Hey guys, been a while. Sorry about the absence, things got difficult in the home life and recent loss of internet has stunted my ability to write seeing as I can't freely research for what I need in future chapters. So I hope to have this fixed soon and I'll be able to write more regularly. Without further a do, here we are.
Disclaimer: DO not own Naruto or FF-x.
Naruto and Rikku awoke pleasantly within each other's arms as they lay in their bed from their night of fun, the morning sun waking them with its rays through the window. Looking down to Rikku he smiled as he held her tighter to him, right now everything was right with the world and there couldn't be anything wrong. However, a glance at the clock made him groan in protest as he saw it was getting later in the morning. "Rikku...time to wake up." He whispered into her ear as he held her, but she just snuggled into his bare chest more. He chuckled lightly but shook her slightly as she groaned, not at all pleased with having to actually get up now. She sat up and stretched her arms to the ceiling, giving Naruto a good little show of her chest as he smiled up at her.
"Perve." Rikku snarked mockingly as she got up from the bed and made her way to the bathroom, not even bothering with the clothes on the floor, bare to the world.
"Only cause you let me." Naruto countered, sitting up and stretching a bit himself, before making a few clones who got to work on cleaning up the apartment and starting on breakfast as he followed Rikku into the shower.
The two enjoyed a nice hot shower together, really sharing a shower was all it cracked up to be and more, shower stayed hot so they stayed in there together long enough for both to get clean and a little fooling around. But they got cleaned and once they got out, the apartment was clean, breakfast was ready, clean clothes were set out and their stuff was packed and ready. They got dressed, got everything together and ate their breakfast, a good hearty meal, then left for the tower with about an hour to kill. Shadow clones are just awesome all around.
They used the hour for a Morning flight and observing the village as it was waking up for the day before they touched down in an alley and came out near the tower. They still had to be careful to keep the Kaihen a secret otherwise it would be stolen from them. Right now only Tenten had the complete hand seals for the jutsu since Naruto and Rikku had already shortened the hand seals they required to use the jutsu.
Making their way through the tower, they came to the Hokage's Office where Anko was leaning against the wall of the hallway. "Morning kiddies, enjoyed your night?" She asked with a shit eating grin. "You two look well recovered and prepared, let's go." She spoke, knocking on the door before getting Permission to enter. Once the door was closed behind them she cleared her throat. "Hokage-Sama, requesting to take the C-rank I reserved yesterday." She spoke, giving a bow before standing straight.
"Ah, Anko yes, I have it here. Just a moment." He ruffled through his drawers before pulling out a scroll and handing it over to Anko. "Naruto, Rikku, this mission was requested reserved by Anko to serve as your field test before you're to be assigned to your role of team support and field counter operations." He stated.
"Counter Operations?" Rikku asked, looking back to Anko and ten to Hiruzen.
"Yes, Counter operations usually details such things as infiltration, interrogation, assassination, torture, intelligence gathering, spying, and various other tasks expected of those that honestly work in the shadows yet are not anbu, as opposed to our more flashier shinobi we utilize for assault, shock and awe tactics while those like you are given the chance to get in, accomplish your task and get out undetected. This is a good set up to have for those who find themselves wishing to become Anbu in the future. This mission is to infiltrate a bandit camp that's allied with a group of missing ninja who leads many bandit camps to acquire intel and leave without notice. You'll have to kill those you extract your intel from, but make their deaths seem accidental or natural, just so long as they do not expect foul play an escape without drawing attention. Your intel will lead us to the missing ninja so other operatives can get in to take them out." He stated.
"Got it Jiji. Is that all?" Naruto asked, getting a no from the Hokage.
"Alright Gakis, meet at the north gate in an hour, and be sure to get some dark clothes for Stealth before we meet back up." She spoke before she vanished out of the office via body flicker. The two blondes saluted before doing the same, dropping down in front of the wolf claw without a second thought since they were already packed and ready to go. Walking in, they spotted Tenten and smiled to her.
"Hey Buns, we're here to pick up some Stealth gear," Rikku called out. Tenten hummed in thought before directing them to a corner that held some black out clothes and little bits of choice gear. Once they were outfitted and new stuff sealed, they partook to visit with Tenten. "So we didn't really get to talk all too much the other day, how's it been so far with missions and those lessons?" Rikku asked.
"Doing well, getting a few more C-ranks now which is helping out. Almost finished with my lessons and practical sessions, so I'll be taking more missions here soon. Thankfully the extra training with Kakashi helped me contribute more to the team and better prepared me for the risk I'll be taking in those seduction missions."
The three of them nodded, thankful that Tenten was better prepared. "Still, all you need to do is ask and we'll be there to help best as we can with whatever you need." Naruto voiced, getting Rikku to nod.
"...Well..." Tenten started, thinking for a minute as she not so subtlely looked Naruto and Rikku both up and down. The two noticed and their own thoughts lead them down to wha she may very well be asking, however before tenten could continue.
"Tenten! Has the Ore from Iron country came in yet?" A shout came from the back and Tenten skewed her eyes shut.
"No dad not yet! I'll let you know when it gets here!" She shouted back, a bit annoyed to be cut off like that. But she sighed, turning back to the two blondes and waving them off. "We'll talk later, for now, you should probably get going on to your mission. See you when you get back." She spoke and they went their separate ways. However, once they were outside, they looked to one another.
"You think she was...?" Naruto started and Rikku nodded.
"Yeah, I'd say so... Although truth be told if there was anyone else it'd be her above anyone else." She said, scratching her cheek with a slight blush that was reciprocated in turn by Naruto.
"Yeah,you're right there...but still that would be...Awkward, since we just got so far ourselves, Ya know?" He asked.
"True but it's a thought we can toy with for now...Anyway, Anko should be waiting for us now." Rikku finished their talk and they nodded. Vanishing with Body flicker, landing in front of the gate. Anko was indeed standing there already and nodded.
"Good, you're ready, let's go, we got a half a day's hard run to get there, carry out our objective and then haul ass to get back so our Intel stays good." She spoke, directing them to follow after her as they took off jumping straight into the trees for tree hoping to not waste time. They couldn't formulate any plans until they got to the camp to see what they were up against, as primary intel was sketchy at best. But as they ran Anko noticed they were hardly breathing hard at all. Sure Naruto was a given with him being a Jinchuuriki and having prodigious reserves of stamina and chakra, but Rikku was surprising. "I really got to learn that breathing technique of yours." She started getting snickers from the two blondes.
They arrived at the outskirts of the bandit camp on the edge of the clearing within the forests just as their intel dictated the camp would be. "Alright you two, we'll get changed and scout out a point of entry into the camp and a target. The camp leader would send out red flags, so we'll have to corral a grunt. Get changed." They nodded and proceeded to undress while up in the trees, disregard for modesty in total between the three of them. Anko was free anyways and with Naruto and Rikku having crossed that line, they didn't feel ashamed of themselves anyway. However there was one problem.
"What do we do with our gifts?" Rikku asked, motioning to her cloth from shiva and Naruto's Vest. However at the thought, the both of them shifted colors, the main color going black while the trim or motifs became a very dark red. "Guess that answers that question." She stated, pulling it back on, Naruto doing the same. They were now in generic black Shinobi garments, padded shoes, bound leggings, the whole deal, with barely any color to be seen aside from the red. Faces covered besides the eyes. Anko was dressed the same, though she had a black trench coat to replace her beige one from before.
"Anlright kiddies, circle the camp, analyze it for etry, weaknesses and possible targets. Meet back here within an hour. Go." She motioned and they were off. Naruto and Rikku both produced a few shadow clones that Henged into field mice and ran into the camp to scout out the camp internally while they circled around the camp through the tree tops. The shadow clones managed to pick out a few targets, and even eavesdrop on who they identified as they leader of the camp, getting some valuable intel out of the ordeal. When the hour was up, the clones made their way to empty tents to puff and they gathered back together. "Report."
"God point of entry on the west side, also we managed to sneak a few shadow clones in to get information. Apparently their is going to be a leader's meeting among the bandit camp leaders with their missing nin leaders in a week, however could not figure out from where." Naruto stated.
"Managed to learn when they get their supply shipments in from an apparent main camp and...entertainment, from captured civilians they target. Supposedly their suppoed to get the shipment in the next three." Rikku stated, though she was seething knowing what that meant, she couldn't do anything about it, her recent training in the area making her aware that these things happen, and if she screwed up something at this camp, it may screw up the mission entirely. "Got a good target, it's one of the supply runners between the camps, who also was having an argument with one of the other bandits on shares of the supplies." She finished her report.
"Good, we can use this. We have our target, entry, elimination means and extra intel. Naruto, lead us into the camp, Rikku point out the target and his arguing companion." With the orders issued, they moved out. Naruto dropped down from the trees, using the tall grass at the tree line to his advantage along with Rikku and Anko, before the coast was clear and they rushed into the camp. Sticking to the shadows of the camp, thankful for the waning moon's low light. Rikku point out the man, who was still arguing with said man in front of what was the supply tent. Sneaking around, Rikku got into the tent from the back, while naruto came around the back of the man. At an unheard signal, Rikku came out from the tent, a garrote noosed around the supplier's neck pulling him into the tent, with naruto doing the same to the other bandit, pushing him into the bandit. Soon enough, two shadow clones were made to take the place of the two bandits, henge'd into the bandit and supplier to continue the argument and keep guard.
Inside the supply tent, both men were put to their knees, bound at the wrist and ankles with wire, now properly gagged. Looking to anko, she shook her head. "I'll step in if I need to, this is up to you two." She spoke and the two nodded. Sharing a look that communicated a whole conversation seemingly, htye took a breath to prepare themselves before they reached out and snapped a finger on each of them. Anko raised an eyebrow at this.
"That was to ensure we have your attention and make you aware we are willing to do what we need to to get what we want. now we'll start with you. Yell and we slit your throat." Naruto spoke, motioning riku to stand behind the man with a kunai at his throat. The gag was pulled down. "We know your camp's leader will be meeting with the other camp leaders and and your core leaders in a week. Where?" Naruto questioned, though the man remained silent, glaring at him. Looking up to rikku, she pulled the gag tight in his mouth while Naruto snapped the same finger anger, shattering the knuckle joint while twisting it, making the man scream into his gag, then he broke a second finger. "Please answer the question, this is unpleasant as is, but I will continue if I must. However each time you don't answer or lie, I'll double the punishment each time over." Looking to rikku, she lowered the gag.
"Two days by horse back to the north east, nestled into a deep valley by a cliff, just east of Manzu town." He spke before the gag was replaced. Looking to Anko she nodded, she knew where that was. Nodding, he looked to the bandit again.
"Do you know anothing about the camp? Guards, defenses, passwords or anything like that?" He asked, seizing his hand around the second broken finger. The man groaned but shook his head, sweating. Looking into his eyes, naruto nodded. Rikku tied the Gag tight and stood in front of the supplier, while naruto stood behind like rikku did the other one a momet before.
"Same question to you then. The camp?" She asked, snapping a second finger on principle. Once he was done, Naruto lowered the gag.
"It's fortitfied with earthen and stone walls, likely from one of your ninja jutsu and hidden by foilage unless you know how to read the path. A path of seemingly random red stones set between trees just wide enough for a small horse wagon to pass through. You'll be able to see the next stone from the one before it. We were told to stick to the path as a must if we do not want to set off some kind of alarm or die outright." He spoke, taking a breath. "The leaders all seem to be strong, though they make it a point to throw their weight around to show authority. Each camp leader usually brngs two of their best with them, about ten camp leaders and five core leaders, missing nin I think. Aside from that, the camp has about twnety people there on usual whenever I stopped to drop supplies." He stated before he was gagged again.
"Good...what about your supplies?" She asked. When he was ungagged, eh stated silent, however when naruto went to gag him again, he sputtered.
"W-wait. Usual for any camp, food stuffs, clothes and maintenance, some weapons...and their entertainment I'm directed to drop off."
"Entertainemnt?" Rikku spoke, her voice cold though even and controlled.
"...Girls. Picked up from various towns or on the road. I'm just told where to deliver them." He finished.
"Passwords or anything we need to get into the camp?" She asked finally.
"A weekly password and a badge in my left pocket, all camp leaders and suppliers have them. This weeks password is Tanuki Hunt." He finished. Rikku nodded and looked back to Anko, who nodded. they had everything they needed. "Thank you two, we appreciate the help." She said as naruto gagged him again. He made a clone that dispersed, and the two disguised clones out front came in to the tent. While the two were distracted by the clones who were still arguing out loud, naruto and rikku withdrew knives from the two bandits, and stabbed one on the chest, while the other in the side of the neck. They waited for them to bleed out and die before untying the bodies and setting them up as though one attacked the other and the other killed their attacker with the knife to the neck.
Anko retrieved the badge, looked at it carefully, taking a few still pictures of it before replacing it back onto the supplier's body. "We got what we need, let's leave." She motioned and they left the tent, naruto's clone dispersing and they rushed out of the camp, none the wiser to their actions. Though once they were in the trees, they ran hard until they were good distance away when they stopped. "Good job you two." She spoke, but seeing their expressions, she sighed. "I take it that was the first time you killed defenseless men?" She asked, getting nods in return.
"It's different to killing someone who's trying to kill you." Naruto spoke, looking to his hand.
"It always is, but look at it this way. Those two held no qualms with what they did, even the supplier knew what he was doing with the girls he dropped off to these camps. They're dead now and soon our information will be used to end the rest of the camp. It served a purpose. I won't say other times will be as easy as this, as some missions will challenge your moral compass, but each mission, each kill, does serve a purpose. Intellectualize every death, every mission, and it'll help...not only that, but you two ahve each other to lean on. Now get changed and let's move, we should make it back to the village by morning when the gates open." She finished, the three of them changing back to their usual clothes, the colors of their tokens reverting back to normal.
The three tree hopped in silence, but Rikku and Naruto held hands when they could throughout the trip. True to Anko's Statement, the village came into sight just as Dawn was beaking and startig to illuminate the village. They came before the closed gates, where a guard came down and verified them before they opened the gates for the day. Making their way to the Hokage tower, they knocked and were brought in.
"Mission success I trust?" The hokage asked.
"Yes Sir. We have our intel and a little extra." Anko started.
"Good. How dd the two perform in their field test?" He asked, looking to the two blondes.
"Excellently. Honestly it surprised me how they handle the interrogation and subsequent execution and set up. They handle everything with minimal guidance from me." She stated.
"Very good. I'm proud of your two's work. Keep this up and you'll do well to get into Anbu one day. Head down to the report offices to make your full reports and turn in your gathered information. And here you are, B-rank Pay." He stated, handing them their checks. However this caught the two blondes attention.
"Don't you mean C-rank?" Rikku asked.
"Hmm? Did I? I don't believe so. After all C-ranks usually imply random encounters with bandits or just plain bandit exterminations." He said with a mischievous smile. It took them a moment before they looked to Anko.
"Let's just say I made a bet that you two can handle a B - rank just fne right out of the gate. And hey what do you know." She said, smiling. "A c-rank would have tested you just fine yes, but this mission was ideal to test the kind of missions what you'll be doing out on your own when not supporting other teams. Besides that, you two are just too well trained, plus your combat efficiency is already known thanks to the academy fight. So this fit to better test your other capabilities." She finished.
The two of them were speechless for a moment, before they looked to the B-rank check in their hands. "Well damn...wait. You bet on us?" Rikku asked.
"Between me and some other jonin. Kuenai, Asume, Gai, Kakashi, genma, Hayate and a few others. 1000 ryo a piece. Me and kakashi bet in your favor."
"We want 20% of the total betting pool since you bet on us." Naruto came up immediately.
"No chance."
"You sure? Because I think you'd look good with Haruno pink hair. I can see it now." Naruto retorted, framing her face with his hands. "Then again I could replace the red bean paste at the dango shops with prune paste."
"10%."
"15%"
"Deal." Anko said, shaking naruto's hand, narrowly avoiding that bullet to her hair or dango.
"Congratulations on escaping that humiliation." Hiruzen commented.
"By the way Jiji, question. Do you even sleep?" Naruto asked, while motioning to the ffice and the clock.
"I have a small connected apartment to this office when it gets to be late nights. Though ever since you gave me the iea to use shadowclones I've had more free time out of the office. Now go on and fill out your reports. You have the next three days off to rest before your next missions, depending on whether it'll be team support or standalone. Dismissed." They nodded and left the office. They made their reports, Anko handling the intel submission with the pictures she took of the badge. The three went off to the bank where they cashed and desposited their checks, and had a good hearty breakfast at one of the restaraunts, anko giving the owner they evil eye when he went to say something to naruto, making him back off quick.
"That was a good mission kiddies. In the future yu'll be encoutnering more missions like that and others just as Sandaime-sama described our duties. However on team support missions, we'll fill that role or as support and reinforcement as needed. For example if a team on a c-rank guard mission encounter a threat beyond the mission rank, we'll be sent in to reinforce them and if we capture the hostile, interrogate them, and stick around until the mission is finished. We'll get a support pay fitting to the details of why we sent in as support. This is the first time Konoha has established a dedicated support team, even one a member short at that, but it'll show that this team can handle the challenges and buff up th success rate of other genn missions." Anko spoke.
"So we're a test run for future potential support teams with a second focus like how we're counter op's?" Rikku asked.
"Exactly, though whether future teams we'll be a member short or not will be up in the air. But the greater this team's success, the better it'll show on potential future teams. It may even serve as an accelerator for those with an interest in specific fields of ninja duty or even anbu. Now eat up and get some rest, I'll drop off the bet later." She finished, before eating her own food. The rest of the meal was just simple conversation before they left. Rikku and Naruto made it home, where they stripped down and got a shower, before hading to bed, tired and after killing the two men, not in any mood for much else. Holding onto each other helped them to fall to sleep to get a full rest. By the time they awoke, it was mid day and they got cleaned and dressed. They found a envelope on the kitchen table with plenty of ryo in it.
"So we got the rest of the day and two more to ourselves, what should we do?" Naruto asked.
"Maybe go see tenten, see if she wants to continue where we left off yesterday." Rikku suggested.
"We could do that. Though before we do, what do we do if Tenten asks?" He asked, alluding to what they had thought of yesterday.
"Well...It's not as if it's that far out a possibility. I mean, back at HOME, there were quite a few people with multiple lovers, so it wouldn't be weird to us." Rikku said. "Besides that, it might just be something of a fling too." She theorized.
"True. And like you said yesterday, it'd be her if no one else here on this side. Tenten did help us the most in talking about sex and all that to get where we are now. So I feel the most comfortable with her before anyone else...So I guess we agree and see where it takes us?" Naruto offered, getting a nod from Rikku.
"Sounds about right. I mean she does have an interest in the both of us, we both know that already, so we just test the waters and see how it goes..." She finished, getting up from their table, they left the apartment and made their way to the Wolf Claw. Ignoring all the glares and whispers, they were making lists on who to prank on their next prank run. When they arrived though, they could hear yelling, the voices were Tenten and her father. Looking to each other, they got closer and could just make out what they were yelling about.
"-ant you out there at all! You're my little girl gods be damned and you going out there, even just acting like a hooker, is way beyond what I ever wanted for you! I could care less at this point if you had a threesome with your team mates or friends at this point, I don't want you out there!"
"Dad! It doesn't matter anymore! That last shipment of material damn near broke us! Between the shop's revenue and my missions, we're not making enough to get by! I have to take on more missions and these are the biggest paying ones! We just don't have the needed customers or merchandise! And you know damn well it's not about the sex so don't even bring that up! Besides what's the difference in danger between these missions and a bandit extermination!"
"I'll figure out a fucking way to get the money so you don't have to go out there. Those Missions are volunteer only because they are dangerous. The difference being you're killing with all your gear, weapons and your team there beside you! You won't have that on these missions. Tenten please, Don't take on those missions!"
Rikku and Naruto looked to one another, from what they just heard, this surely wasn't their first fight on this subject. Thinking of what to do, knowing more f the problem at hand, between her father's health and running the shop and tenten's mission history... "C'mon, I got an idea." Naruto waited just for a moment for a lull in the argument to walk in, a casual smile on his face. though once he saw the faces of tenten and her father, he dropped his smile and looked to the two..."Um...is this a bad time?" He asked, making himself out to having just came upon the store.
"No! mm, no, not at all. My father and I were just in a disagreement over something in the last material order." Tenten lied, though not so well. Her father though huffed.
"Right, last material order. I'll be at the forge if you need anything." The olderman grunted out as he diappeared into the back, shutting the door a bit hard. Tenten was looking at the door angrily.
"Talk to Tenten for a bit while I look around." Naruto told Rikku, getting a nod in return Rikku walked up to the counter to start talking to tenten.
"Hey Rikku, how'd your missio go?" Tenten asked, though spied naruto browsing around the store.
"Went pretty good. Had t deal with some bandits and intel Gathering." She stated, remembering the night before.
"First time killing? I'm surprised your mission would be the bleed you, but I have heard a number of rumors about Anko." Tenten commented.
"Nah, we've killed before when we were out on our training trip. Simple road bandits. Though we had to interrogate the bandits and then deal with them. first time for that. Turns out Anko and the hokage wants to make us into a support and counter ops team. Handle the shady bits and all that." Rikku went on.
"Damn, no wonder you bought stealth gear yesterday then. I won't bother asking for the details snce they're probably confidential. But are you alright executing men like that though? That can't be easy." She asked, now looking for a few bits of advice since she may have to do similar things during one of her seduction missions.
"It's different from killing a man that want's to kill you. But Anko sensei says to intellectualize everything, since every mission has a purpose. See the purpose and what it accomplishes, reason out why the targets have to die, and just do it. The only thing other than that is don't think to much about it when you're doing it, and have someone to talk to later. Which if you want, you can come talk to me and naruto whenever of you ever need to about that or anything else really. It helps to talk to someone you're close to, Me and Naruto both know that now." She said. Tenten nodded and seem deep in thought a moment.
"Hey tenten, why do you have so few storage scrolls here? We all learned Fuinjutsu together so you should have more than this souldn't you?" Naruto called out from the side of the store.
"huh? Oh! Those. Well yeah I can make them, problem is charging them. Used to we had a supplier who would make them for us till I started making them. However it's a bitch to charge up the scrolls. I only have so much chakra to use for charging up scrolls and still be ready for missions or training, and I can't keep taking soldier pills. Not only that, you can't over or under charge scrolls because then the lack or over abundance of chakra will disrupt the seals. So I can only make so many scrolls of that quality, and if I try to hire someone to charge more scrolls, they'll want more than I can offer and there's no garuntee they can charge the scrolls to the exact amount needed." She spoke dishing out the reasons.
Naruto came up to the front and thught a moment, holding ne f the storage scrolls. Then his expression changed like he had an idea. "Well hell, why don't I jsut become your supplier!" He said with a smile.
"What's going on?" Tenten's father spoke up as he came out.
"I was talking to tenten about your supply of storage scrolls and their quality. She told me why so I was thinking why can't I become your supplier. I know as much about Fuinjutsu as her-"
"Naruto, don't you dare lie to me. You practically have an intrinsic understanding of fuinjutsu I'll never have." Tenten corrected the whiskered blonde.
"Alight alright. Anyway, with my knowledge of Fuinjutsu and my absurd chakra reserves, I can make an excessive amount of storage scrolls of high qulity and storage size within just a regular scroll, even multiple sealing spaces on the same scroll to differentiate different storage spaces within the same scroll. I can sell them to you, which you'll sell in return and I can get a percentage of those sales." Naruto offered.
"How many scrolls are we talking about here? Per a day without getting tired?" Tenten asked.
"Well, I haven't tested my limit, but about a year ago, I made ten very good quality scrolls in one sitting without getting tired at all. So with what I know now and current chakra control, I suppose I could make twenty of the high quality large storage space single seal palm sized storage scrolls in one day easy." He spoke. Though he didn't mention that his chakra being laced with magic would have an enhancing effect, or that he could have shadow clones wite multiple scrolls he can charge himself afterwards.
Tenten and her father had flaberghasted expressions. The two blondes could then have swore they saw ryo signs in their eyes. "When can you make them?" The man asked.
"I can start n them when I get back today." He spoke.
"Tell you what, bring me as many as you can within the next couple of days, say a day or two from now, if you can bring 40 or more, we can work out a deal and I can arrange a sale to get customers in here buying. Storage scrolls are always a hot item, ninja and civilian alike. Deal?" He asked, holding his hand out.
"Deal." He spoke, shaking the man's hand. On that thought though, he walked over to the side and picked up a large amount of blanks crolls, brushes, inks and the other supplies he'd need to do all this. Tenten rung him up wth a discount and he paid, sealing it all away. "No worries, I'll bring ya'll as many scrolls as I can. But now that business is done, let's move on to pleasure." He stated, befor ehe caught on to what he said. "n-n-not that way, just- I...I'm gonna shut up now." He spoke, looking at a very interesting kunai on the wall, while the others were laughing at his expense.
"You're all good kid, I need to get back to work on the order I'm working, see you in a few days." He said, walking back t the forge. The girls were still snickering, but then they calmed.
"Thanks naruto, this will make a good event for the store." She spoke, and he just waved it off.
"No problem. I have more chakra then I honestly know what to do with so this will put the excess to good use. You make money, and I make money. We all win." He said with a smile.
"Got that right. Now what about that plesure you was talking about huh?" Rikku teased, easing up to Naruto while blowing on his neck intimately, making his skin bristle as he tried to restrain a grin.
"Oh yeah, the tension between you two completely vanished once you two went all in. Not nervous around the other anymore. I swear it was like dealing with a bomb on a hair triger with how tense it was between you two before you got laid." Tenten recalled, smirking at their blushes of embarrassment remembering how they were before. "Anyway, you two seem to be having fun, rikku told me about your mission. First time C-ranks tend to be boring but it sounds like yours was quite exciting."
"Well that's because it wasn't a c-rank, it was B-rank." Naruto commented.
"Wait...B-rank!? But how I mean, you're rookie Genin! Even I've only been on two b-rans with my team, and that was after our first year together with fifteen c-ranks done already!" Tenten spoke up.
"Well, Rikku told you I bet about what kind of team we are, an that mission fit the kind of missions we'll be doing on our own or as support in the future, so t was the better test for us."
"Man, that is so not fair. I had to bust my ass on D-ranks, put up with shit on c-ranks, just to get a b-rank, and here you two skip all the genin hell. How is that fair?" She asked.
"Hey, don't think we had an easy time. Anko sensei is a psychotic bitch, her training may not be int he pshysical extremes of Gai, but she's cruel and unhinged with her training. I mean hell, Anko told us straight out that by the time she was done, with lexibility alone we'd be able to tongue pleasure ourselves, no clone needed. Have you ever tried to flex your body away to fold completely in half, at your back, to get away from a brazier of cobras siting right under you while you hang over top of them?"
"Or have to dip into a set of splits of deep you can kick your self in the head to avoid a water moccasin hanging above your head from biting you?" Naruto added in. Tenten paled at bit at what she just heard, gulping a bit at the images in her head thinking of what that training could entail.
"Right, I'll keep that in mind from now on." She looked to the side, not wanting to imagine what else she had them doing, but then a thought struck her. "Wait, all of that was for flexibility alone? What else was she having you doing or teaching you?" She asked.
"Well she taught us some aspects of her hebi-ken, that's why she was working on our flexibility so harshly. I think she really wants someone to learn her variation of the Hebi-ken so it can be known for her rather than who taught it to her. Then it was throwing weapons, the other basic stuff, making us think out of the box with our current skills and then her specialities that make us a counter op's eam. torture, interrogation, infiltration, spying, the whole nine yards. She finished it off with a week long survival run in the forest of death with her and other jonin randomly attacking us through out the week." Rikku replied.
"Gods be damned that woman is psycho, I mean all of that in just two months, that's insane." Tenten tried to comprehend it, and unfortunately she could thanks to gai's workout routines. Though she was getting better thanks to the additional training from kakashi, who helped her optimize as much of her own arsenal and routine as possible to get the best results.
"Don't remind us. We had a trainer just like her, perhsonality and looks while we were out training before coming to konoha, she was the one to teach us how to hold our breath, play ball and fight underwater." Naruto groaned, thinking back to the Anko of Spira. He never wuld have thought a Bayonet could be so...versatile, beyond what he thought a knife to be.
"Oh! Which reminds me, I'm up to four minutes of holding my breath while swiming hard and using water missile under water." Tenten smiled.
"That's Awesome! We'll make a Blitzer out of you yet!" Rikku jumped up, pumping a fist into the air as she did.
"I'm looking forward to it. It looked fun above ground, but I can't wait to to try it under water. Just got to get that extra minute." Tenten went on.
"I'm still working on the seal to make a floating water sphere and trying t come up with the seals for the balls. If we didn't have just one I'd take it apart to see the seals inside of it." Naruto sighed, partly lying there. truth be told it was magic, but if he could make seals to get the same affect on different balls, even better, and being able to make a blitz arena would be great to keep them in practice. Normally he was the better fighter underwater, while rikku was the better blitzer. "I think for now we'll just publish a manual on the breath training and dry land blitzball to get things rolling towards an eventual true water based blitzball. I think the ninja world could do with having a sport all countries could enjoy. I mean ninja are practically the only ones who can do it, plus it's suprb conditioning no matter now you look at it."
"You're right...Oh! Why not get the rest of the rookie genin that passed in on it? Have them be your test group for blitzball to show the afects of training and establishing the sport. You can use ninja frisbie to start everyone off, then onto dry land blitz and breath training. Then onto true blitz. There are chakra techniques to make your breath last longer, so not everyone has to master the breath training to play water blitz, only those that want to get the full effects." Tenten thought up, making Naruto and Rikku look to her, their faces splitting with wide grins.
"That is an awesome Idea. We can start on that tomorrow, send clones out with invitations and bets to get it started. No matter what we do it'll count towards training, be fun, have money on the table. Hell for Ami, Sakura and Ino, if we can lure sakura, they'll get in on the action. Ino will bring chouji and shikamaru. Chouji can work up an appetite and if we convince him that not needing to breath he can eat more food faster, plus the bet money to buy food at his favorite restaurant, Shikamaru to cloud watch while floating in water, it's the ultimate laziness. Kiba is already competitive, Shino...well to test how he'll do underwater with his bugs, plus trying to find water bugs in the first place. Hinata may do it just because you're there naruto."
"Hey!"
"Heh. We can wrangle you in already I'm sure tenten. Lee will want a challenge, and neji...well, he might not, but then again, we can lue him in with bets and dissing his fate attitude that he is fated to lose to us in blitz. His pride and ego is the second stick in his ass."
"No comment." Tenten held up her hands.
"And I'm sure our sensei will come watch. Probably make it a team training event. Training ground 12 is the perfect area with a wide open area that has plenty of obstacles for dry land. frisbie or blitz and a rock outcropping for spectators."
"Sounds like we got a plan." Naruto spoke and rikku nodded. "Alight Tenten, I think we'll head on out now, I'll get started on the scrolls and we'll send out the invitations and bets on dry land blitz, arranging a day for all of us to gather. We'll see ya later." Naruto spoke, taking his purchase scroll with him, rikku following behind as they left.
"40 scrolls my ass. You're going to make hundreds aren't you?" Rikku mocked.
"Maybe..." He spoke sing songly. Grinning, rikku just shook her head.
"They're not going to have enough customers."
"That's the idea. This way it helps them out making more money and their shop's name gets out there to draw in more customers. Now come on, I got scrolls to make." Naruto finished as they mae their way back to the apartment. Once inside, Naruto pushed the sofa and everything else in the living room back to the walls, before unealing his supplies, getting his own stored supplies and making a shadow clone for each set, sendig them on to work on making scrolls. Rikku started making dinner for them while he kept making scrolls with his clones, while the original was charging the scrolls and sealing them into a newly made master scroll using his current knowledge of fuinjutsu.
"What's the count so far?" Rikku asked, sitting on the coach watching the clones.
"173."
"Well leave the clones to making the scrolls, you can charge the rest in the morning. Remember boys, clean up before you disperse." Rikku called out sweetly before dragging naruto off to their bedroom. "No Arguements, you need sleep to restore youre chakra and I'm not sleeping alone." And that was the end of that, though naruto saw his own clones snickering at him, making whipping noises. He cocked an eyebrow as if they were any different.
The next morning came and gone without any fuss, Naruto was back at it, charging the scrolls the clone had made last night and the ones his current batch of clones was making. Though he actually had to stop when instead of running low on chakra, he ran out of sealing supplies. "Final count, 311 scrolls. I'll probably have to make a deal with them on sealing supplies if I'm going to make scrolls in bulk like this."
"No kidding. But that's 271 more than what they're expecting so I think that'll be enough. Come on, let's go arrange our blitz off." Rikku spoke up, Naruto smiling as he got up and followed her out. First things first, they went to the hokage.
"Enter." The elderly ninja spoke from behind his desk.
"Hey Jiji." Naruto spoke up with a face splitting grin.
"Ah, Naruto, Rikku, good to see you two. I trust yu've gotten plety of rest?" The ld man asked.
"Sure did. But we're here for a purpose jiji." Naruto kept on.
"Oh? And what purpose might that be?"
"We want to reserve a training field, field 12, for the next few days to organize a little sports exhibition." Naruto stated.
"Sports Exhibition?"
"Yeah, Blitzball. It's the sport we learned while we were training. It's mainly an underwater sport, but it can be played on dry land. See it's like this!" What followed was Rikku launching into a full on in depth description of Blitzball, the rules and how it's played, the training needed for water blitz and the advantages the training gives, plus the team aspect and learning how to coordinate as a team, and the eventual plan to establishing the sport in the ninja villages as an avenue of competetion without bloodshed.
"An interesting prospect. According to how you propose it, there would be two leagues Ideally. Dry land Blitz and water bltz. Those who have undergone breath training or have a jutsu to allow them to operate underwater without altering their standard performance can advance from dry land to water blitz. But for now the main game would be dry land blitz, and you intend to use this year's rookie genin plus team gai to show case it. And as you've described, dry land blitz doesn't require much special training to play, basic teamwork and adherence to the rules."
"That's right old man. So what'd do you say!" Rikku exclaimed.
"No."
"...what?" Naruto and Rikku both spoke up.
"Heh. No, at least the way you want to set it up. Your breath training for true blitz has made you two superbly conditioned and sad s it is, I don't want this spread to other villages. The jutsu may be an applicable method later on, but as it stands, I do not want any special training going outside konoha's walls. I will however support a dry land Blitz to play within the village and possible spread to other villages. It does have merrit as a competetion between villages that is far less bloody than the chunnin exams, which we are hosting this year in three months as I'm sure anko has told you. If this is successful that is. Not only that, but it could be another possible source of income and notoriety that is fairly benign. You're request for reserving training ground 12 is granted, here's your statement of reservation to show to anyone who tresspases during the time you have the field. Let me know when the event is set up, I'll try to clear up time for all those involved to participate." The hokage spoke, smling at them.
Though a bit dejected they couldn't have true blitzball, this as a good second, and what he said did make sense, their breath training was ideal for just about anyone to utilize, especially taijutsu masters. So with that, they left the office and made their way around Konoha and the various training fields to issue invites, challenges, and bets, utilizing the various methods rikku described to tenten yesterday and a few more. Plus the promise of a training methd they used to become strong was inviting for all of them. Though they didn't mention it'd take upwards to a year to accomplish.
"Alright, Now that that is ettled, onto the wolf claw to drop off the scrolls." Naruto spoke up, making his way with rikku to the shop in question. "Still can't believe we'll be able to play blitz here, even if it's dry land, we can stay in practice."
"I know, and think, we'll be the creditors of Blitz in the elemental nations. I can see it now, it'll bring in so much profit, we'll practically be sitting on piles of gold!" Rikku shouted to the sky with a raised fist. Naruto cocked an eyebrow at her, making her laugh sheepishly as she realized she got caught up in her own little dellusion. "Maybe?"
"Hmm, Maybe. Not like we're going to need all that money though, once we leave konoha, the money will be useless to us, which speaking f we might want to stock up on things to take withus when it's time." He stated, getting a nod from rikku. Reaching the shop, they walked in and already there were people in the shop asking about high quality storage scrolls. "What'd I tell ya?" Naruto smirked to rikku.
"Naruto! There you are, please tell me you've got the order? we'v already got people in waiting for scrolls." Tenten called out.
"Right here, let's head to the back to unload them." Narut spoke up, an they were lead to the back. Once there, he unrolled the master scroll and started unsealing piles of ten scrolls a piece. "I wasn't able to make as many as I wanted, I ran out of sealing supplies so I want to work something out on that for future business." Naruto spoke up and just kept unsealing piles of scrolls.
"n-Naruto, how many scrolls did you make, this has to be a hudred so far." Tenten breathed out.
"311. I was shooting for more but like I said, I ran out. Here, test one out." He said, tossing them a scroll while he kept unsealing. They looked it over and tenten was astounded a what she was sealing.
"Incredible, you interwove the multiple spatial displacement sequences together withn singular lines of script that flows into the the chakra dispersement nodes that feeds the primary seal matrix so it circulates the chakra more efficiently to expand and maintain the storage space of the scroll. But how did you interweve them?" She asked, honestly she was just blown away by this.
"Sometimes I'm not sure, I mean, it's like I just understand the flow of the sealing script and how it'll respond if it's designed one way or another, if the flow of chakra through the seal is adequate or not. You might be right about yesterday, I may have a natural understanding towards sealing." He spoke, shrugging a bit at the thought as he finished unloading the scrolls. Though it definitely made more sense considering he reverse engineered the the hiraishin's space tme elements to enhance his knowledge of spatial manipulations in sealing.
"Well whatever it is you do, keep doing it, we'll work up the deal readily. Now just to figure out how much to charge for these." Tenten's father thought out loud.
"Well why not the lowest price for scrolls like that. I can make these all day no problem, so if you can sell a great many of them, how much to charge for a piece won't be an issue and you'll have return customers for the great prices that other shops cant compete with." He said with a smirk, which was then mirrored by Tenten and her father.
"Would you like my daughter's hand in marriage?"
"DAD!" Tenten yelled, her face instantly gone scarlet at what her father just literally proposed on her behalf.
"Hah! Anyway we got customers to see these to, let's get to it." He called out, avoiding a kunai throw from tenten. The girl was fuming from embarrassed anger, though Rikku was laugh and Naruto was lightly chuckling while scratching the back of his head. Tenten just grabbed a small crate of scrolsl and headed out. Rikku and naruto decided to stick around an watch, which soon showed itself to be a gathering of hungry wolves at a fresh kill as scrolls were damn near flying out of the hands of tenten and her father. The exchange of Ryo that was happening was insane, It didn't take long for 300 scrolls to go quick, the last 11 tenten and her father kept for around the shop.
"I've never seen so much Ryo before, it can't even fit in the register." Tenten spoke, amazed as her eyes marvelened at the stak of ryo.
"Right, Alight Naruto, you came through on your end of the eal and considering what we made from 300 scrolls sold at the lowest price for similar scrolls, I'm willing to offer 25% of the total profit to you if yu can keep producing scrolls in this quantity for us, hell 300 a week is just fine." The man spoke. Naruto thought it over a moment.
"How about 15% plus free sealing supplie when I need it and 5% increase to our current discount." Naruto negotiated, holding his hand out.
"Hah, I'll make it 10% added to your discount then. Deal." They shook hands, sealing their deal. The man gathered as many blank scrolls, seal papers, inks and brushes as he currently had in stock, bring them all into a sealed scroll for naruto along with his payment. "I'll be putting in a fresh order for new sealing supplies in higher quality. With this I should be able to renovate my forge t make working on orders easier, get me a good power hammer and all that, plus plenty of material. Come by any time. Tenten, after you're done talking to them I want you to set up a storage area for future scroll holding, got it?"
"Got it dad. C'mon, I'll walk you out." Tenten spoke, smiling as they walked out of the store. "Thanks for this naruto, this saved our asses big time."
"No problem, what do friends do?" He spoke.
"Friends huh?" She asked, looking away slightly.
"Well, after all the time we spent together and all, we're not just friends ya know, you mean a lot to us Tenten, Don't forget that okay?" Rikku spoke, and they saw tenten's lips form into a soft smile.
"I won't. You two mean a lot to me too, you've helped me out more than anyone else besides my own father has. So Ill see you two tomorrow for the blitz then?"
"Of course. We'll explain the rules and make teams. Since we're limited to dry land, we'll have to modify the rules a bit to make it more interesting since shinobi can jump like 20 feet in the damn air, hang upside down and all." Rikku waved off.
"True, well I'll see you then, Take care." She called out as they left. It was a comfortably silence as they walked at first, stopping by the bank to deposit the money into their singular bank account.
"That was a really good thing you did there naruto. Hopefully with this they can stop arguing and Tenten won't have to do those missions." She spoke.
"She'll still do them." Naruto spoke up, catching Rikku's attention.
"What do you mean?" She asked, not uncomfortable with where this is going.
"It's tenten's nature. She won't let something she trained for go to waste, and now that she has the skill, she'll want to use it for what she believes is right, a responsibility. Sure she might not have to do it for money now, but if she's approached for a mission where she'll need to do seduction to help out, like tracing down where girls ae being abducted to, she'll do it. Though now with money in their store, it'll curb the need to go on as many missions." He stated, looking up to the sky.
"You really think so?" Rikku asked.
"I'd bet on it. We both know how tenten is, and I'm sure there aren't many girls her age that are trained for seduction so she'll be...in demand, for missions that will require a young girl." He spoke, though his skin crawled at the thought, as did rikku's. Tenten had shared on the lessons she was being taught before they even knew she was taking those lessons when they talked about the classes at the academy. Glancing down to the rings on their fingers, they couldn't be more grateful for them now, though looking at them gave a warm feeling they shared.
"I just hope she's as careful as she can be about it."
"Me too Rikku, me too... Let's go home, tomorrow will be a full day of Blitz and I want to be bright eyed for everything that's going to happen." He says, wrapping an arm around rikku's waist while she did the same to him, leaning her head on his shoulder and he laid his on top of her head, walking closely back home.