At some length the group had decided to go to a local restaurant, focused on skewers, tapas, and similarly meaty preferences. Carved wood marked the entrance with a bright, cheery, painted sign. The interior was filled with the smell of roasting meat.
One waiter glanced anxiously at the group. He cleared his throat after a long moment. "I'll just be going to take a look at our insurance," he whispered quietly.
Tayuya slammed the tankard against the table. "Fuck you anyway, asshole." She glared at Kōju.
"You really shouldn't use that kind of language." Kōju cleared her throat. She glanced downward. "It's rather bad of you, to say nothing of how it reflects on our friendship. Aren't we friends, after all?"
"You tried to cop a feel of my leg. I think I'm entitled to say seriously, what the fuck?" Tayuya tilted her head to one side.
Kōju smiled. "I was attempting to make sure you hadn't injured yourself in that incident. Leg wounds can get rather nasty, you know."
"Fuck that. You were startin' to do shit. Ain't natural." Tayuya shuddered briefly. She rubbed her temples. "Emperor. I had no idea kids were this weird at this age. Or maybe it's just you." She looked over Kōju briefly. "Yep, just you," she decided after a long moment. "None of my kids had anything like that."
"What isn't natural? Anything our bodies do is natural; that's why it happens," Kōju replied in a proud tone.
"Look. I don't mind that shit. But we keep it consensual. You understand?" Tayuya demanded, shoving her face closer to Kōju's.
"And this is what I've had to deal with for two weeks. Those two going at it, and occasionally making a pass at me," Sasuke whispered to Naruto. She busily cut into the braised venison.
"Huh." Naruto rubbed his temples. His brain had stopped as he glanced at the two arguing figures. He tried, foggily, to get it started again.
"Kōju's a teenager. A hormonal teenager. Just the usual. The ordinary kind of stupidity you and I went through all that time ago." Sasuke sighed. "Well, maybe you're still going through it. I got my head screwed on straight."
"Don't compare me with you. I'm all clear!" Naruto declared triumphantly, throwing his thumb upright. He grinned as he looked steadily at Sasuke, his brain restarted.
Sasuke yawned heavily. She picked up the venison with the chopsticks. "That's fine, then. As to these two, it's hard to tell whether they like each other or not." She jerked her thumb at Kōju and Tayuya.
Kōju held out her hand, placing the hand on Tayuya's hand. "If you'd just listen a while. I assure you I simply want you to feel better."
Tayuya scowled. "Quit tryin' to sweet-talk me. Look, you know about sex and masturbation, right? Go do those things instead." She stared at the tankard, her expression sour.
Kōju frowned. Her cheeks flushed. "W—why on earth would I be talking about that?" she demanded, pressing her fingers together. "I'm just. Er."
The door opened.
Smoke rose from the steaming metal circle in the center of the room. Meat simmered on the surface of the oven.
"Team Seven?" an alto, clear voice questioned.
Kōju scowled.
"Who's asking?" Naruto questioned, turning.
"Me," Tsunade replied shortly. She leaned against the door post.
Naruto swallowed. "Oh." He looked downward. "Well, what did you have in mind, Tsunade-obā—"
Tsunade growled. Her fist clenched. "Keep talking, brat. I'll tear you limb from limb!"
"Not that threatening Naruto isn't amusing to me, but I assume you came here with a purpose that wasn't simply to pulverize him," Sasuke interjected smoothly. "Why are you here?"
Tsunade sighed. She placed her hand against the table. Her eyebrows drew together into a line.
Sasuke's eyes narrowed.
"Blood Prison has been compromised."
Tayuya's jaw dropped.
Kōju's brow dripped with sweat.
Sasuke's eyes widened. "By Blood Prison, you mean the one in Hidden Grass, right?"
"The very same." Tsunade's tone grew grim. She glanced toward the waiter. "Oi! A glass of beer, please," she shouted, her face stern.
The waiter's face grew pale as milk. He nodded, gulping tightly. "Right away, Hokage-sama." He turned and sprinted into the main room.
Naruto's eyebrows furrowed. "Uh. The heck are you guys talking about?"
"You mean to tell me you don't know about Blood Prison, Naruto-kun?" Sasuke questioned, her voice deadly serious.
"The hell? So you backwater fucks seriously don't know shit about how the world works, do you?" Tayuya demanded. She jerked a thumb at Kōju. "No wonder this kid's growing up weird! With an education system this shitty, it's no wonder."
Kōju scowled. "I'm not weird," she muttered quietly. Her finger twirled the straw in her drink in a circle.
"It's not all of us; the education system is fine," Sasuke defended herself. "It's just Naruto." Or, more accurately, people not telling Naruto things, but that's a longer story that we don't need to get into.
Tsunade's eyebrow twitched. She glared steadily at Naruto.
Naruto scowled. "You guys are seriously starting to annoy me. I've got more important things to worry about than some prison."
"Blood Prison isn't just any prison, Naruto-san. It's a prison designed to hold shinobi. It's actually meant to keep war criminals and so forth. Also S-rank people like Akatsuki, and former Kage." Kōju pressed her fingers together. She looked upward.
The table fell silent.
Naruto stared at his glass. He swallowed tightly.
A second waiter cleared his throat. "I believe someone ordered ice cream?" His eyebrow rose. "Strange for a dessert with no entree. But I suppose that's your own business."
"OH! That's me! Me me me!" Kōju spun in her chair, her expression gleeful.
The heavy air dissipated from the table.
Naruto snorted.
Tayuya covered her mouth. "Pft. Even this kid can be cute at times." She looked down at the meat on the table.
Sasuke giggled quietly.
"Anyway." Tsunade sighed. "Kōju-san is correct. It's a prison designed to hold prisoners at S-rank. Most are lower than that, and some are even genin level. Of course a few weaklings ended up in there, but the majority of the prisoners are strong. Keeping them under control would be absurdly hard; the warden must be exceedingly strong as well. Given this, it's something of a miracle that someone managed to even injure the chief of the prison."
"Akatsuki?" Sasuke opined.
"That was our first guess, too. It seems that someone contacted them with such a contract, but they turned it down. Thankfully, we had a brief notice because of this. They said something along the lines of preserving the current system. Well, you and I both know that's a lie, but whatever. We don't have the resources to go to war with them right now." Tsunade scowled. "The important thing is, whoever assaulted the prison is not associated with Akatsuki. That's the first important point about this mission."
Naruto inclined his head. "Okay."
"Second point, they're after the jinchūriki of the Ichibi."
Sasuke sat up straight in her seat. Her hand tightened on the arm of the chair.
Naruto's eyes widened. "Wait, that's that guy from the trials, right?"
Kōju leaned forward at the table. "Hm?" she questioned, swallowing tightly. Sweat poured down her forehead. A momentary memory of green eyes flashed through her thoughts.
"How do we know this?" Tayuya questioned, her eyebrows furrowing. "Seems to me that kind of information would be damn hard to confirm if we don't have eyes inside or something."
"The contract. Kūkyo-san willingly presented us with a proposed copy of the contract. It seems even she dislikes those types of people extremely." Tsunade's eyes narrowed. "So that's the second point of information. The third. Even if the prisoners have been released, they can't escape. We're going to be using a special method to cross the ocean. But it will probably only work through the influence of someone with sufficient power. The ocean itself is nigh-impassable under the best of conditions." Her hand unbuckled a pair of items wrapped around her belt. She pulled off the rag covering the wrapped objects.
Tayuya's eyes narrowed. "Waders. It's been a while since I've used these."
"Eh?" Kōju blinked. "What are those?" She tilted her head to one side.
"These are basically chakra magnifiers. Not too dissimilar to that blade you're carrying around." Tayuya pointed at the long sword on Kōju's back. Demonstrating, she placed one on her foot briefly. A ripple of brown energy passed across the surface of the metal. "Using them and walking on water training, you can cross choppy waters or even seas."
"Tayuya is correct, though these models have been adapted to cross the blood ocean. It's been about three days since they went silent. You're going to go undercover and find the truth." Tsunade's eyes narrowed. "Well, by undercover, I'd like to say as a prisoner, but it's unlikely that anyone except Tayuya or Kōju have the acting skills to pull it off."
Sasuke scowled. Shows how much you know. I've pulled off playing a guy for fourteen years. And no one besides Naruto and Kōju figured it out, even then by accidental discovery. She frowned. Granted, playing an inmate is harder. Plus I am on a lot of people's watch lists.
Naruto folded his arms across his chest, his nose rising. Hmph! I'm a great actor!
"Anyway, under the circumstances, we're sending you in as guards. Alternatively, you can act as you would like." Tsunade rubbed her temples. "Knowing at least two of you, you're going to act as you'd like. Well, whatever happens, get back the Ichibi's host and make sure he stays imprisoned. If you can, it'd be a good thing to try to figure out what they were after, too. But that may or may not happen, so I'll settle for you imprisoning that bastard again. Even if he dies, that's better for us than having him go loose."
The waiter coughed again.
Tsunade's eyes narrowed. "So you'll pay for the fo—" Her eyes widened.
The table was empty. Chairs lay disarrayed around the table.
"You bastards! I'll definitely get you for this; see if I don't!" Tsunade roared loudly.
Sorry, obā-chan. We need to get going. Tayuya grinned. She leapt through the air, pulling the bandana down over her head. "Here's some waders." She tossed the equipment to Naruto.
Naruto grinned. "Hey! Thanks. You're not so bad after all, pervert lady!"
"Pervert." Tayuya growled. "Ugh." She leapt across the building. "Well, guess it's better than weird onee-san. I still don't want to hear that from you, ero-nin." She glanced over her shoulder. "Here!"
Kōju caught the flippers quickly. "Thank you!" she declared, her cheeks flushing.
Tayuya rolled her eyes. Now there's a pervert. She glanced over her shoulder. "Sasuke—"
"Already got 'em." Sasuke unemotionally held up the demonstration pair.
"Okay. To Blood Prison, then." Tayuya exhaled. "This is gonna be one hell of a ride."
"So, backtracking a bit. Who are 'your kids'?" Sasuke glanced over distantly, her eyes narrowing. "Did you get married or something?"
Tayuya's face flushed. "Uh, shit. It ain't like that, honestly." She rubbed her temples. "Nobody important?"
"She reads to little children over at the library. It's really cute!" Kōju declared, her hands cupping across her cheeks.
"HEY! That ain't fucking relevant to the issue at hand!" Tayuya's face turned bright crimson, like a ripe apple. She glanced toward Naruto. "Uh, focus on staying afloat—"
Naruto doubled over laughing, his face covered in descending tears.
"Bastard! I'll kill you!" Tayuya growled. Her fist clenched.
The group raced across the waters, sea foam shooting up from the waders.
A/N: As promised, I'm updating in January! Sorry about the wait. My hope is that these chapters are pretty clean in terms of errors.
A couple brief notes:
First of all, the group at the beginning is a new Ino-Shika-Cho grouping from a branch family of that group. Their role shouldn't be too significant, but they're present here nonetheless.
Secondly, I will be including information on training in Side Arcs.
Thirdly, we'll get more information about this organization as time goes by. Please be patient as I reveal more of the details.
Thanks for reading!