The Greek Kunoichi
Chapter 8: The Konoha Crush, the new Hokage and the return of Emo Sasuke.
Author's Notes: I just can't make my mind what to do. I don't want to cut things right there and make a time skip up to my trio's entry into the USA, but I'm not exactly interested to go through every important arcs of the manga and add my own spin to it. So, if anybody would have a suggestion as to where let things go and to enter into the Heroes of Olympus arc, I would be most grateful. If, and it's a big if, I go all the way up to the Fourth Shinobi World War, Obito won't be able to go all Juubi Jinchūriki on everyone and I also have a plan for the undead shinobi army. Seriously, the Jinchūrikis are supposed to be elite and highly trained shinobi but they are harvested with little to no trouble at all! It's kind of why I lost interest in the manga in the first place. That and the Rinnegan is one over powered Kekkei Genkai. This one and the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan will have severe limits when I used them. Now for the stats we have, 22 reviews, 124 followers, 120 favourites, 2 C2 Communities and 6 451 views.
Everything was wrong. Gaara had been wounded and as a result, he had entombed himself into a sort of cocoon of sand and more and more of Bijuu chakra was getting out of him. Before she could do anything about it, she had to fend off quite a few attacks from Oto Nins looking for a quick kill. Well, she made them rethink their choices. To complicate the matters, somebody cast a wide area genjutsu on the crowd, compromising the evacuation of the civilians. She flared her chakra when the feathers made contact with her skin to dispel the genjutsu and continued to make her a path towards the superior officers for orders. Kakashi sensei had taken his role of teacher seriously and in one of their C ranks to get rid of a bandit camp, Sakura, Sasuke and herself all made their first kill. Now able to cope with it on duty, she then had no problem to slit a few throats of enemies who got in her way. Manifesting a full kitsune arm for more than a few minutes was taxing, since she hadn't completely mastered it, but morphing her human nails into real claws took no effort at all and they were more efficient than her kunais right now. She would have to cope with her kills when it was safe to do so. In the corner of her eyes, she saw Gaara and his siblings' Jonin sensei squaring it off with the proctor down in the arena while Temari and Kankurō extracted Gaara who was losing control fast.
The proctor probably gave Sasuke the order to pursue the Sand siblings for that was what he did, and then the two jonins went straight into fighting against each other. The Suna dude was really good with wind to create a Kaze No Yaiba (Sword of wind) without hand seals! She was waylaid by a Suna Nin who was gloating that he would take her pelt as a carpet. Annoyed at what the blowhard was saying, Naruto gave her opponent a deceptively sweet smile and nailed him right in the crotch with a chakra enhanced kick. Needless to say, the poor guy didn't get up and would never again after she impaled him with her chains through vital organs and used him as a meat shield to make a path towards where she could see her teacher and Bushier brows sensei were fighting. Worried for her mother, she saw that the box containing the Daimyo and his family was sealed with an Uzumaki barrier. The guards had been roused from the genjutsu and were helping the Konoha Nins to root the invasion. Once near her sensei, she was instructed to lead a squad to go back up Sasuke. Her squad's orders were to subjugate Gaara and the other children of the Kazekage, to bring them back alive as prisoners of war if possible. If not, they were to be terminated. She took off with her Sakura, Shino and Shikamaru. The others were affected by the genjutsu and things were still too bleak and not secure enough to take the time to wake them. With an exit readymade for them when Gai sensei kicked an enemy trough the bleachers when Kakashi asked for an exit, she led her squad toward were she could feel the most intense concentration of Bijuu chakra. Naruto was not a sensor, but anybody with a minimum of chakra sensitivity could feel the malice in the air. They could see that some of the walls around the village were folding because they were attacked by giant snakes summons. It also seemed that Pervy Sage was on it though, as he incapacitated one with one of his favourite technique, Doton: Nomi Yuma (Earth Style: Swamp of the Underworld) and summoned a gigantic toad warrior who was wielding dual katanas to deal with another.
They soon realised that they were followed by a squad of enemies. Shikamaru offered to stay behind and to capture them with his shadow techniques, but it only merited him a slap behind the head and a telling that "Those who break the rules are scum, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than scum!" She would not abandon him! She was not scum! Seeing that they were near an abandoned training ground that she had requisitioned to practice her traps skills, she led them there. She waited that the pursuers followed her squad down the same path, then with a dark fox like grin, she shifted gears into Sunlight speed, taking her teammates with her and in retreating, she kicked the straggler waiting to pick them off with the others. Shifting back to a regular speed and letting the others recover, she made a half ram seal and with a tiny application of chakra, Tartarus on earth was figuratively unleashed on those fools. Needless to say, after all the instruments of death that was coming out of everywhere, the squad of Oto Nins after them wouldn't make it out of there. It was Shikamaru who described everybody's feelings
"Damn, you're a dangerous and vicious vixen Naruto! Troublesome woman, remind me to not get on your bad side."
She took a little offense at being called a troublesome woman, but now was not the time to teach him how to respect a lady. After making another half ram seal and putting more chakra, she detonated the explosive seals she had placed everywhere. She was an Uzumaki, every last one of them like to see shit go boom. It was one of the facts why she and Ares-sensei had gotten along so well in her demigod's dreams when he was instructing her and learning about his son in the same time. And with that many explosions all over the field, even if there had been a survivor of the rain of death, the series of explosions would have finished them off. Knowing that the Aburame Clan had special insects which were feeding on chakra, she asked
"Shino, can you send a swarm of kikaichu bugs to see if we still have some survivors? I don't want to leave an enemy with a shot at my back."
The young stoic Aburame nodded and sent a swarm as look out. Her reasoning was sound; he didn't see why he wouldn't do his part. After his swarm returned, he confirmed that there were no survivors, so the Genins took to the trees in direction of the fight between Gaara and Sasuke. En route, they were waylaid by Kankurō and his puppet Karasu. Shino then called dibs for this fight because the puppeteer was supposed to be his opponent and he wanted to test his mettle. Sparing and training with Kiba and Hinata was nice; getting his butt handled to him daily by Kurenai sensei not so much. He wanted to see how much he had progressed. With a menace/warning that Naruto would come looking for him in the Underworld to kick his ass if he died on her and after an uncharacteristic loud laugh and a big smile by the Aburame, the rest of the squad left the opponents to test their mettles after hearing his promise to catch up as soon as he can. Soon they arrived in the clearing were Sasuke and Gaara were fighting. Temari was hiding in the trees, cowering from a half transformed Gaara who was trouncing Sasuke. She was not running because first of all, she really loved her baby brother and she couldn't leave him all alone in enemy territory. Secondly, even if he was a psycho, he was family. There was something wrong though, Sasuke had overcame the evil sealing method around his curse seal of heaven and since he was low on chakra, he was using it to empower itself! But the evil hickey was reeking of Orochimaru! (They had been briefed that the freak Kusa (Grass) Kunoichi that had ambushed them and given Sasuke an evil hickey had been Orochimaru in disguise.)
Why would Sasuke use that tainted power? She then slapped herself mentally. For more power, duh! He was a Son of Ares after all, even if he wasn't as rough around the edges as his father. She would have to talk to her mom about that. But now, they had to see about taking down Gaara who was losing himself to Shukaku. She had to take in correctly the situation to see what she could do. She could of course go at it all gung ho and use Kurama's chakra for a monsters smack down, but she really wanted that promotion and she wasn't in the mood to be lectured by her mother if they survived the invasion for not using her brain. So an intelligent method was the way to go. First of all, Shikamaru was low on chakra, so useless in a fight against a chakra monster right now. She sent him to extract Sasuke with Sakura. With her field medic training, she could tend to his wounds and nag answers out of him. Now, she had a sand rat to beat down. With all the yelling and cackling he was doing, it was pretty evident he wasn't all there. Oh well, she would beat some sanity back into him. She decided to first test the waters with Sunlight speed. Shifting gears, she launched herself into the battle.
Sasuke was really in a bad place. The mark given to him by Orochimaru was a double edged blade. It was giving him a boost of power, permitting him to still be able to follow Naruto, but it was also breaking all the emotional build up done on him in recent years by his foster mother and foster sister. Said foster sister was starting to become so much more in his mind. But the mark was whispering in his mind in insidious means to make her his, to show her that her place was beneath him. But Naruto would never submit for she was too proud, too feral like to be brought down like any other girls in the village. The thought of breaking her was enticing in some ways, using her body and her power for his ambitions. But he couldn't do that! Even if they did had sex sometime soon in the future, why would he wish to rape her? Wasn't rape the ultimate theft of free will? But he needed that power! She was leaving him behind! They had sworn that they would always be equals! Kushina had always told him that she saw him as the son she never had! She was like a second mother! He couldn't forget Mikoto. The Uchiha clan. Itachi had massacred the entire clan! He must kill Itachi to appease theirs spirits! No! Kushina and Amphitrite taught him that vengeance leads only to a cold and bitter loneliness! Poseidon taught him that living his life at the fullest would be the right offering to his lost loved ones!
In between his conflicting thoughts, Naruto had used up all her others plans to deal with Gaara/Shukaku. Since she couldn't transform into a giant fox, she would have to ask help from Gamabunta. First of all, she made sure to have her sealing scroll containing her offering for the big grouch, then with the proper offering in blood and the right hand seals: Boar, dog, bird, monkey, ram, not to forget to mold just enough chakra for a young toad
"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"(Summoning technique)
She then slapped her hand on the ground where seals wrote themselves and with an explosion of cloud, Gamakichi was there. Quick as she was, she took him into her arms and retreated further when she saw Gaara bulldoze in her direction. At a relatively safe distance, she then asked nervously
"Hey there Gamakichi! I'm very sorry to summon you in a dangerous zone like that, but I kinda need your help. Could you go ask your father if I can summon him for a big fight? I have sake for him as promised and if he can't, well, anybody big enough to help me deal with Sandy Wandy over there would be great."
The young toad took a look at his new summoner, then at the sand creature she called "Sandy Wandy" *snorts* and he knew she was in a bind. So in exchange for some candy he would gladly deliver the message. Naruto, having a sweet tooth, had always something to snack on her person. So she gave him two pieces of candy, let him dispel back to Mount Myoboku to pass the message with instructions that he would be summoned back in ten minutes for the answer. So to buy herself some time, she literally flooded the clearing with Kage Bunshins with orders to cause chaos and mayhem and also to keep the foe distracted for at least ten minutes. In between, Sakura and Shikamaru had managed to patch up Sasuke and bring him in cover. Things were not looking well. She had to keep making clones to keep Gaara busy. She had to keep the deadline issued to Gamakichi. She really hoped that Gamabunta or another toad of his size and strength was free to help, because they were screwed without their help. If it was a situation of life or death, she guesses she could push her bijuu chakra further than three tails, but it was like playing with fire! It would backfire on her and the consequences wouldn't be pretty! Finally the deadline was met and she summoned Gamakichi back. The message was clear; she could summon any high level toad as long as she kept the arrangement to ask first. The boss was also pleased that the sake required to make her his subordinate would be his. So in resume, she could call him and he would fight with her as soon as he had the sake. After confirmation that the toads could unseal the contents of a sealing scroll, she sent the one containing her offering with Gamakichi. So she then burst out of the foliage just as her last clone was dispelled. Digging deep into herself, Naruto took hold of Kurama's chakra that was floating around in her system and used it to summon the Toad Boss. He arrived in a big explosion of smoke and boy, was he mad when Gamakichi told him before he was summoned how the sand rat was mean to him! It seems that under his gruff appearance, Bunta was a good father, wanting the best for his sons.
The fight of giants continued for a good long while, air bullets colliding with water bullets. They were close to win, when Gaara pulled out a dick move! He went into forced sleep and let Shukaku take full control! The only way to reverse their situation was to awaken the jutsu caster, aka Gaara. But as a toad, Gamabunta wasn't really equipped for grappling his opponents. So the solution would be a combination henge (transformation technique). Naruto would be providing the idea and part of the chakra, him the body to transform and also part of the chakra for the technique. A few seconds later, Gamabunta was no longer there; in his place was Kurama, the Kyuubi no Yoko, who dashed towards Shukaku. The sand spirit, too stunned by the sudden appearance of the fox, was too late to react when it slammed into him. As soon as Naruto left the giant fox's back, the henge dispelled to reveal back Gamabunta. But the ruse had worked; she was upon Gaara literally in a flash of sunlight! Then, she manifested a kitsune arm and bashed him right across the face! The problem was she had struck too hard, he was catapulted out of the sand construct, so said construct started to crumble once its host wasn't there anymore to feed it chakra. Naruto managed to soften her fall by creating shadow clones and using them as stepping stones, descending to the ground at a rhythm that wouldn't wound her.
Gamabunta was exhausted. Fighting a Bijuu, even the one tail, was something very hard to do. He was pleased with his clan's new summoner though. She had quickly taken his lessons to heart. He had his sake tribute at home, she had honored her promise and that told him that she was a person whose word is his bond. She had summoned one of his sons to take back a message to him to ask for permission to summon him and she had also paid the messenger adequately for his services. Yes, she would do. Before going back, he then said
"Naruto Uzumaki, daughter of Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki. I, Gamabunta of Mount Myoboku, Leader of the Toad Tribe, accept you as our new summoner. Our strength is yours to call forth. I must be going, I am exhausted. Until we met again, lass."
He then un-summoned himself, letting in his place a giant cloud of chakra smoke. The daughter of the sun had not lost her time though, as soon as she was on the ground, she used her natural speed (She had used up all her stored sunlight and there wasn't enough distance between her foe and her to run at the speed necessary to manually gear shift to Sunlight speed once more.) and in front of Gaara, she struck his stomach with her right palm and put him under the effects of a stasis seal. It was the best she could do, she wasn't experienced enough to tamper on a Jinchūriki's seal. Once assured of her victory, she let out a big sigh. That one had taken a lot out of her. It also seemed that her teammates had captured Temari. Oh well, it was a good thing. She then had her friends brought the siblings close to her so she could seal them into prisoners scrolls that her mother had made. Now with two out of three, they could just double back to see if Shino needed help. Unlikely, but they had to be sure.
Back into the village though, even if the invaders were been pushed out, The Konoha forces were taking quite a few casualties. Rasa, the Fourth Kazekage, seemed to be stuck between two personalities. His original one was where he was in control of himself and the other one was a murderous psychopath who was attacking everything that was moving, but with not much of a success. Seems he got tagged by something experimental from one of Orochimaru's labs that started malfunctioning. When he was in control of himself, he was ordering his men to stand down, when he was not, he was ordering them to burn the Leaf to the ground! One minute he was vandalising the village with his gold dust techniques, the other he was trying to assort his authority on his people. The Suna shinobis around him were getting frustrated by the nonsensical orders. Baki, who had managed to extract himself of his confrontation with Genma, wanted to go see what had happened to his students, was the highest ranking shinobi present to saw what was wrong with his Kage. Seeing as the invasion was doomed to begin with, slipped through Rasa's guard to successfully knock him out. Once his leader out of commission, he launched the order
"Everyone retreat! Gather the survivors and get out of here! Let the Oto Nins perish a foolish death. Konoha is too strong."
The order was transmitted to all Suna shinobis, and soon, only the less than adequate forces recruited by Orochimaru were still fighting and loosing. Suna had quality over quantity. Oto was the reverse. Quantity over quality. Little by little, some tried to escape but more and more perished against the superior training of the Leaf ninjas.
But not all was good, on the rooftops where Hiruzen was doing battle against Orochimaru, things were bleak. Sarutobi was feeling his age. He was past his prime and recently, he had started to decline. Oh, he was still a Kage level shinobi, but if he had 10 years less on his body, the fight would have been over in his favour. He was really regretting his decision to let his former student go when caught doing horrible experiments. He was just about to consider summoning the Shinigami to deal with the resurrected First and Second Hokages when something out of this world happened. A mighty presence eclipsing his at his prime and all his students combined was making itself known. The shadows all merged together and out of it stepped a God. Hiruzen had many dealings with the Greek Gods in the past, it was only in this last half decade that they seemingly stopped coming around.
He was a very tall, imposing and very muscular God with albino white skin (due to the little time he spent in the sunlight), intense black eyes that "glitter like frozen tar", and were either the eyes of a genius or a madman, and he also had a mesmerizing, "evil" charisma, and shoulder-length black hair, with bangs usually covering most of his forehead. He had a well trimmed beard on his chin and was wearing modern western civilization style clothing. Dark jeans with a silver chain attached to one of his pockets and to one of the belt loops in which a black leather belt. He had also black leather boots with skull motifs on the side. On his torso were a stone gray shirt and a black leather coat kept open. On his hands, he was wearing two rings, one with a skull on it and the other with an opal that was looking like a wedding ring. In recognizing the God of The Underworld, Hiruzen showed immediate deference by bending on one knee, ignoring his aching limbs, his eyes to the ground, fixed upon his adamantine staff.
"Welcome to Konahagakure No Sato, Hades-Sama. I apologize for the poor reception we gave you. As you can see, we are a little busy. I am Hiruzen Sarutobi, Third Hokage. What can we do for you, lord?"
He made very sure to not have any sarcasm in his voice. If there is one God you don't want to mess with, it was Hades. The Rich One was a bit taken aback by the deference as soon as he had materialized, but it seems to have calmed him a little, since his face was less tense than before. With his smooth voice, the Dark one ordered
"Rise, Hokage and be at peace. I am not here for sightseeing unfortunately. My wife would love your village though. I am here exclusively for business and since Thanatos is quite busy with all the deaths going around, I have come in person to address a problem that slipped through the cracks of the system. First of all, let's put the dead to rest. Hashirama Senju, Tobirama Senju, back to the Underworld with you two. Hashirama, go back to Elysium with your family and Tobirama, to the Fields of Punishments. You have only one more year to go before your next appeal before the judges."
Hades snapped his fingers and the two reincarnated Hokages turned to dust in front of a gaping Orochimaru as their souls travelled back to their destinations. The living sacrifices used as medium perished instantly. Kuchiyose: Edo Tensei (Summoning: Impure World Reincarnation) was not supposed to be terminated like that! It binds the soul of a deceased person to a living vessel, restoring them as they were when they were alive in order to do their summoner's bidding. It was originally created by Tobirama Senju, after which he declared it a kinjutsu. (Forbidden technique) The Snake Sage was wondering if his sensei had gotten senile. The new comer was very powerful and in possession of jutsus unknown to him; there wasn't a doubt about that, but a God? Gods weren't real. They were fabrication of primitive people to explain incredible feats or natural disasters. He was a scientist first and foremost. Theology was a woolly subject to begin with. Seeing as his show was hijacked, he decided to go for the kill. His old sensei was not on guard, he could kill him then go back to raze Konoha to the ground and burn the remains! When he went on the offensive, deciding to kill the stranger first, he made one of his last mistakes he would ever make in this land. By the ancient laws, a God could not fight a "hero"without being challenged first. The fact that Orochimaru was attacking with intent to kill was sufficient to respect those laws and could be considered a challenge, thus he would not be in trouble for beating some humility into this mortal.
Faster than anything even seen, Hades summoned a random sword from his armory and parried without difficulty with only one hand his attacker's weapon. Blinking in surprise in seeing that his challenger's weapon hadn't broken against the Stygian Iron, his godly senses were now telling him that Orochimaru was using some kind of holy weapon. He was not a war god, but after exchanging a few blows with the one who challenged him, he recognized the Kusanagi no Tsurugi, a double-edged jian, a legendary sword from the Shinto Pantheon. So that's why the guy could match him. He got to admit that his opponent knew his swordsmanship though. Humouring is foe, he kept clashing blades against him, not really going for the kill or putting the effort. The information about this man was contradictory at best and confusing at worst. One minute the Fates were telling him that it wasn't his time to die, the other they said that he had expired his time on earth. In cases like that, it was usually reserved for his judgement. Digging deeper into the mind of Orochimaru of the Sannin, he found everything that made him what he was. So, he was after immortality? Well, he could use another hand around the Fields of Punishments and Tartarus. Having a living subordinate with that much esoteric knowledge could be a boon. Yes, since he was clearly an anomaly, he would take the man with him back to the Underworld and put his talents to use where he would be useful. Defeating him with a few more moves, he took his price. Orochimaru's form became encased in a golden light and disappeared from Konoha. Letting his blade disappear, Hades then returned his attention on the old man in front of him. Had he not intervened to correct an anomaly in the system when he felt two souls being brought back to the living forcefully, Hiruzen Sarutobi would had met his end today. But now, things were different. Deciding to clarify his acts to the old man, he said
"Orochimaru will no longer be a problem. I have taken him to my Realm, where he will be offered to serve me or to pass on forever. Since he is an anomaly and the Fates cannot decide if his time was at end or not, I have passed judgement. Know that had I not intervened today, you would have met your end. You have pleased me by being respectful and showing enough backbone to not let fear take hold on your heart. I know that you long to rest and see your wife again who is waiting for you in Elysium, but you have a few more years left before that fateful day."
He seemed to have suddenly been distracted by something, then after staring at the barrier for a minute or two, he came back to himself and cursed out loud in a language that Hiruzen didn't understand. Hades let out an annoyed sigh. Artemis was still a bitch and was reclaiming that he left her Domain illico presto now that his business was concluded. Could she be ruder? He was enjoying talking with the Hokage, but noo! Miss "I forsook men's company and must make everyone else miserable because they don't follow my creed" had to be a stick in the mud! Coming back to himself, he said
"I apologize, but I must take my leave. The Goddess of The Hunt forbade the others Gods to socialize with the mortals of this continent. Her and her twin brother were born here, so they are the top dogs, others gods must follow their decree. Farewell."
In leaving, Hades did shatter the two layered barrier keeping the Hokage contained here. It was the less he could do to reward the man for his bravery and for providing him with a new pet project.
Time then resumed itself; Hiruzen had not even noticed that it had been frozen. Free to help his village once more and free of his duty to take down his rogue student, he went and knocked out the four children who had created the barrier. A couple of A.N.B.U operatives appeared and took the prisoners from him. Another gave him a status report of what was going on. Nevertheless to say, hearing that Naruto subdued the Ichibi Jinchūriki with Gamabunta's help with nothing more serious than a few scratches and then made prisoners the Kazekage's children as ordered by her sensei, was jaw dropping! Coming back to his senses, he saw an area in the stands still sealed away with a barrier. When he inquired who was inside, he was told that Kushina was protecting the Fire Daimyo and his family. She must be smarting to not get any action, but she had also the duty to protect the children. Motherhood had tamed somewhat her impetuous spirit. Leaping from roof to roof, he went to the command center to oversee the rooting of the invasion.
It was a long and arduous task, but the invasion had been rooted completely. The casualties had yet to be tallied and Hiruzen doubted he could call Hades-Sama and ask. Even if he could, the phone operator station didn't have a line to the Underworld. Maybe they could dial 666 and see what happens? Shaking off his weird thoughts, he went back to the reports. The Daimyo and his family were left untouched and once everything was secure, Kushina used the Hiraishin to teleport the royal family back to the capital. The surviving guards would do the return trip with the carriage as a ruse, just in case. They had scoured the entire village from top to bottom to root every undesirable element and they had been successful. Now it was time to lick their wounds, bury their dead and rebuild. But his close call and his conversation with Hades-Sama made him realize that he didn't have many years left. He was old and tired. And the harder fact to swallow, his mind was starting to dull. He was not mentally ill, but he had exceeded his limits. They needed a Godaime (Fifth) Hokage, but who nominate? Kakashi was a possibility, but he was needed as a teacher/front line operative and even if his bad habits had diminished, he was not sure it would be enough. Kushina could do it. She had the pedigree, the reputation and the strength for it. But she would burn the paperwork for shit and giggles and beat his old teammates half to death for annoying her. The Red Hot Habanero indeed. *snorts* Naruto was plain too young even if she had potential. Little brat tried again to steal his beloved porn and his pipe then managed to take his hat after binding him with a seal! Perhaps he could unleash her on Danzô. That would be worth it to see if she could make him lose his cool. *evil snickers*
No, sincerely the only viable candidate at this time would be Tsunade for a couple of years. At least until Kushina learns patience or Naruto mature. Jiraiya would do well, but he would likely refuse. He should train a substitute for his spying network. He was not a spring chicken anymore either. He suddenly stopped reminiscing. Something was wrong. Darting a hand quickly to the left, he caught a slim wrist that was aiming for his hat. He then squeezed the wrist warningly and after a squeak of pain, Naruto turned visible. What he would do with that girl? She was smiling disarmingly at him, like she wasn't caught trying to cause mischief. Launching her at the other end of his office, he watched her bounce back with a spring of tails and at his stern glare, she took a seat quickly. He had called her after all. Seeing as she was behaving, he took the parole
"I wanted to congratulate you for your win in your match against Neji the other day. It was really well played. Your new abilities have caught the eyes of many clients. Naruto of Nine Tails they started calling you. I would not be surprised if that name made its way into the bingo books. Also, the negotiations between Konoha and Suna have started. Our prisoners of war are well treated and well guarded. Your mother even reworked Gaara's seal. He is much more lucid. But let me go into the heart of the matter. First, let me congratulate you on your promotion to chuunin. You have used well thought plans, you leaded a squad with efficiency in a dangerous mission and the more important in all that, and you made proof of restrain. You have all the qualifications required to advance in rank. In fact, only you and Shikamaru, to his great misery, managed to get promoted. Congratulations, Naruto."
He handed her a voucher to give to the shinobi in charge of the armory for a chuunin vest to her size. Naruto took it and sealed it away in one of the many seals she kept upon her clothes. She was so happy! She had managed to be promoted! No more chasing after the damn cat of the Daimyo's wife! That thing was evil! Even Kurama agreed with her on that subject! She came back to reality and with a big smile; she leapt on the other side of the desk and gave the old man a crushing hug. Hiruzen chuckled quietly, oh she was a ray of sunshine that girl! (Ironic, since she's a daughter of Apollo.) Once the dramatics were done with, she received her mission. She was to deliver Tsunade and Shizune's recall to the village. Sarutobi had given them unlimited travelling rights, but now they needed every able shinobi to keep face and recover. She would do the mission alone but would probably be met by Jiraiya sometime on the way. At that she disagreed politely after having secured the scroll containing the orders.
"Jiji, I'm a big girl now, I don't need to be taken care off. You know how Pervy Sage is; I'm not in the mood to babysit Konoha's Super Pervert on top of Granny Tsunade. Send him keep tabs on Orochimaru's village in Ta No Kuni (Land of Rice paddies) or made him do the ambassador to Suna, anything but on my mission, please. Hell, send him to Yugakure No Sato (Village hidden in the hot springs) he will love it there. "
Hiruzen hmm at that, she was making a good point, but with the rumours of a rogue organization trying to find the locations of the Jinchūrikis...Better warns her. Once the warning to keep far away from Nins dressed in a black robe with red clouds on it, she was dismissed. She could return to the village immediately her delivery made, or she could accompany Tsunade and Shizune on the way back. Naruto then went back home to pack for her mission once her little detour to the armory for her vest paid off. On the table was a note that her mom had taken Sasuke to the sealing chamber to reseal Orochimaru's curse seal. She left a note in turn about her promotion and her mission. Once packed and signed off at the gates, she exploited the fact that the sun was high in the sky to shift gears into Sunlight Speed towards Tanzaku Gai. There was a gambling festival this week, it was 100% sure that the Legendary Sucker and her poor minder would be there. Watch out Granny, Naruto was coming!