A/N: This chapter and the following one are going to be a series of shorter one-shots that take place in the time skip. It wasn't something I wanted to devote a lot of time to in my story (hence the time-skip), but many were a little disappointed at this. I agreed to make one-shots if I came up with any ideas….and well, here we are. The first chapter has stories from the viewpoint of Naruto and Sakura, and the second chapter has stories featuring Hanabi and Hinata. The chapters are also divided by where they are in the timeskip (ie Hanabi and Hinata's stories occur later). I hope you enjoy!
The Orange Daimyo Side Stories: The Lost Years
To Look like a Daimyo
Naruto woke to the soft chirping of birds and to the morning sun trickling into his room. At first, he flipped over toward the darker wall and settled in to go back to sleep, but then it struck him! He was meeting with the council for the first time today! There was no way he could sleep in!
As if he had been shocked to life, the reckless blonde jumped out of his bed. Throwing on the clothes that he had been wearing the day before, he ran down the large, echoing hallway to the kitchens. Naruto still found the layout of the palace pretty confusing- it was huge and seemed to be planned haphazardly – but he was always able to find the kitchens. Today, the fresh smells of baking bread had lured him in the right direction.
The matronly woman who oversaw the kitchens huffed when she saw Naruto approaching. A stickler for the traditional, she distrusted the way the boy always seemed to end up in the servants quarters and underfoot. "What can I do for you, little Prince?"
Naruto raised an eyebrow at the odd title, but answered quickly. "I need to get breakfast super fast today! I'm going to be getting ready all morning, ya know!" He took a deep breath then added, more quietly, "I've got a meeting today!"
The kitchen supervisor made a dour face. "I'll get something to you right away, my Lord. But would my Lord please wait for his breakfast in the dining hall?" The woman's tone was such that Naruto didn't argue. He nodded, sending his wayward locks flying, and began half running back up out of the kitchens towards the dining hall.
The dining hall was a little trickier to find than the kitchens (why wasn't it right beside them?!) but within a few minutes Naruto had found the hall. It was mostly empty due to the early hour, but a couple of Naruto's tutors, and one of the main builders were waiting on breakfast as well. Naruto, still nervous about being in a room of adults all much older than him, sat a distance away from everyone.
The young shinobi listened in on the conversations of the other people in the room but found them to be very poor entertainment. Rebuilding load-bearing arches and the healing properties of kelp-slime were not topics that held his attention. Thankfully, his breakfast tray was served only moments after his boredom began to really take hold.
Part way through breakfast, Airi came downstairs to eat as well. She didn't try to hide the shock on her face at finding her charge there before she was. "Good morning, my Lord."
Naruto gave her the stink-eye over her formal greeting, and she chuckled a bit. "How did you sleep Naruto? Excited for today?"
"Ralee exshetided!" he exclaimed, spraying part of his tray with pastry crumbs.
Airi raised an eyebrow. "Chew food, swallow, then talk," she said dryly, counting down on her fingers.
Naruto looked sheepish. Gulping the mouthful down, he started answering her questions and the two chatted briefly over their food. "So Naruto," all of your morning classes and training is going to be cancelled for today. We need to go make sure the sizing for your Daimyo's robes was correct before your first official meeting beginnings!"
Their breakfast didn't take long, and soon the pair where heading through the convoluted palace to find the Royal tailor's dressing room. Naruto wasn't sure why this stuff was kept in another room other than his own; what was wrong with the wardrobe in there? Airi had given him some sort of explanation about special garment storage but he wasn't paying close attention. Despite not understanding why the clothes were in a different spot, he was pretty excited to try them on.
He had all sorts of amazing pictures in his head of what the Daimyo clothes were going to be like. Naruto was certain that they would be awesome, like the stuff the Hokages wore! Maybe it would be like the utilitarian clothing that old man Third wore, but with a flashy jacket like the Fourth! No, maybe he'd have an amazing headpiece and armor like the Senju Hokages! No wait! All of those things but also orange!
It was with these vivid mental images in his head that Naruto arrived at the dressing room. The young Daimyo all by ran into the room, with his head tutor following. They were greeted by a short, balding man, who had a fancy kimono and a strikingly long moustache. "Oh, my Lord Daimyo, please come in, oh yes, please come in!" The posh little man was eyeing Naruto with great interest and for the first time since Airi had mentioned the fancy Daimyo clothes, Naruto wondered what he had gotten himself into.
Things started off very well. The man took measurements of Naruto, humming and nodding to himself. He then pulled some clothing out of a large wardrobe in the studio. To Naruto's disappointment, the kimono that the man brought over was blue, not orange. It was also far simpler than he had imagined, like the boring clothing that all the old clan members in Konoha wore. Putting the garment on had put a damper on his previous imaginings, but not by much. There were plenty of ways the outfit could be made fantastic….
"Okay Naruto for this next part, close your eyes okay?"
Airi sounded very excited about whatever it was, and it lifted Naruto's dipping spirits. Hands gently guided him somewhere and then he felt a soft, yet heavy weight on his head.
"Ohhh, look at that! He looks so magnificent!"
"Hmm, oh my yes! Such dignity!" It sounded to Naruto as if the little man was clapping his hands in joy over the display. "Go ahead my Lord! Open your eyes!"
Naruto opened his eyes, and looked in the mirror. For a moment he was stunned silent, although the gears in his head were moving rapidly. His first thought was that he looked like a giant flower, and an ugly flower at that. He was dressed in a richly made, though simple, kimono of blue and navy. That part was boring but tolerable…but that hat! It was at least a foot and a half tall, and it was primarily made up with a large fan that had three huge navy Uzumaki swirls on it, and if that wasn't bad enough, it also had huge tassels hanging down from both sides of the fan.
It was the most ridiculous thing that he had ever worn, and that included the time that he painted himself up as a forest demon to prank the preschool ankle biters! "Ugh! I look like a freaking lampshade with legs! And how am I supposed to defend myself in this?!"
He reached for the kunai that he always kept hidden in his waistband to demonstrate his point, but it got caught somehow in the thick layers of fabric. Before anyone could stop him, he pulled harder on the weapon. With a shockingly loud rip, the kunai came free but the sudden force letting go caused the monstrous hat to tip forwards, essentially blinding him. Naruto stumbled a bit, and before he could catch his footing, he stepped on a torn piece of the kimono. This not only caused the already damaged fabric to rip more, but it also made Naruto slip. With a painful crunch, the blonde fell headfirst onto the polished wood of the floor.
It was uncomfortably silent when he peeled the ruined hat off of his face. Face tinted with red, he looked up only to find the previously calm tailor to be purple faced and bug-eyed. Gingerly, Naruto picked up the hat, and began bending the spindles of the fan back into an upright position. Airi's look of horror softened and the side of her lip began to twitch up with his attempts to fix the mangled headpiece. Naruto's work however, was less than careful and as he was fixing one of the spindles, it snapped in half.
The room froze. Naruto hardly dared to move, and Airi was biting her lip now to keep from laughing. The tailor's face deepened to the darkest shade of purple Naruto had ever seen on a man. "OH, YOU UNSPEAKABLE LITTLE HEATHEN!"
The man lunged in Naruto's direction and the young man dropped the hat to try and escape. The heavy clothing stopped him, and Airi's laughter turned to deadly precision as her charge was attacked. She leapt at the tailor, armed with a kunai of her own.
The room froze for a second time as the Airi grabbed the man from behind and held him in a simple lock. "I'll thank you to not attack our Daimyo, Yuu." The purple and then the rest of the colour drained from the tailor's face. He made a little squeaking noise and passed out.
Wide eyed, Naruto surveyed the situation. Airi rubbed her fingers into her temples. "Alright, well, get out of that kimono. Should be easy enough to do now," she added, eyeing the huge tear down the length of it.
Moving with all the care he could muster, Naruto peeled the garment off, and carefully folded it up. He placed it beside the passed out tailor. The pair began moving towards the door. "I'm going to go find the doctor for Yuu. You go upstairs. We're going to work on balance training for the rest of the day until that meeting."
Still feeling somewhat meek, Naruto nodded and began to follow the auburn-haired kunoichi down the hall. Then a thought occurred to him. "Airi?"
"Yes, Naruto?"
"The first order I'm making as Daimyo is to ban that stupid hat!"
The Orange Daimyo: Lost Years
The Impossible Mission
Sakura yawned as she hurried up the front steps to the hospital. The sun was still coming up and she had stayed up way too late last night studying. Tsunade hadn't been kidding when she said she wouldn't go easy on her. The last few months had been a whirlwind of physical training, chakra control exercises and constant academic study. She barely had any contact with any of her old academy friends; in fact, she hardly even had time to speak with her parents outside of the occasional dinner that she still managed to fit in at home.
Despite the harshness of the training so far though, the pinkette was feeling very positive. She was definitely making progress and with Sasuke still MIA and Naruto gone to lead Uzushiogakure, she felt the extra pressure to do right by her village as the only remaining member of Team Seven.
Never one to be tardy, Sakura had arrived at the hospital with a few extra minutes to spare. To her immense pleasure, she noticed that the hospital's café was already open. She quickly paid for an extra strong cup of black tea, and headed in the direction of her master's office.
She arrived to find that Tsunade was already there, drinking similarly strong tea. "Morning," she said without looking up from her book.
Sakura cleared her throat. "Good morning, Master!"
The Fifth looked up with a smirk on her face. "Chipper this morning for someone who was up so late reading biology texts."
"I could probably say the same to you," she retorted dryly.
The blonde woman laughed, spilling a small amount of her tea. "I knew there was a reason I picked you. Anyway, you've got a new assignment for today, and it's a non-academic one."
The young kunoichi perked up. It had been ages since she had done anything but basic training and study. She longed for a new challenge, and she hoped it was one where she would finally start really using medical ninjutsu.
"I'm ready!"
"Good. I need you to bring me a fish."
Silence hung in the air a moment after Tsunade's words. "W-what?"
"You heard me Pinkie. Bring me a fish. And not a dead fish. It needs to be alive, even if it's currently dying." Tsunade said this in a bored tone as she flipped a page in her advanced medical text, as if she hadn't just asked her apprentice for a fish.
Sakura blinked for a moment. "Okay then, where should I start?"
Tsunade shrugged and had a sip of tea before answering, "The ocean? I don't know; you figure it out."
Still feeling shocked senseless, Sakura turned around to leave her master's office when Tsunade called out an additional order. "Oh! One more thing Sakura! It has to be at least a foot long."
With a slightly numb feeling, Sakura nodded. Closing the office door behind her she headed back out towards the main hall of the hospital, feeling far glummer than she had walking in. Where was she going to find a foot-long, half-dead fish in the middle of Konoha?!
Putting her mind to the problem, Sakura headed down to the market. She might have to buy a fish, but that was okay with her. She hadn't had the time to spend any of her recent pay anyway. Turning down the largest food aisle of the outdoor market, the pink-haired kunoichi began her bizarre search.
She quickly found out that what her master asked her to do was not a remotely simple task. The market did have quite a few live fish, but they weren't the required length. In fact, when she had asked the man behind the fish tank if he had anything over a foot long and he looked at her as if she had two heads. "Why would anyone want that big of a pet fish?"
Sakura quickly found a banner boasting much larger fish than the first vendor had followed the included directions to the stall. The smell hit her just before she turned the corner but it was too late. She made a face as she realized where she was: the massive bulk fish market. Even though she found the whole area kind of gross, she decided she should still talk to one of the owners. There was a small chance that they could have the thing she needed. Sakura peered around the area, which was mostly filled with great ice blocks stacked into piles, with the fish laying limp on top of them. In the far corner she noticed a table with a couple men standing around it; that had to be the owners! With a determined walk, she headed to the far side of the fish market.
Unfortunately, the ground was not only unlevel, but it was also slippery with the water from melting ice blocks. The pink haired kunoichi took one heavy step forwards and then slipped. She tried to right herself by reaching out and grabbing on to something, but there was only the fish tables. Her nails found a small amount of purchase on an ice block, but this only made the single brick of ice slip off the table and with it, several whole midsized fish. Sakura screamed and tried to knock away the fish from landing on her, but she was only partly successfully. A moment later, she was sitting in the mud, squealing as she pushed the offending fish off of her. "Hey! Hey kid, whatcha think yer doin' to my merchandise, huh? You owe me for those! I can't sell muddy fish!"
Sakura glumly paid the man and turned to leave. "Hey mister, one last thing…do you have any live ones this size?"
"What?! How would I sell live fishes like that? They'd be like monsters, nah, I don't got nothin' like that."
Lips down-turned, Sakura headed out of the shops area. Clearly the answer to her quest didn't actually lie in the marketplace. She was taking large, angry strides up away from the marketplace, and nearly walked into straight into her best frenemy. "Watch where you're walking, Ino-pig!" she nearly shouted, letting her previous frustration vent.
Ino raised a manicured eyebrow. "Hello to you too, billboard-brow," she said, before giving the air a quick sniff, "What smells like fish?"
The pinkette fumed further and Ino put two and two together. "Ha! That's you? Not really a flattering scent for a lady, Sakura. What are you doing hanging out with dead fish?" A couple of peals of laughter followed the statement and Sakura ended up half yelling the story of her morning so far at Ino.
"That's rough. Your master really sent you find a big fish, hmm?"
Sakura only nodded, and glared at the ground. This day wasn't improving quickly.
"Well, if you need a live one, why don't you go fishing?"
"Fishing? Like with a pole?"
"Yeah, like it's obviously the best way to get a live fish."
The pinkette pondered this, and grudgingly accepted that Ino was probably right. It did make the most sense. She groaned. "I don't know the first thing about fishing. I don't suppose that you do Ino?"
The blonde threw her long ponytail over her shoulder. "Actually, I do know a little bit. My dad likes do it when he has free time…"
Sakura perked up for a moment.
"…but I can't help you right now, because I'm actually taking a shift in the flower shop this afternoon."
The hope she had for a split second dashed away.
"Awe, don't look so glum billboard. I'll tell you what; I'll go grab some supplies for you before my shift. You'll have to figure them out on your own though."
Sakura felt a smile come to her face. "Thanks so much Ino!" Without thinking about it, she went in to hug the blonde and received a scream and a loud warning in return.
"NO! Don't you dare touch me right now, you filthy fish-girl!"
Sakura suppressed the urge to do it anyway, reminding herself that Ino was helping her out, even though Ino was probably going to call in a big favor at some point. The trip to get the equipment was a quick one and soon Sakura was headed out into the forest toward a nearby river and Ino was headed for her job.
When Sakura had found an area that seemed suitable – she basically just picked a spot on the river that looked pretty – she began assembling the supplies. Ino had given her a very quick rundown on how fishing worked, and Sakura managed to get the pole assembled okay. She grabbed the flashiest fake fish she could find in the tackle box and attached it the end of her rod before casting the line out into the dark water.
After an agonizingly long few minutes, she felt something tug on the line. 'Gottcha,' she thought, and yanked up as fast as possible. The bait came flying out of the water without a fish on it, and the fine line on the rod began to tangle as it rushed out of the water.
Sakura cried out in frustration at her lack of success and began trying to untangle the fishing line. It took far longer than she cared to admit to get it straightened out again. Trying to calm herself down, the pink haired ninja focused on getting the job done. There had to be a good reason why Tsunade needed her to get a fish, right? Doubts started to poison her thoughts, but she cast the line out again. She'd be successful eventually.
Two hours later, the same scenario had unfolded over and over again. She missed getting a fish every time even though she felt a tug and she had to untangle the lines several more times. The sun was high in the sky; it was already past noon. Sakura hadn't thought to bring any food with her, but pride wouldn't let her declare this venture a failure.
The hungrier and more frustrated she got, the more it seemed unfair that her master had sent her on this wild goose-chase. She had worked so hard these last few months. She had aced all her exams and done far more studying even beyond what was necessary to achieve those marks. She had done chakra control exercises until her hands were numb. She had dodged Tsunade's brutal and terrifying attacks on the training grounds. Didn't she deserve a little better than this strange quest with no word as to why it was needed?
Fuming, she cast the line a final time. Once again, when she pulled it out, it tangled. Unable to contain herself, she let out a massive yell. "I absolutely, one hundred percent hate fish!"
There was a brief moment of silence and then a single query. "If you hate fish so much Sakura, uh, why are you fishing?"
Sakura turned to glance behind her, and noticed that Choji had been coming up the trail toward the river. In her fury, she hadn't noticed his approach. "Well, that's a long story."
Choji began setting up his own equipment as Sakura again relayed her story about how Tsunade had given her a new impossible mission and how everything had gone wrong that day. "And now I can't even catch a single stupid fish."
The kind shinobi glanced at his former classmate. "Why don't you show me how you're doing it? I've been fishing since I was a little kid. Maybe I can help you?"
Sakura nodded and cast the line back into the river. Like her previous attempts, this try didn't yield her any fish. Choji had been watching her carefully. "I think I see your problem. You're pulling too soon. A lot of times fish take a little bite to try it out before they really grab it. If you pull it out right then, you actually pull the bait away from the fish. You have to have a little more patience. Watch!"
The more experienced nin cast his line and waited a moment or two. Sakura watched intently and noticed a small pull on the line, followed by a much larger one. On the second pull, Choji began pulling back and reeling in his line and to her surprise, a fairly large fish came out attached to it. Sakura watched, dumbfounded and a little bit irritated. He made what she had been struggling with all afternoon look easy!
"You try now."
The pinkette nodded. She'd catch this stupid fish and bring it back to Tsunade and then forget that this day had happened. She cast her line in and waited. After waiting far longer than her friend, she felt a now familiar small tug. Fighting her instinct to pull, she waited. A second, far stronger tug followed after the first. She pulled back on the line and reeling like she had been doing all afternoon. This time proved to be a lot harder, but she persisted and was rewarded with a similarly large fish coming out of the river on her line. She quickly gauged the fish to be roughly a foot long. "Yes! Yes I did it!"
"Way to go Sakura," Choji said. Sakura dropped the fish into a large bucket and pulled the beefy shinobi into a tight hug.
"Thanks so much Choji! Thank Ino for me too! Do you think you would be able to give her equipment back to her? I need to run this fish to Tsunade!"
A slight redness crept over Choji's face. "Sure, I can bring Ino back her stuff."
"Thanks!" she called over her shoulder as she ran back towards town with her prized fish in tow. As she ran though, her excitement started to wear off. She was still irritated with her master for the day's events.
When she arrived at the hospital, the fish was nearly dead. "Tsunade! Tsunade, I got that stupid fish you wanted!"
Her master looked up from whatever she was doing at the table. "Well done. Bring it here."
Sakura did as she was told, and her master grabbed the dying fish from the huge bucket in Sakura's hands. She placed the fish on the table and green light covered her hands. The fish seemingly came back to life and it resumed flipping and flopping on the table. The older kunoichi snatched it up, and plopped it in a fairly small tank that she had set up at the back of the room.
"Well done Sakura. Did you have a good day?"
Her protégées' face went a shade of red. "I did NOT have a good day! It was horrible! I got laughed at by a pet store owner and fell in mud and got covered in dead fish and then I ended up trying to catch fish all afternoon with no lunch and…"
Sakura stopped, because Tsunade was laughing at her. Tears threatened to spring into her eyes, but she fought them back. The Fifth glanced at her. "I'm sorry you had such a bad day Sakura, but I think you learned an important lesson. It's an important one for people who work in medicine. You need to be able to freely ask for help to your peers. When you try to do things completely by yourself, you could hurt your patients. You can't be too proud to ask for help."
Sakura was still a little mad, but she conceded that her master had a point. If she had swallowed her pride and came back into town to ask someone else to help her with fishing, she wouldn't have been out there so long without getting anywhere. "But I asked you for advice, and you told me to figure it out myself!"
"That's different! I'm your master, asking me for help doesn't challenge your pride at all."
The annoyance that the kunoichi felt slowly crept away as she realized that her master had been right. She should have asked for help far earlier than she did. Her shoulders sagged with her perceived failure and she turned to leave.
"Where are you going? Don't you want to learn basic healing techniques using that fish?"
Basic healing techniques? Did she hear that right? Tsunade was going to teach her a medical ninjutsu? Feeling her earlier enthusiasm return to her, Sakura rushed back to the table. Her determination had probably never been higher. "I'm ready!"
A/N: The next chapter will be set further along in the timeskip and feature my favorite two Hyugas!