Chapter 37 Moving in
The sun was already high over the valley as Ino opened her eyes only to instantly smile as she saw a roof over her head. However under her body instead of a soft bed it was nothing more than a sleeping bag, just like almost everything else the bed hadn't arrived yet. Slowly she sat up before looking to her right, there lying beside her was Naruto and on the other side lying face down with one arm draped over Naruto's chest before resting on her was Sakura. Ino couldn't help but laugh to herself as she saw that Sakura's arm still had paint spots on it, the three of them had stayed up almost all night painting. Naruto's clones had done a lot of work but painting was never a skill for Naruto. The house smelled of paint even though every window was open.
Slowly Ino rolled out of bed stretching a bit as she walked around her two sleeping lovers before entering the walk in closet, at the moment there wasn't much in there another thing that she would soon fix. She grabbed the items she was looking for before heading the master bath. She couldn't help but smile as she looked at self-enclosed shower with multiple water jets, then there was the inset tub which had room for at least two people. She quickly stripped down and entered the shower letting the hot water run over her body, after while she got out and quickly did her hair an brushed her teeth in front of one of the two sinks. By the time she walked out of the bathroom dressed in a simple blue kimono Naruto had woken up and thrown on well-worn black shirt and pants.
"Where are you going?" inquired Sakura as she still lied in bed, as she looked at Ino standing there in a light blue kimono which was tight around the top and lose on the bottom. "We are moving everything in today and there is still touch up work to do on the paint and I don't think you want paint on that."
"She has a video conference with the Daimyo from the Land of Wind today." Explained Naruto
"Don't worry I am not going to skip out on the work once I am done I will be here to help." Explained Ino as she walked toward the closet grabbing a large hat with a built in veil to cover her eyes during the conference. "Also since Naruto-kun had the builders put a video conference room in the other building I will not even have to leave the property."
"Alright, Naruto you want to go get some breakfast for all of us and see if everything has finally come in and I will start doing so touch up work on the paint." ordered Sakura
"More like lunch but sure." laughed Naruto as he grabbed his wallet and headed out the door.
"I'll be back soon, forehead." said Ino as she walked down the hallway and down the stairs she caught a glimpse of Naruto leaving the front door, she turned and headed out into the backyard. To everyone else it would have looked like nothing but a barren patch of dirt without any grass, but in her mind eye she saw the garden she would plant in the spring. She moved out and stood in the center of the yard. On three sides of her was the main two storied house and then on the other side was a side building. The side building alone was two stories as well but didn't connect to the main house on the ground floor. In between the gaps between the two buildings she could see where she would put her green house and a spot that they would leave open. She moved toward the side building only to move a panel and enter the private indoor training field which ran the length of the entire building.
"Naruto's training field." said Ino with a smile not even knowing if Naruto had been in it yet, every major clan had indoor training fields. Her own clan had a training field not unlike this one but some of her best childhood's memories of her late father and herself training and talking within its walls. She smiled as she imagined Naruto training her and Sakura's children here. Slowly she moved up a staircase located along the side one of the walls. She moved up into a large room which took up half the building. She flipped on a switch as the lights turned on showing the simple wooden panel room with a hardwood floor, along one of the walls was a line of TVs.
"Here, we go." said Ino to herself as she put on her hat making sure the veil covered her slighted blue eyes before kneeling down in the center of the room. She tapped on a small remote by her side as the screen turned on only to show the seal of the Daimyo of the land of wind. Moments later a large round man with a thin pointed beard and small thin mustache.
"Lord Daimyo of the Land of Wind, I thank you for having this private conference with me." greeted Ino as she bowed her head a bit showing respect to the higher Daimyo.
"You should be honored." belched the Wind Daimyo as he pulled up a chicken leg from off screen and took a deep bite, grease ran down the sides of his round chin. "Now why do you want to talk to me, better not be for a loan. I turned down the old Daimyo and I will not loan any money to you southern Daimyos it would be as if I threw gold into the ocean. I would never get it back."
"No, it isn't for a loan Lord Daimyo." reported Ino as she took a breath as she prepared to use her cover story "I have received word from some of my aids that some of the fisher men from my lands have journeyed close to the water owned by you in the Land of Meteors."
"Land of Meteors?" asked the Daimyo as he looked off screen at someone else in the room.
"Your late third wife was the last daughter of the Land of Meteors Daimyo and all her lands became yours when she died in childbirth." explained a voice off screen probably an aid.
"I own another nation?" inquired the stunned Daimyo
"Yes my lord, but the Land of Meteors is hardly a place you want to go." reported an aid "A series of hundreds of small rocky barren islands spread out over thousands of miles of water. The islands that are large enough are dominated by lakes of poisonous liquids. Only a handful of islands are even populated and the war in the land of animals are spilling over onto those islands."
"I see." confirmed the Daimyo before turning back to Ino "And why are you interested in that land?"
"Well I do not want to cause a conflict between the two of us by having our fishing vessels caught fishing in your waters illegally. So I asked for your audience so that I can inquire about the fishing and mining rights to the land." reported Ino as she took a breath, Temari had told her that it was a common request between daimyo whenever a company from their land entered another daimyo's land.
"If you are worried about fishing why are you asking about mining rights as well?" inquired the wind Daimyo
"Sir, fishing and mining rights are always linked together." reported the same aid "The Lady Daimyo is following customs and traditions by asking for both, it is up to you to come up with a price."
The Daimyo leaned back a bit, Ino could actually hear the moan from the wooden chair through the TV as it struggled to hold the Daimyo's massive weight up.
"These lands mean nothing to me and they are all but worthless except in terms of fishing." reported the aid as he advised the aid "I would recommend a low price considering."
"I am the Daimyo here." Snapped the Wind Daimyo as he turned his attention back to Ino "I will not sell you fishing and mining rights to land I own."
Ino sighed a bit, it was slightly unexpected but they had enough of the silver death here to make Aldhard.
"I will sell you the entire nation." stated the Daimyo as Ino's head snapped up and blinked.
"What?" asked Ino stunned at the idea of buying the whole nation.
"I will sell you the land of Meteors." repeated the Daimyo "The nation means nothing to me and gold is always a welcomed sight. You can merge the two nations together for all I care, the land is to your south isn't it?"
"This is a stunning offer." reported Ino.
"My Lord, it would make the lady Daimyo's holding the largest in the world." reported the aid knowing that land equaled power.
"But you yourself said that the land is nothing put pools of poisons let her have it. The only thing she will get is some fish and some small islands." rebutted the Daimyo as Ino held down the smile knowing what they really wanted on those islands "So what do you say?"
"I will have to discuss this with my advisors, why don't you come up with a price while I discuss it with my advisors." offered Ino "Why don't we meet again in three days at the same time?"
"Agreed." stated the Daimyo as the screen went black as the line was cut as Ino thought about the idea that just six months ago she lived in an apartment with her best friend and now she was the Daimyo of an entire nation and would likely become daimyo of a second nation.
Far to the North in the land of fire a few small piles of snow remained un-melted from possibly the worst winter in over a decade, temperatures had dropped to record lows and multiple snow storms had come blowing out of the North. There was still a chill in the air but it was finally getting warmer as spring came to them. Watching from her window as children threw the last of the wet snowballs of the year was the Hokage of the hidden Leaf village Hanabi Hyuga. The sound of chipping filled the air as the jackhammers and other tools worked on cutting her likeness into the Hokage Mountain behind her.
"Lady Hokage may I have a word?" said a voice behind her as Hanabi turned to see Shikaku Nara standing there.
"Go right ahead." ordered Hanabi as she looked at the man who was over twenty five years her senior.
"With the spring thaw we should be able to pick up on our search of the mountains but something is worrying me." stated Shikaku Nara as Hanabi moved over and sat behind her desk. She looked up into the scared face of the head of the Nara clan and Shikamaru's father. "I think we may be looking in the wrong direction."
"The wrong direction? You think they went south?" inquired Hanabi as Shikaku nodded his head. "All the information we have points to them heading north."
"That is why I think they went South." stated Shikaku "Think about the last sign we had of them was a them heading North and my son is no fool he knew that we would be looking North in the Land of Earth or Lightning. So he would head south?"
"There is nowhere in the south for them to hide without us knowing." rebutted Hanabi as she tried not to roll her eyes "They went north and with all the civil war raging in the Land of Lightning they can easily hide there."
"I am telling you my son likely went south likely past the land of Wind into the land of Savannah and maybe even beyond?" answered Shikaku as Hanabi lowered her head a bit.
"That may be possible however how would 7,000 people, from the land of fire alone get past all the border guards of every nation between here and the land of Savannah without being seen. Then even then how would they hid down there?" inquired Hanabi as Shikaku lowered his head a bit.
"I don't know how they did it but they went South." stated Shikaku as Hanabi lowered her head.
"Shikaku I can't just order the entire ninja forces of all five of the great nation's most of which had spent the entire winter moving though waist high snow searching for the demons to head south into winter on your hunch." reported Hanabi "Maybe if you had some evidence to support your claim we could move south and search but not without some proof."
"I will look for any sign of them in reports from the southern nations so that I can prove to you that they are down there." Reported Shikaku as Hanabi nodded her head as the Nara head clan headed out of the room.
"Wait." ordered Hanabi as Shikaku stopped in his tracks and turned around to face his Hokage.
"If we don't find any sign of them in either the land of Lightening or Earth before the snows come back and the mountain passes become impassable then I will allow you to lead a small team to search the southern nations." offered up Hanabi as Shikaku smiled.
"Thank you Lady Hokage." thanked Shikaku Nara as he bowed to the young Hokage before walking out of the room.
Back to the south Samui walked into a darkened room, even at two in the afternoon the place was still packed with people drinking and eating. Laughter filled the air as Samui moved through the crowd until she reached a small table located right beside the bar. She sat down moving the reserved sign off the table, she looked around at the people who filled the establishment that her friend owned and ran. Standing behind the granite bar with a black stone top was her former teammate turned into a bar owner and member of the reserve Ninja core was Karui. Karui had replaced her ninja vest with a simple black top and pants. She had a mix shaker in her hands as she mixed up another cocktail before pouring the drink. Once she was done she moved over and let her workers take over while she walked over to her friend before sitting down.
"Sorry, but the field hands came in late so I am in the lunch rush." reported Karui as she sat down across from her friend, within minutes multiple plates of food arrived from the kitchen located in the back of the main bar in the new village.
"You seem to have gotten used to being a bar owner even though your only real link to any bar skills is the fact that your demon Cloe is a bar owner." stated Samui as she waved off a waiter who was going to bring fourth her normal cocktail drink, only to take water instead.
"And you seem to have adapted well enough to being just the head of the money even though only Danae is your only link to that job." rebutted Karui as she opened her bottle of beer before lifting the drink to her lips. "I never thought I would actually enjoy working behind a bar, but after a few days I found myself loving it. Well apart from when it is a huge rush like today and tomorrow night is going to be worst with the founding ceremony going on."
"Tomorrow is going to be crazy." admitted Samui as she looked into her food "I still want to get out in the field to fight but I don't think I will be out there for a while. I have to deal with so much paper work daily it gives me a headache. I have to monitor the cost of everything, when loan payments that are due in and when we have to pay our bills."
"Well I have paid mine off." laughed Karui knowing that she had more money in the bank now then she ever had when she was in the ninja core, it helped that apart from her bar the only other bar was a hole in the wall which could only hold a few people. When you were the only place for people to socialize and drink you were busy almost every night.
"When does Omni come back anyhow?" asked Karui
"Should be back by tonight from mapping the mountains in search of any unknown passages, we have to know if there are any more overland passages besides the three we know about." explained Samui as she took a drink of her water. "Shikamaru Nara has designed the defense for the passes we know about already but with everything else that needs to be built first it will be a while before they are built."
"Do you think we will have enough time to build those defenses, it is only a matter of time until they find us down here?" inquired Karui as Samui shrugged.
"Doesn't matter they will find us in the end, our life span is double now so we will see war within our lifetime." stated Samui "It can come tomorrow or in fifty years it will come all the same."
While Karui and Samui where enjoying a lunch in the bar, Tenten walked up and down a line of blast furnaces and forges. The entire complex was scorching hot the black flames of Amaterasu burned under six massive containers where the Aldhard was kept in the liquid forms. One of the containers had had the mixture to make Aldhard lined clothing's, teams of people where making Aldhard ninja uniforms and jonin vests. Two other contains held boiling mixtures of Aldhard used to make weapons. She held up her hand as a rush of heat and steam shot forward as liquid hot Aldhard poured down a funnel before going into the premade molds, each one of the molds held fifty kunai matters in them. Once the molds where hardened their new village would have prefect made Aldhard kunai. The furnace beside it was making strips of steals to be used in construction. The final three contains where just making blocks of pure Aldhard to be used in the city walls.
"How are we doing?" inquired Tenten to one of the many people working under her as she picked up on the newly finished Aldhard kunai. Normally a kunai had to finished by hand but Aldhard naturally came out razor sharp.
"We are doing well, we just poured the last of the kunai and are moving on to the ninja needles." reported one of the workers as Tenten nodded her head, she had hoped to be finished with kunai but it was a minor setback.
"Good, if you need me I will be at my forge." explained Tenten as the man nodded his head. While most of the basic weapons like kunai, arrow heads and ninja needles where made making molds the more advanced or personalized weapons where left in the hands of the smiths, Tenten being the best of them all. She had personally made all the weapons for her friends and now she was on her final project. She took the red hot Aldhard and began pounding with her hammer stretching it out before folding it back over itself. She kept the process up folding it over a thousand times before forming it out into the final form. Then with one quick movement she dipped the ice cold water, the metal hissed as Tenten pulled it out of the water.
"Prefect." reported Tenten as she looked at the blade in her hand before placing it down she set the blade aside and began to work again.
Just to the west of the boarder of the Land of Granite the sound of hooves pounding the half frozen ground. Moving through the dark woods on giant war horses covered in silver armor. The warriors where far from quiet but that didn't matter as the sound of clashing armored men filled the air. Then with a great burst of speed the warriors burst out of the tree cover and entered a small valley between two rolling tree covered woods. The men lowered their metal tipped lances as they charged straight into a line of armored foot soldiers, the foot soldiers broke and ran as the armored horse mounted men slashed through their line.
Watching from one of the tallest trees was young man with a long blue scarf wrapped around his chin, Konohamaru Sautobi had been given this mission personally by his hero Naruto and he was going to carry it out. He had spent the past half an hour watching the armored men waving the silver banner with some kind of blue bird on do battle against the equally as armored men with a red banner with a golden sword on it. The horse attack had been enough to end the battle with the men under the red banner cheering in victory blood covered swords, spears and other weapons not even he knew of in their hands. During that hour he had seen no sign of anyone using any form of chakra not a single justu or summons however he had seen some of the best sword fighting he had ever seen and horse mounted fights where almost unheard of in the north. These samurai or knights as they called themselves were as different from the samurai he knew up north as they were from ninjas. They moved in armored formations with every part of their bodies covered in thick metal plate armor even thicker than the ones that the samurai from the land of Iron used.
"Well we better go deliver our message, we will have to run all night if we even want to have a chance of getting back to the village in time for the founding festival." stated a voice in his head as Konohamaru closed his eyes only to come face to face with a deep red horse demon which had joined with him.
"So what do you think of these knights?" inquired Konohamaru to his demon Venji.
"They are skilled warriors for sure and the fact that they share a boarder with our new nation means we need them to be our ally. We can't face an enemy coming down from the North and take on another coming from the west." stated Venji as Konohamaru moved through the trees jumping from tree branch to tree branch. "However in the end it doesn't matter we need to finish our mission and deliver this letter to this warlord like he have to the other warlords on the Kyuubi's list."
"You mean Naruto?" correct Konohamaru as Venji shrugged his shoulders.
"They are one and the same." stated Venji "Just like you and I are now one and the same."
Hours passed in a rush of small moments which stuck out in Sakura's mind the moment when Ino who had removed her kimono and came back out in a white tank top and blue shorts, only to be covered with countless streaks of different colored paint. It was almost laughable how she looked, she even had paint flecks in her pink hair. Another memory was when Naruto cursed so loudly that she could hear him downstairs in the basement when he hit his thumb with a hammer as he put their bed together. Then there was the time when she had spent almost an hour arranging and rearranging everything in the dining room only to finally settle on the location they had placed them at the beginning. Darkness was falling as she sat down on their new couch with a drink in her hand, the protective plastic covering crunching under her. For a moment she just sat there before Ino sat down on the other side of the couch, then Naruto sat down in the middle of them.
"I actually think we are done." Reported Naruto as he placed his feet up on the coffee table in front of the couch. Sakura looked around at the room before them, aside from the couch and the coffee table there was a two chairs and a love seat, in front of them was also a large fireplace. She looked across the fireplace mantel only to see none of the family photos that would normally grace a fireplace mantle.
"We will have to fix that." Thought Sakura as she placed her own feet up right besides Naruto's on the coffee table, second's latter Ino placed her own feet up.
"So what do we do now?" inquired Ino
"Not sure." admitted Naruto as he rested his head on the headrest "We could always go to bed, we will have a long day tomorrow with the founding ceremony."
"I am for that, it will be nice to sleep in an actual bed." confirmed Sakura
"You know we could actually do more than just sleep." offered up Ino
"Save that for tomorrow night after the festival." said Sakura as Ino turned her gaze to her.
"Why wait?" asked Ino as Sakura tilted her head toward Naruto who was out like a light snoring lightly. "Oh…tomorrow then?"
"Tomorrow." confirmed Sakura as both of them grinned knowing what they and the other women had planned for tomorrow.
Sorry for the delay life got in the way of my posting. Well I hope you liked this chapter, I know some people may wonder why I brought European style knights into the story. I wanted to bring them in for two major reasons, first to give the Naruto and the ninjas something they are not used to, they will have to deal with people who fight and think differently than the Samurai they are used to in the North. Secondary I have been reading/watching a lot of Game of Thrones so I have that on my mind. Now until next time please keep reading. Thanks Wilkins75.