focused out the window. After a couple of seconds, he felt the weight of a familiar kunai on his shoulder. "Thanks for that." He told Sokka as he took the kunai and put it back in his holster.
"Would you be talking about the kunai or the chance to talk to your dad one last time?" The Tribesman asked him. That was the second thing Soulbending could be used for: to bring comfort to those who had lost a loved one and wanted to talk to them one last time (he would have to thank Sifu later for pointing out how Raimu felt about his father).
"Both." He answered simply, still keeping his voice guarded. "Come on, we better head back up there. Odds are they already started the party."
Sokka shrugged. "Odds are Anko is trying to make Naruto miserable by describing what she and Iruka do in bed." He replied as he followed Raimu out onto the balcony. Both of them smiled at that thought. Anko would do exactly that if she wanted to make Naruto cringe or bang his head against the wall.
He looked around and only saw gravestones as far as he could see. "Where the hell am I?" The blonde wondered aloud. He didn't have a lot to drink during the party (no one really did. They were shinobi on a mission. They couldn't let their guard down).
"We would happen to be inside yourself." A voice said to him from behind. Spinning around into a stance, Naruto saw that it was a bone-white skull sitting on a large rock. "How long do you plan on ignoring me, anyway?"
"Where's the furball?" He asked, looking around again. "HEY! KYŪBI!" He shouted. His voiced echoed among the gravestones, but he didn't get a reply. "What did you do to him?" He demanded, looking at the skull.
"I didn't do anything to him. This is a private conversation and he wasn't invited. And that was rather rude of you to ignore me like that." The skull didn't sound at all insulted, it sounded like he was commenting on something.
"Well, who are you?"
"I am you…of sorts."
He couldn't help, but raise an eyebrowwhen he heard that. "You're me?" He repeated what the skull had said. "What are you, a Zanpakutō?"
"Not quite, and that's your fault." It retorted.
"Wait, how is that my fault?" He asked. The last time he had a sword was his jian and he lost that during Sozin's Comet (one minute the thing went flying through the air, the next he was doing the limbo to avoid a spear).
"I've been trying to get to you ever since you and your woman moved into that house! This is the first time I've been successful!" If the skull could scowl at the blonde, it would vehemently. "Have you even looked at that safe yet?"
"How do you know about the safe?" Naruto demanded. He hadn't told anyone about it and nobody had asked him about it, not even Azula.
"Have you, or have you not, looked at the safe?" It repeated, enunciating each and every word.
"No, I haven't. Now would you tell me where the hell I am?" He looked around again, trying to see if they were actually somewhere. He had his suspicions when the skull said they were inside him. The place looked nothing like the fox's jail.
The skull groaned loudly. "Kami, no wonder I'm just a skull. You haven't even looked inside the safe yet!? I can't believe I spent that long waiting for the right person to show up again and said person haven't bothered to come looking! What in the name of Kami was that idiot thinking!?"
"Hey, don't talk to me like I'm not here! Besides, I was busy!" He had been so busy with trying to hunt down the Akatsuki and avoiding his former teammates, he hadn't had time to look in the safe.
"First of all, don't be so arrogant to think that I'm calling you an idiot. Second of all, I'm just hearing excuses from you!" The skull seemed to glare angrily at him, making him flinch a little. "Oh, let me guess, you're still trying to figure out where you are, huh?"
"How did you—?"
"How did I know that?" It finished his question, sounding bored. "I can't believe the idiot would've wanted me to work with you. Just take a look at a couple of the gravestones, okay?"
Throwing an annoyed glare at the skull, he looked over at one of the graves. When he saw the name inscribed upon the headstone as well the one next to it, his eyes widened in horror. "What the hell is this?" He demanded as he looked at the gravestones. He knew those two names. They had been a pair of solders under his command when he was fighting in the Earth Kingdom. They had been caught in an ambush that cost them most of their limbs. In the end, he had killed them himself, after they had begged him to do it. He had refused at first, but eventually complied, snapping their necks as they slept.
"It looks to me like they are the gravestones of those you've murdered." The skull said with a chilling nonchalance. But when the blonde looked back at it, the grin it wore seemed almost manic. "My, my, there are a lot of them, aren't there?"
"But there aren't this many!" He protested. The gravestones stretched on endlessly. He had a horrible feeling that if he tried to find the end of it, he never would, in any direction. "I don't have this much blood on my hands!"
"Are you so sure about that? Who said that the graves here were all killed by you purposely? Who said that they all had already happened?" Somehow, it managed to whistle. "Forget about blood on your hands, you should be swimming in it."
"WHERE THE HELL AM I?" He screamed with a loud note of panic in his voice.
"I already told you. We are inside you. And this is how you see yourself."
He came awake with a gasp. Had he not been a shinobi, he would've lurched up into a sitting position. "Naruto, what is it?" Azula asked, waking up as well.
"It's nothing." He assured her, calming down. "It was just a weird dream." That was the best description of what he had dreamt. Before she could push, he had noticed that there was light peeking past the edges of the closed window. "Come on, it's already morning. We might as well get up before F.S.-sensei tries to do that himself."
"Yeah, you're right." She agreed. They didn't want Jiraiya trying to get them up any more than having to spar with him. Both were painful in their own way ('though one had to deal with physical pain more than the other one).
The rest of the morning was spent by the teams in packing up and getting ready to move out. It was a quick, methodical process. The only hiccup in the process (as Team Paragon found out later) was when Jūgo went into the bathroom and found Karin and Suigetsu doing the shower samba (which is like the bedroom tango, only you're vertical and there's a lot of running water. Hot or cold depends on your preference). The only Jūgo said when he saw the two of them was "You couldn't have waited until everyone else was done in here?" That had made everybody laugh.
By the time they were all done, they had left the Coastal Hotel and were making their way out of the city. They stopped twice so Jiraiya could say goodbye to Ryōshi and surprisingly enough, the owner of the club. "What was that all about?" Sokka asked him as they walked away. The Kiri team had gone on ahead to take care of Kisame's body.
"What do you think it was about?" He retorted. He had a small look of happiness on after he had said goodbye to the owner. He had also surprised most of them by hugging her (which she returned) before walking away.
"That it was one of your former conquests that you're on friendly terms with now?" June suggested from atop of Nyla. That wouldn't have been a surprise to them. They had seen enough of those "conquests" in and around Konoha.
To their actual surprise, he had a look of disgust on his face. "That's wrong, very wrong. Don't ever think it's like that again." He ordered them.
"If it's not that, then who is she?" Suki asked.
"That's none of your business." He snapped back. Deciding to drop the subject, they walked away from the club in silence. But despite the silence, they left the city of Masu in high spirits. They had taken out two of the known Akatsuki members and possibly crippled their finances. That would be cause for a proper celebration, when they got back to Konoha.
When they reached the forest, the Kiri team was waiting for them. "We've got a problem." Chōjūrō said without preamble. "Kisame's body isn't where we left it and we've found no trace of it anywhere nearby."
"Is there any chance of a wild animal having taken the body?" Anko asked. She knew that if another shinobi (or, Kami forbid, one of the crime families) had found the body, it would be taken for experimentation.
"There was no trace of it whatsoever." Suigetsu repeated. "There was nothing to suggest it was even taken, by people or animal. But it's not there." There was a small tone of worry in his voice when he told them this.
"But the important thing is that you have the head." Jūgo told him. "Even if the body has been taken, it would not hold as much information as the head would, especially if he's not a Kekkei Genkai user."
"And that much is certain." Raimu agreed. "We just have this weird skin color, that's all." He lifted an arm to emphasize his point.
"Let's keep moving." Naruto said. "If it's no great loss, we should move on. The longer we stay here looking a headless body, the easier it will be for people to spot us." They could all agree with what he said. So they just kept on walking.
(Location: Tobi)
He sat in darkness, waiting for news to come to him. When others who didn't know him took notice of him, he pretended to be a child in an adult's body. That allowed them to think of him as an idiot, which he used to his advantage. But to those who knew what he was truly like knew to never think of him as such, or even underestimate. Taking notice of Zetsu stepping out of the wall, he looked over at him. "Well?" The masked Akatsuki member said.
"Kakuzu is dead." The white side of Zetsu told him. It was simple and to the point.
"Good."
"But we've got a problem." The black side of Zetsu growled. "Kisame went with him and got killed in the process as well. And the Kiri team took Samehada with them when they left."
He said nothing for a couple of minutes, sitting in silence. "…That was not part of the plan." He finally spoke. "Who knew that Kisame went with Kakuzu?"
"No one did." The white answered. "We only found out when we went to go see if they had killed Kakuzu." The black told him.
"I see." He stood up from where he sat. "Then we'll have to do something about that. It seems that we should repay in kind."
(Location: Mizukage's office)
The three of them stood in front of Mei's desk. They had traveled with the Konoha teams for a couple of days until they reached a crossroads. There they said their goodbyes (with Suigetsu and Karin throwing insults at each other. Everyone else believed that was how they showed their affection for each other). After they had parted ways, they made their way to a nearby port and caught a ship that was heading to the Land of Water. Once it had docked, they went straight for Kirigakure. And here they were. "I take it that since the three of you are here, you were successful?" The Mizukage asked them. Her desk was cleared of any and all papers, allowing them to have her undivided attention.
"Yes, Lady Mizukage, we were." Chōjūrō answered. Taking the scroll that held the swords out of his bag, he placed it on the desk. "The remaining four swords are sealed within."
"And this bag has Kisame's head in it." Suigetsu told her, raising the bag for her to see.
"Thank you both." She said with a smile. She turned to look Raimu. "You have taken possession of Samehada." She stated, looking him straight in the eye.
"Yes, I have." He replied, holding her gaze. "I took it from Kisame's hands and it has accepted me."
"Then congratulations on joining the Seven Swordsmen." She told him. "I know you will make me and the village proud."
"Thank you." He bowed his head for a brief moment. When he raised it again, his eyes held a question. "Lady Mizukage, may I please leave? There is someone I need to see."
"Of course, you are dismissed." He bowed his head and quickly left the room. Taking long strides, he soon exited the building of the Mizukage and walked down the street. The street itself didn't have many people on it as they had arrived around midday. Those who were on the street took small notice of him. He was glad for that. He didn't really want to know what he had achieved until after Lady Mei had made it public.
He didn't get very far before two shinobi around his age stood in front of him. "Well, if it isn't Little Lime." The one on his left said in a sneer. He was somewhat bulky, but still had acne on his face. "Still pathetic as ever I see."
"No kidding." The one on his right agreed. He was also bulky, but less so then the one on the right. He didn't have any acne, but he always seemed to have sniveling pitch to his voice that made him seem even more annoying. "How did they let a loser like you out of the Academy anyway?"
He just stared at them. These two had been among the worst of his tormentors when they were in the Academy. Ironically enough, he never cared about what their names were. "Do you guys need something?" He asked them. "Or did you fail another mission and want to take it out on me?"
They both laughed. "How cute of you, you actually think it's possible for us to fail a mission." The left one said with a roll of his eyes.
That was all the answer the new Swordsman needed. "So you not only failed, but badly." He replied, summarizing. "I shouldn't be surprised. After all, you guys were didn't even make to the actual Chūnin Exams." He said with a smirk. It was common knowledge that even though their team had went to Konoha, they had been fooled long enough by a Genjutsu, that they were disqualified before even getting to the first Exam.
The mocking looks on their faces turned to rage. "What the hell do you know, you little brat!" The right one said, giving him a hard shove. "We're still superior to you in both rank and skill. So don't get lippy with us!"
He was so tempted to pull Samehada out and give them a beating, but his father's words still echoed in his head.
"You can be the better man."
Those words were enough to make him pause and stop from raising his hand. "Whatever. If you guys don't need something, get out of my way. I need to be somewhere." He tried to walk around them, only for them to step in front of him again. He tried to push past them, but they shoved him back.
"You think you're hot stuff, don't ya?" The left one snarled. "You're just shit. You've been shit ever since you came to the Academy. Hell, you've been shit even before that. Your mother is a whore and your uncle is a traitor. You should just go off and die in a hole before you managed to shame this village."
He couldn't help but laugh when he heard. "If there was anyone who would be doing the shaming, it's you two. And I'd say you already done, several times. Now move." He ordered.
Both of them roared in rage and lifted their fists to hit him. He stood as still as a statue, waiting for the first blow to strike him. But before that blow could land, an older man appeared from behind them and knocked their feet out from under them. "What the hell are you thinking?" He yelled at them. "I can't leave you idiots alone for five minutes, can I?" He looked at Raimu. "Sorry about that." He apologized. When he saw the skull-tipped hilt, his eyes widened.
"It's not a problem." He assured the older shinobi. "And yes, I am." He told him when he noticed his eyes.
"What the hell, sensei? This guy insulted us and you yell at us?" The left one complained from he lay on the ground.
"I'll let you tell them all about it." Raimu told their sensei. He started walking past them but stopped and looked back at them. "For the record, you two, considering I'm a Chūnin and what I've got on my back, I don't think I'm hot stuff. I know I'm hot stuff." He kept on walking and didn't look back, not even when the two sprouted looks of horror as they looked at his back.
He kept on walking through the streets. Despite the ruckus they had caused, no one had paid any more attention to him than it was needed to them. And he was glad for that. Finally, he came to the apartment complex that he lived in. Walking in and climbing the stairs, he quickly made to the floor where he lived. He walked up to the door of his apartment and opened the door. "Mom, are you in here?" He called out as he walked in and closed the door behind him.
"Is that you, Raimu?" She said from the kitchen. "Just give me a minute; you caught me putting away the groceries." He waited for a minute as she finished up. When she finally came out of the kitchen, the smile she wore faltered when she saw the sword on her son's back. "You did it." She finally said, the smile disappearing. It wasn't a question, it was a statement.
"I did." He replied. "He's dead."
"I know he is." She looked over at a picture on the wall. "Otherwise, you wouldn't be here."
He knew what picture she was looking at. It was a picture of the two of them, along his father and Kisame on a picnic. It was the day after Kisame had become the wielder of Samehada. They had decided to celebrate by having a picnic in a nearby park. He had happy memories of that day, as did his mother. "Mom, there's something else." He told her, walking closer to her. "One of the people I was working with had the ability to summon the spirit of a dead person. After what happened, he took me aside in private and summoned Dad."
She looked at him in surprise and disbelief. "You're joking." She declared.
He shook his head. "No, I'm not. I was able to talk to Dad one last time."
"What…what did he say?"
He hesitated briefly. "…He said that he was proud of me, and that he still loves us both." There was silence between the two of them. Then she walked up to him and engulfed him in a tight hug. He didn't resist, but instead returned it. And when he heard her crying quietly, he couldn't hold it in anymore and began to cry too. They were tears of both sadness and happiness.
(Location: Konoha Hot Springs)
Azula groaned in relaxation as she sat in the water. "Now this is more like it." She thought happily. After they had gotten back into the village and delivered their report to Tsunade, she along with Suki and June were persuaded by the girls of the Konoha Eleven to come with them to the hot springs (Karin declined, saying she knew what the conversation would lead to and Jūgo said he had something to talk to the Hokage about with Anko).
"You look like you're enjoying yourself." June commented as she sat beside her.
"I am." She replied, stretching in content.
"I am too." The bounty hunter agreed. "I'm even looking forward to spending some of that money I got." They had stopped by a bounty station before getting to the village so she could cash in on Kakuzu's bounty. Needless to say, it was quite a bounty.
"On what?" asked Suki, who was sitting nearby. "Bar fights and drinks for everyone?"
"Hey, I have a sense of fashion." She protested.
"I have yet to see it." The Kyoshi Warrior retorted with a smirk. The bounty hunter only scowled back at her in response.
"I see the three of you are enjoying yourselves." Ino said as she swam nearby.
"Why wouldn't we?" Azula asked the blonde Yamanaka. "This is just pure bliss."
"It sure is. So, did you guys do anything 'interesting' while you were in Masu?" She asked with a wiggle of her eyebrows. The three of them looked at her with a little confusion but everyone knew what that meant.
"Oh Kami, here it comes." Sakura groaned with a roll of her eyes. "Ino, could you not do this? We don't need a new scrap of gossip every single day."
"Don't be so high and mighty over there, Sakura." She replied. "We both know that you're just as interested as I am."
"No, I'm not." She protested, her voice rising slightly.
"Well, I am." Tenten remarked from where she sat in the hot springs. "So, what happened?" She asked the female members of Team Paragon.
"Well, we killed two Akatsuki members. Is that what you meant?" Azula asked with a supposed innocent smile. She had a funny feeling that she wasn't going to like where this was going.
"No, I meant if any of you got busy." Ino replied with a grin.
"So this is what Karin meant." The three of them thought in unison. "She did." June said, pointing a thumb at Suki, who blushed slightly in response.
"We all know that already." Hinata said quietly. "We know that quite extensively." She had a blush and that made Suki blush even more.
"Yeah, that was not exactly the welcoming party we had in mind that night." Tenten said. "But then again, we weren't planning on having you two join us."
"Okay, moving on." Sakura said hurriedly. Before anyone could say anything else, they heard a splash come from the other side of the wall.
"Come on in, guys!" Kiba's voice called out. They heard more splashes, telling them that more people were getting in.
"Hey, Naruto, aren't you going to join us?" Chōji's voice asked.
"I don't go into water unless there's a locked door behind me or armed guards protecting me." The blonde answered.
"You must be joking." Neji said to him,
"He's not." Sokka replied. "I convinced him to do that once on Ba Sing Se and he agreed because he thought he was safe. We needed a platoon of Dai Li to fend off the girls." There was a moment of silence, and then they all heard laughing.
"Welcome to the club, dobe." Sasuke said. They could all but see the smirk on the Uchiha's face.
"Shut up." Naruto said shortly. Even though he didn't say the name, they knew who he was talking to.
"Ooh, sounds like the guys are here." Ino said with a grin. "Anyone else want to peek in on them?" She swam over to the wall and stood up, leaning forward.
"Sure, why not?" Tenten joined her.
"Wait, you're peeking on the guys?" Suki askedwith a half-strangled voice, shock evident on her face.
"I know. It's great, right?" The blonde Yamanaka said, looking back at them with a naughty smile. "Women have been peeking on the men here for a long time and they've never known. The holes the women before us made are discreet and yet, they give a great view." She looked over at her friend. "Hey, get over here, Sakura. There's a great view of Sasuke."
"Hold on, I'm coming." She made her way over to the wall before looking back at the others. "Are you guys coming?" She asked them.
"I-I'm good." Hinata said, heavily blushing at the thought at peeking at half-naked guys.
June looked at her teammates and shrugged. "Eh, might as well." She said before swimming over to the wall. Azula and Suki soon joined her, figuring they might as well join the group and drink in the sight of their half-naked boyfriends. They weren't disappointed. Suki saw Sokka sit against the side of the spring, displaying his chest for her to see. Naruto sat at the edge of the pool, his towel covering what was important. All in all, the only people who weren't there were Shino and Lee.
"Man, Naruto sure has gotten really impressive." Ino whistled quietly as she eyed the blonde.
Azula glared at her for that comment. "Don't even think about it." She growled.
"Hey, I'm just saying."
"So Shikamaru, have you and Temari done it yet?" Kiba asked, looking over at the Nara from where he lounged in the middle of the spring. His expression was trying to go for innocent, but failed short.
"Considering her brothers keep planning to kill me whenever we go near each other, no." Shikamaru answered without even opening his eyes.
"Ah, don't worry about it, Shikamaru." Chōji told his friend. "If you marry her first, they can't do anything about it."
"How troublesome, my best friend has become my mother." He replied with a frown. That just made most of the guys laugh at him.
"You know he's just doing it to show he cares." Neji told the lazy shinobi with a smile. "Besides, it's quite interesting to watch."
"Speaking of which, how have you and Tenten….?" Kiba left the question hanging, 'though his grin didn't.
"That is none of your business." The Hyuuga told him shortly, shooting him a look that would've killed and mutilated him three times over.
"You and Neji?" asked Ino as she looked over at the girl in question.
"That is none of your business." She replied in the same tone and look. It reminded everyone on their side of the wall that if she had a weapon, bodily harmed would happen.
"Are you that desperate to get laid?" Sasuke asked Kiba, bringing the girls' attention back to the wall.
"Oh shut up, Mr. Hide-me-so-the-Fangirls-won't-rape-me." He retorted with a snort and a scowl.
"That was a legitimate excuse at the time." The Uchiha told him, his voice rising slightly as he spoke.
"It's called knocking on the front door, Sasuke. Not breaking the window to get in when I'm taking a bath!" He shouted back.
"I apologized, didn't I? Besides, I didn't have a whole lot of options at the time. It was either breaking the window to get in or risking it on the main street. I went with the lesser of two evils. They were out in swarms that night."
"Eh, could've been worse." Sokka commented.
"How could've it been worse?" Sasuke demanded.
"They could've been willing to share." Every single one of them shuddered slightly at the thought. One of the disadvantages the Fangirls had was that they usually wanted the target all to themselves. If they decided to share, their target was doomed.
"How do you even know about Fangirls anyway?" Neji asked him. "The last time I checked, you didn't have any."
"I don't, and thank the Spirits for that. I just watched what happened with him." He pointed at Naruto.
"That was what you were doing? I thought you were cheering them on and wishing you could join." The blonde replied with a smirk.
"That's a point to you." The Tribesman conceded. "But why would I want to join them? I have a girlfriend."
"That reminds me, when did you two start doing it?" Kiba asked, bringing the conversation back to that particular subject. "It must've been sometime after you guys left Konoha."
Even though there was steam rising from the water which obscured their vision slightly, the girls could see the blush on the Tribesman's face. "It was during one of the celebrations in Ba Sing Se after the war had ended." He answered shortly.
"Oh come on, you can't just leave it at that."
"He's right. We need a little more than that." Chōji agreed with him.
Sokka looked over at his fellow Paragon, who only shook his head. "No, you're the one who opened his mouth." The blonde told him.
"Alright, fine. It was my first time drinking like an adult and I was new to the experience. So I was a little tipsy and stupid when I ran into Suki, who was probably as equally as tipsy. We started talking and the next thing I know…" He trailed off.
"The two of you were in a room alone together?" Kiba prodded.
"No. I told her what I thought saw in the desert, when Chōji and I drank some of the cactus juice."
Shikamaru opened his eyes and looked at him. "You don't mean…?"
"Yep, I told her I thought I saw the Kyoshi Warriors doing a group striptease." He answered simply.
"How are you not dead?" Chōji asked, curious about it. He was fairly certain that any man would've been buried in the ground after telling something like that to a girl.
"If I remember correctly, the only thing Suki said in response was if I wanted a private show. And before we knew it…" He left it hanging, even though it was obvious what had happened.
All the girls (including Hinata) were looking at Suki, who felt a little uncomfortable by the stares. "Way to go, girl." June told her with a grin. She just blushed and avoided eye contact
"So you're the only one of us who's actually done it?" Neji asked for clarification.
"No, he's not." Naruto told him, getting their attention. To most of the people listening in on the conversation, that was a surprise.
"You?" asked Kiba. "When did that happen?" He could not believe that the knuckleheaded blonde he once knew had actually done the deed.
"When I was twelve," He answered simply.
"WHAT!?" shouted most of the guys as they just stared at the blonde. That was an even bigger surprise. The girls would've said it too, if they wanted to be found out.
"You mean it happened when you were still living in Konoha?" Chōji demanded.
"It's not that big a deal." He told them, trying to wave it off.
"Uh-uh, no, you're not getting off that easily, Naruto. Spill," Neji ordered him.
He heaved a sigh, but compiled. "It was after we had passed the bell test. After I was freed from the robes, I ran right to the Meat Bar to tell them all the good news. They were happy for me and decided to throw a bit of a party. At the end of the party, someone suggested that since I was now technically an adult, I should be shown the adult way of having fun. Everyone else agreed and I was given a through 'explanation' in the adult way of having fun. Ironically enough, I don't remember who the one who took my virginity actually was."
"How could you not know?" Kiba demanded. "Not unless…" The Inuzuka clan heir trailed off when he realized the implications of what the blonde was saying.
He shrugged. "I think the number was around nine or ten. I wasn't sure, considering they took turns. Of course, there was more than one who shared a turn."
"Well, that explains the next day when you came to training with a shit-eating grin." Sasuke remarked. No one had really asked why he had such a grin on his face that day.
"Did you know about this?" Sakura demanded of Azula, turning to look at her.
"Of course I did, he told me while we were on the mission." She replied easily.
"Oh, I hope he gives some details." Ino said with her eye still attached to the peephole.
"Do you remember anything that happened?" Sokka asked his teammate.
"Of course I do." He replied, standing up and stretching a little. "But I'm not inclined to tell you guys, mostly because we're being peeked on by FEMALE PERVERTS!" He shouted the last part at the wall separating the springs. That caught both the guys (except for Sokka) and the girls by surprise.
"What? They're spying on us?" Kiba yelped in surprised. While he was a little flattered, it was still weird.
"No! No, we're not!" Ino shouted as the girls tried to make their way back to the water.
"Don't bother trying." Naruto told them loudly, making them stop in their tracks. "Both me and Sokka knew you were watching right from the get-go." He looked up to the sky. "You get everything you need?" He asked to seemingly no one in particular.
"Yeah, I did." Jiraiya's voice came back from outside the hot spring's walls. "I've got enough to know it's true."
"EEK!" shouted Ino. "There's a pervert peeping on us!" She was trying to flip the blame onto the Toad Sage, but only got laughing in response.
"Nothing of the sort, Ino," He told her. "I was outside with my back to the wall the entire time. Oh, and by the way, I've known about those holes long before any of you were born. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go give this information to a couple of people."
"Like who?" Tenten asked, incredibly nervous.
"Where else would I go? To the newspaper!" He declared before getting out of there.
Ino, Sakura, Suki, and Azula all shared a look of horror when they heard what he had said. "STOP HIM!" Sakura shouted as she ran back into the changing room. The others followed and after quickly dressing, chased after him. But since he had a good head-start on them, they were going to be too late.
The next morning, the front of the Konoha newspaper had this for a headliner:
URBAN LEGEND PROVEN TRUE! FEMALE PERVERTS EXIST!
End
Author's note: Thank you for all the reviews you've sent me.
Jūgo would actually be a perfect choice for being a Summoner. Since he can absorb natural energy and use it, he would be an ideal choice to be trained to use Sage Mode. Besides, it would also help him quell his rage.
Yes, Naruto has finally made contact with his Zanpakutō (Although it's actually the other way if you want to picky). Now before any of you start telling me that how could that happen when he doesn't even have a sword, please look at the conversation they had again. They don't have a complete connection with each other. Besides, this isn't the only conversation they'll have (not if I can help it).
I felt that Raimu meeting two of his former tormentors was necessary. It was a perfect opportunity for him to prove that he was the better man by not having Samehada eat them right then and there. Then again, the sword would've probably just spat them right back out.
Before any of you start calling my Naruto a sexual Mary Sue, I would like to point out that during the entire explanation, not once did he say that he slept with them all at the same time!
And yes, I felt that last part was necessary. When it comes to anime, I'm getting a little tired of the rom-com where the guy gets beaten up by the girls because he peeped on them (whether by accident or purpose) or because they thought he liked another girl. That's just pure Sexism. Just once, I would like an anime where it's the reverse. I would like to see an anime where when the guys find out that a girl was peeping on them, they beat her half to death!
I'll see you all next chapter!