I don't own Naruto

Naruto woke to the sight of coals lying where their fire had been last night. Slowly standing up he stretched to get rid of the stiffness in his body.

'Next time I'm sleeping in a tree.' Naruto thought as he felt his spine pop a few times. Sighing in contentment he looked up and saw the sun peaking through the trees. It was earlier than most people would get up, but later than he usually awoke.

Deciding to make some breakfast for when Lily woke up he scanned the trees surrounding the clearing for a nest.

After a minute of searching he found a small nest on the other end of the clearing. So with breakfast in mind he set off towards the nest hoping there would be eggs.

When he reached the tree he didn't hesitate to start walking up. Weaving his way through the branches he finally made it to the birds nest and sitting inside the nest were two small eggs, not anything that would fill either of them enough, but better than no breakfast at all.

Reaching out and grabbing the nest he started to walk back down the tree when he heard a bird cry out. Looking back up the tree he saw a small blue bird perched on one of the branches looking at him. Without warning, the bird took flight and flew straight at Naruto.

Naruto quickly reacted by swatting the bird away and then watched as it fell towards the ground before impacting with a dull thud. 'Guess we will be having bird for breakfast.' Naruto thought as he continued to walk down the tree.

Picking up the bird he, started walking towards the tent. Seeing that he had enough left over firewood from last night to make a decent fire he busied himself with making the fire before he started to cook the eggs in the pan.

As Naruto was busy cooking, Lily stirred from her sleep and left the tent still clad in Naruto's spare leather coat. Upon exiting the tent the sweet aroma of eggs quickly hit her nose and she was drawn towards the fire.

"Good morning." Lily announced as she sat down next to Naruto.

"Morning, could you cut that bird up for breakfast?" Naruto asked pointing to the plucked bird he had swatted earlier.

"Of course." Lily responded in kind and quickly picked up the bird and the kunai that was next to the fire and started working on slicing the bird.

"So Naruto," Lily asked after she finished cutting up the bird. "How will you be getting all of us girls back to our homes?"

"I don't know. It depends on where all of you live. If there are some that live west of here then we will probably go that way before going back towards Konoha. However, if all of you live east of here then we will just drop you off as we head back to Konoha." Naruto answered.

"And how will your protect us all?" Lily pestered, how could two people protect the large group of women.

"I can make clones. I thought you had seen me make them?" Naruto questioned.

"I don't remember much of yesterday…" Lily mumbled.

"That's probably a good thing." Naruto stated, "food's ready."

Both Naruto and Lily sat next to the fire and ate their eggs and bird. When they were finished with breakfast Naruto quickly put out the fire and started to seal everything of his back into scrolls.

"Okay, I don't want to make sensei wait too long. So we are going to have to hurry." Naruto said when he was done sealing everything.

"How far away are we from Tanzaku Gai?" Lily asked, not sure how far away they were from the nearest village.

"For me? Five minutes. For you? Much longer. This might be easier if I just carry you." Naruto confessed.

"Carry me? B-but you're so much smaller than me. Could you carry me?" Lily asked, a little embarrassed by the thought of being carried and genuinely worried about whether Naruto could actually carry her.

'Small… I can't get away from being called small… When the hell is my growth spurt?' Naruto ranted in his mind.

'Probably in the next two years. I doubt that you won't grow at all in the coming years.' Kurama answered. 'But, there is the possibility that you have some rare genetic mutation that causes you to stop growing early in your life.' Kurama continued.

'Shut the fuck up, I don't want to hear anything about me being stuck this short.' Naruto reacted.

"I am sure I can carry you. I may have not hit my growth spurt yet, but I am strong enough to carry you back to the village." Naruto said as he put an obviously fake smile on his face.

"Uh, okay. If you're sure." Lily replied, a little wary of the smile.

"Great, get on." Naruto turned around offering his back to Lily so that he could carry her.

Lily climbed on Naruto's back and wrapped her arms around his neck as he held onto her legs and rocketed into the trees.

-Tanzaku Gai-

Kurenai was not having the best of days. While the hotel they stayed at was kind enough to allow all the women stay at the hotel for free for the night, that was where her good fortune ended.

When she woke up this morning she hurried to get ready for the day and to get the women out of town, but the women weren't very cooperative. Many of them were less than pleased to be woken up, and quite a few of them slammed the door right in her face, wanting to get more sleep.

After the debacle of getting them all awake and out of the hotel she then had to escort the large group of women through the village which proved much more difficult that it should have been. There were no attempts to kidnap or harm any of the women, but a few would constantly stop at cafes or shops along the way whining about being hungry or wanting some real clothes. While Kurenai could sympathize with them, she really just wanted to get everyone home as quickly as possible.

Then after finally getting everyone outside the village walls to the main road and she stopped to wait for Naruto, the women all wanted to get a move on telling her that they didn't need the boy and that her would catch up. It was obvious that they didn't like Naruto, but she didn't think that they would possibly put their own safety at risk just to keep away from him.

So here she was, waiting for her student to show up while making sure none of the women get any ideas to go off on their own. Luckily she didn't have to wait long before Naruto dropped in with the blonde girl from yesterday on his back.

"Good, now that you are here Naruto I want you to make a batch of clones to surround our group. Make sure other bandits don't get any stupid ideas." Kurenai instructed.

Once Naruto's clones were in position Kurenai took the lead as she led the group east back towards Konoha.

"If you live in the next village make sure to notify either me or the nearest clone." Naruto heard Kurenai yell from the front of the group. Once the last few women started down the road Naruto took his position in the back of the group.

"Naruto, my village will be the next one." Naruto heard Lily speak up next to him.

Nodding, Naruto made a clone who quickly leapt to the front of the group to let Kurenai know that they would be stopping at the next village.

"How do you do that?" Lily asked.

"I just mold my chakra in a specific way and then release it, when I release the chakra it molds itself into a chakra copy of me. Usually when others make them they have to use a hand seal to help them with molding the chakra correctly, but I have learned to do it without the hand seal, though it is always easier using a hand seal." Naruto explained the basics of the Kage Bunshin to Lily, "It also gives me memory feedback when they dispel, so they are really good at helping someone learn multiple things at once."

"Wow, that's amazing. I wish I could have used that when I was in school." Lily complained.

Chuckling slightly Naruto replied, "So do I."

"Wait? You didn't know this when you were in school? Don't they teach you this kind of stuff?" Lily wondered.

"No they don't teach you this clone. They teach the Bunshin no Jutsu, which is just an illusion, you can see it, but if you try and touch it you will pass right through it. Mine are physical constructs of chakra so they can actually fight and do other things that requires someone to physically move or do something. Then there are elemental clones, I have only heard of the Mizu Bunshin and the Iwa Bunshin, but there are probably others out there."

"Oh. Oh, we're here!" Lily exclaimed as she saw the wooden walls of buildings come into view. "Come on! I gotta introduce you to my dad!" Lily quickly grabbed Naruto's arm and tried to drag him to her father's butcher shop, but Naruto didn't budge.

"I'll send a Kage Bunshin with you to make sure you get there safely, but I am going to stay here and wait until we can leave again." Naruto said as he stood rooted to the ground.

"No! I want him to meet the real you. It wouldn't be the same if it wasn't the real you." Lily protested.

Naruto looked to his right towards his sensei and saw he was looking at the two of them. At her nod to the silent question he relented and joined Lily on her way to her father's butcher shop.

-Butcher shop-

"Daddy!" Lily yelled as she entered the butcher shop.

"Lily?" A large bearded man said as he looked up from the hunk of meat he was chopping. He was dressed in a white apron over a black shirt. He quickly stepped out from behind the counter and ran towards his daughter and enveloped her in a hug showing that he was wearing faded jeans and black shoes.

"Oh Lily! I was so scared I would never see you again!" The big man cried as he continued to squeeze his daughter.

"I know daddy. I felt the same." Lily cried into her dad's shoulder. The atmosphere was very uncomfortable for Naruto. He felt like he shouldn't be here during this very intimate moment between father and daughter.

"Who are you?" Naruto was brought out of his thoughts as he saw Lily's dad glaring at him.

"Daddy!" Lily shouted as she got between her dad and Naruto. "He saved me daddy, I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for him!"

Naruto saw the butcher's eyes narrow as he stood up to his full height of about 6'6" and started to walk over to him. He stopped about a foot away from Naruto and studied him. After a minute, the man stuck out his hand.

"Panda." The now named Panda said as he offered his hand.

Naruto blinked as the name registered in his mind. He could hear Kurama howling with laughter in his mind. It took him a few seconds before he stuck his hand out and shook hands with the large man.

"Naruto."

Panda's eyes narrowed even further while he was shaking hands. When he let go he looked down at the younger mans hand and saw the missing digits on his hands.

"You too huh?" Panda stated as he held up his left hand showing that he was missing both his ring and pointer finger on that hand. "Risks of being a butcher."

Naruto looked at the hand and then held up his own. "The risks of being overconfident."

Panda let loose a deep laugh as patted Naruto on his shoulder. "You're okay kid. I must thank you for saving my daughter. I never thought I would have seen her again. Here." As Panda was talking he walked back to the counter of the shop and retrieved a package of ground beef before handing it to Naruto.

Naruto just looked at the food and back to Panda a few times, confusion clear on his face.

Seeing the confusion Panda decided to explain his motives, "You saved my little girl. There is nothing I could ever do to properly thank you. That meat was the best thing I could think of to thank the savior of my daughter on such short notice. If you are ever in town again I would be happy to put you up in the spare bunk."

"Thank you, sir." Naruto thanked as he bowed his head to the man as a show of respect.

"My name's Panda. Use it." Panda scolded as he turned to his daughter who was just watching the exchange between her dad and Naruto.

"Of course, Panda." Naruto smirked.

"Naruto." Lily said as she walked up to him. "I know I have already said it many times, but thank you for saving me." She then wrapped Naruto up in another hug before stepping back.

"Lily," Naruto called out halting the girl as she turned around to look at Naruto again. "Here. This is a special explosive note made specifically for civilians. You just rip part of it off and throw it at whoever or whatever you are being attacked by and it will blow up in a few seconds." Naruto said as he handed Lily a slip of paper and a kunai. "It's a bit magnetic so that it will stick to this kunai if you wrap it around the hilt. Just throw it and run."

"How did you get this?" Lily asked as she carefully took the kunai and paper note.

"I relieved it from a civilian who was unfit to wield such a weapon." Naruto lied. He actually had just stolen it from a store during the middle of the night.

"Okay, thank you." Lily responded as she turned back to her dad.

"Come back anytime." Panda added as both he and his daughter walked to the back room together.

Naruto nodded his head as he left the reunited father daughter duo in the shop to talk.

Naruto soon found himself back with the group of women and waited for his clones to come back from escorting those that lived in this village to their houses. It only took a few minutes before they came back and the group was on the road again.

Now that Naruto was alone in the back he let his mind drift. He was currently thinking about the mission, or more precisely the pay. He knew that C-ranked missions paid more than D-ranked, but that was per mission, it wasn't per day. The amount of D-ranks he is able to do in a day easily beats the income from a week long C-rank. Since C-ranks took so long it would be better for him to just complete D-ranks at the moment to make some money, then do C-ranks for experience.

While thinking about his financial plan he also remembered that today was the day that the newspaper would publish the pictures of Asuma.

'Damn, I really wanted to see the look on his face when that picture hit the front page...' Naruto lamented.

'If you get back to the village soon enough you may be able to get a copy yourself.' Kurama chimed in.

'Yea, but we're about a two days walk at a civilians pace from Konoha and we still need to get all these women back to their houses.' Naruto reminded the fox.

'Make more clones and carry all the women at your pace.' Kurama supplied.

'You're stupid if you think that they would let me carry them… They hate me.' Naruto deadpanned.

'Then summon your jaguars and have them carry them to their villages.' Kurama provided.

'... They're going to hate me after this.' Naruto thought as he reached the conclusion that it was the best choice on such short notice. 'How do I summon multiple jaguars in one summon?' Naruto asked.

'I don't know. I don't summon anything.' Kurama shot back.

'Maybe Heiko will know how.' Naruto thought as he bit his thumb and concentrated on summoning one handed.

Slamming his hand down and with a puff of smoke Heiko was standing before him.

"What can I do for you Naruto?" Heiko asked in a respectful tone.

"Naruto, now is not the time to be summoning. And why didn't you tell me you could summon?" Kurenai asked as she quickly made her way to the back of the group.

'Oh shit. Consequences. How the hell did she find out I summoned?' Naruto thought.

'We forgot about her...' Kurama added. 'Good luck.'

"Sensei, with the help of my summons I believe we can get all the women back to their homes before the end of the day. I just need to know how to summon multiple summons at once." Naruto answered. "Which is where you come in Heiko." He continued as he turned to the jaguar.

"Well that is rather simple. You mold the chakra into separate 'bubbles' each being about as much as you want the summon to be. Then it's the same as summoning one summon." Heiko explained. "Is there anything else you need me for?"

"No you can go Heiko, thank you." Naruto acknowledged as he started to do what Heiko had instructed. Concentrating on keeping the pools of chakra constant while summoning one handed, he slammed his hand down and in a large puff of smoke four large jaguars, about twenty feet tall each and forty feet long.

"Maybe a little too big…" Naruto thought out loud as he saw the giant jaguars standing before him. 'I really need to work on my control...'

"Naruto-sama h-" One jaguar started only be to cut off.

"Nope. No sama shit. I don't use the sama suffix seriously so I don't expect people to use it when addressing me either. Plus I haven't earned enough respect to be called sama, maybe later. But I need to transport all these women, who were kidnapped, back to their homes as quickly as possible. I am sure their families are missing them." Naruto gestured to the group of women in front of them who were all frozen in shock looking at the giant animals in front of them.

"Naruto. You scared them. You really should have thought this through." Kurenai scolded.

"Yea. I'm learning a lot this mission." Naruto conceded.

"Well, at least you are learning." Kurenai turned to the group of women. "Okay ladies, I know these animals look intimidating but they will not hurt you. They are here to help us get you back to your homes and family as quickly as possible. So if you would all come forward and let them carry you we can get you all back before the end of the day."

It was obvious that the women were tentative about getting on the back of the jaguars, but there were a few brave souls that stepped forth hoping to get home as quickly as possible. With a scoop of the tail one of the jaguars picked up the girls and deposited them onto it's back.

After a few seconds of the women not moving, almost as if they were expecting the jaguars to run off with the women or eat them more started to come forth to get a ride from the large creatures. One by one and two by two each woman came forth and we picked up and deposited onto a jaguars back until they were all riding a jaguar.

"Okay, now to finish getting all of you to your homes. We'll hit every village on the way to Konoha, this should only take a few hours now that we have the help of the jaguars. Hold on tight, we're leaving." Kurenai addressed everyone as she took off into the trees with the jaguars quickly following.

Returning all the women back to their homes took about four hours, much shorter than it would have been if they had to talk the whole way.

"Thank you guys, I'll summon you later and give you a proper thanks." Naruto praised the four summons.

"While being summoned to carry humans from place to place is an odd request, it was nice to get out and stretch our legs." One jaguar replied.

"Yes, thank you. It's not often that we get summoned. You are our first summoner in quite some time." Another added.

With their pieces said all four summons disappeared in a puff of smoke leaving Naruto and his sensei at the gates of Konoha.

"Sensei, where is the nearest newspaper stand?" Naruto asked as he walked through the gates alongside his sensei.

Kurenai looked down at Naruto confused for a second before realization hit her. She quickly took off down one of the streets towards the nearest newspaper vendor she knew about. Naruto just watched his sensei run through the streets with an amused smile on his face.

So I did a damn good job at jinxing myself. I know that last update I said that you could expect an update once a month... And that was like three months ago. The week after I posted that chapter I got swamped with papers in all my classes which continued throughout the semester, then I had to start working nights thanks to the Christmas season. But with the end of the Christmas season I am finally able to get behind the computer again. Now I won't say that I will update this every month, but I do plan on writing quite a bit in the coming months, whether that's this story or something else entirely... I don't know yet.

tl;dr: School kicked my ass then I worked nights and I couldn't write but I will be now.

Again, sorry for the absence.

~Dyna