Chapter 5 - Wants and Needs

Haurna slipped into the formerly empty office that Naruto had taken over. A few weeks ago when everyone returned with the updated trade agreement with Konoha, he had claimed the space as his own, and ever since there had been at least a couple of Shadow Clones in there at all times. Quickly the office had filled up with history books and scrolls, and a large map of the world at some point appeared with various different colored pins.

"So…" Haruno asked as she strode up to the desk where Naruto currently was, pouring over a history book. "Who are you and what did you do with the spunky little blonde who saved my country?" She asked with a smirk, leaning over the desk and taking a look at what he was reading. "Or were you like this back in the academy as well and I just never got a chance to see it?"

Naruto snorted and leaned back in the chair, rubbing his eyes. "Nah, I was a terrible student…spent most of my time trying to pull pranks. Did I ever tell you about the time I painted graffiti all over the Hokage Monument in one night? I didn't even have the Kage Bushinthen…" He finished with a dry chuckle, waxing nostalgic for those simpler times.

"You know, I could actually see that. That kind of thing takes a lot of planning and quick thinking…" Haruna smiled and sat on the desk, taking the book and reading the cover. "The Founding of the Great Shinobi Villages? Brushing up on your history I see."

"Yeah. Did you know the First Hokage's wife was an Uzumaki?" Naruto asked, staring at the ceiling. "And from what I've managed to pry out of the furball, she was the first Jinchuriki for the NIne-Tails. Think about that, he sealed it in his own wife….how do you go along with that? How in the hell did he get her to agree to that?"

"Maybe she didn't see it as a bad thing." Haruna shrugged before putting the book back down. "Maybe she saw it as an honor, and it was everyone elses vision of things that warped over time? Our nation never had a tailed beast, so it's hard to tell but personally I would view it as a noble sacrifice, something to be respected and honored…" Shrugging again, she turned her attention to the map of the world. "So, what's this whole thing all about.?"

Turning his attention towards the map, Naurto blinked for a moment before grinning. "Well, that's a few things, but a big part of it is this crazy idea Tori and I came up with…So, a lot of the nations are dependent on the five big ones for self defense. Most of my missions early on were basically just mercenary work for some of the smaller nations. The Vagabonds did similar things, and there are a bunch of others…so like, what if all of the smaller nations chipped in and we all made a group of shinobi together that worked for all of them?"

"Like a Shinobi League kind of thing? That's a pretty bold idea." Haruna mused, looking over the map. "Want to talk more about it over ramen?" She offered with a raised eyebrow, drawing a growl from Naruto's stomach. Blushing softly in shame, the blonde shinobi made a few shadow clones and dived out the cleanup work to them before leaving the office with the Daimyo.

The pair didn't make it that far before being cut off by an exasperated and obviously frazzled Tori. "Boss, Nen's back and…you gotta come see this…" His eyes narrowing, Naruto snapped into serious mode and stormed after Tori, obviously upset and wanting to see what the hell had happened.

TTTTTTTTTT

Sakura sat in the tavern, slamming back her next round. She had made the long trek from Konoha all the way to Hosaku, but it didn't hit her until she entered the town that she had no real plan on how to try and convince Naruto to come home. She had thought that some plan would click in her brain once she got here, or that whatever divine spirit often blessed the blonde idiot with unique ideas would visit her as well.

But instead she was here, getting tipsy on locally brewed shochu, telling herself that maybe she would get an idea if she just kept drinking. Hell, it had to work for Tsunade, right? Finishing the bottle, she slid it across the bar. "Barkeep, another round for me and my homegirl!" She drunkenly called out, wrapping her arm around the poor drunken Hyuuga Hinata sitting next to her.

It had been a huge surprise to Sakura the night she left Konoha that she wasn't alone. The pair of kunoichi packed and ready and running into each other just outside the gates was like something out of a storybook, but given their united goal of wanting to bring Naruto home they decided to take the hand that fate offered them. Together they had journeyed across the shinobi world and learned quite a bit about each other, such as Sakura finally putting truth to the low-key rumor that Hinata was deeply in love with Naruto, whereas Sakura saw him as the brother she never had.

"Saaaaakura….Sakura, this stuff is really good…" Hinata drolled out, holding the empty bottle in her hand, temporarily snapping Sakura back to her current reality. She hadn't taken into account that the Hyuuga clan heiress might be a lightweight, but this shochu was also kicking her own ass. She almost didn't notice the group of young samurai that surrounded the Konoha shinobi until one of them leaned in and half-whispered to Sakura. "I think you ladies have had enough. The Daimyo would love to speak with you two."

TTTTTTTTTT

Naruto sat in a chair backwards, eyes darting back and forth between the two beds. On one lay Nen, his friend and talented lieutenant who he had sent out, on the other the strange redhead covered in bite scars that Nen had brought back with him. Sighing deeply, he slumped further in the chair as he watched the two, with Haruna standing next to him with a hand on his shoulder.

"So tell me what happened?" The daimyo asked softly, realizing the stress of the time but needing to know what the situation was on her hired soldiers.

Sighing again, Naruto slumped further into the seat. "When Sensui and I were in Waves, we figured out that Orichimaru had a hideout on a nearby island. So, since Nen has been asking to take that snakey pervert out for as long as I've known him, I figured who better to go scope the place out?" Shaking his head, he continued. "He was just supposed to check things out, recon…instead it looks like he went deeper…I should have sent someone to keep an eye on him…"

Taking a deep breath, Haruna stepped in front of Naruto and lowered herself until she was eye-to-eye with him. She knew exactly what was going through his mind right now, it was the same guilt that wracked her every time some big twist in the world popped up that affected her people. "Naruto, listen to me. Did you give him the order to raid the place? With no backup and no extraction plan?" With a mixed look of sadness and confusion, Naruto shook his head. Holding his hands in hers, Haruna continued. "Right. I understand why your upset, but this isn't your fault, this is not your cross to bear. But what is on you is to move forward, and do best with the situation you can…."

Just as Naruto was starting to regain his composure, the pair was interrupted by the arrival of a young samurai, clearing her throat. "Lady Haruna, Lord Naruto, my apologies but….you had standing orders to report any occurrences regarding Konoha shinobi in the nation?" Both the daimyo and her young military leader turned towards the samurai, eyes wide, as she pulled a Bingo Book out of her pocket and flipped to a few marked pages. "Earlier tonight a Haruno Sakura and a Hyuuga Hinata were picked up in a bar in Hosaku. We currently have them locked up for interrogation…"

Quickly, Naruto stood from the chair, a smirk replacing the sour look on his face. "Thank you Haruna-chan. Looks like the best way to move forward was just dropped into our lap."

TTTTTTTTTT

"Sakura….hey, Sakura…."

Sakura grunted and rolled over on the cot. Her head was pounding and she did not want to listen to Naruto's annoying prattling…

Wait, Naruto?

Quickly Sakura sat upright, seeing a silhouette she last saw fighting a bunch of stone soldiers deep in a mountain. Sadly she shot up too quickly, and the piercing pain of the hangover quickly brought her head down into her hands. "Fuck…god fuck…how much did I drink?"

Chuckling softly, Naruto came and sat down next to Sakura, crossing his legs and handing the pinkette a bottle of water. Not even thinking, she quickly took the bottle and downed half of it quickly. With a chuckle, Naruto shook his head and let out a low whistle. "I heard from Jiraya-san's letters that you were training with Granny, but I didn't think you would follow her ways this far…"

The pinkette responded with a glare as she set down the water bottle, then quickly performed a secret medical jutsu that Lady Tsunade had created and taught her for this exact situation, mentally noting that this just proved the point. "It's good to see you again Naruto…" Running a hand through her hair, she began to mentally go over where her equipment should be, an old habit beaten into her by Kakashi. A cold realization hit her as she started patting herself down in a few places. Everything was gone; kunai, senbon, her emergency scrolls, just everything.

"Sorry, it's standard practice." Naruto cut in, drawing Sakura's instant attention. "You guys are foreign shinobi, and we're a small nation, we have to play it safe…" The student of the Godaime Hokage grabbed the water bottle again, but stopped right before it hit her lips. 'You guys…we..' Those word choices were specific, exact…

"Naruto…" Sakura set down the bottle, focusing all her attention now on her teammate. "Naruto, we…we came to bring you home."

Naruto's reaction was not what she had expected. He started off into the middle distance, fingers digging into his pants on his knees as he took a deep breath, slowly letting it out his nose like he was in a meditative stance. "Well…" He finally spoke. "That at least answers one question…"

As the cryptic response hung in the air, the blonde shinobi took another deep breath and stood up. "Listen, we can talk more about that later but, right now I really need your help as a medic…and if you even learned one thing from the old lady, you are better than any other medic I have. Help me out, and we'll talk about everything, I promise."

Gritting her teeth, Sakura thought quickly about what was asked of her. But not only was someone she considered a friend asking for help, but she was needed as a medic. There was no possible way she could turn this down. With a deep sigh, Sakura stood up and nodded, willing to at least go along with whatever was going on here.

Doing so returned the warm smile to Naruto's face that Sakura remembered, and with a grin he stepped over to the door and gave a series of knocks. As it was unlocked and opened from the other side, the realization that she had been locked in a cell finally clicked with her, causing Sakura to shudder as she passed through the doorway. Carefully she followed Naruto as he walked with purpose through the hallways, noticing that everyone who passed them deferred to Naruto with the respect she would normally associate with a noble or a Kage.

The pair finally arrived at a single room that reeked of blood and medical cleaner. As Sakura stepped into the room, she quickly determined that the Land of Vegetables did not have the medical skill or budget that the Land of Fire had. Slipping into her medic training, she quickly assessed the situation. On one bed was a young woman, unconscious and exhausted, arms covered in scars that resembled bite marks. On the other was a shinobi she had now seen several times, with various injuries, bleeding through the wadded up gauze.

"Damnit…why is he just bleeding out here?" Sakura snapped, almost leaping onto Nen before Naurto grabbed her arm.

"It's because they don't know how to." Naruto stated sadly. "Nen is the last of the Furukawa clan. Crazy strong poisoners who figured out a long time ago how to make their own blood poisonous." Sakura's eyes went wide at that mention, pulling up her gloves and carefully grabbing one of the blood-soaked bandages. Very carefully she gave it a sniff, and instantly regretted it. The normal rusty smell of spent blood was there, but it was buried under sulfur and toxins that sent her into a coughing fit.

"This is not going to be easy…" She let out as she finally regained control of her lungs. "It's like he has venom in his veins. Why would they do this?"

Naruto sighed softly as he leaned against the wall right by Nen's head, weighing the options before him. He didn't want to give away too many secrets, but also he needed to keep his lieutenant alive. "From what I've seen, it lets him use his own blood as poison. Also from what I've heard, it makes him immune to just about anything. I mean heck, I don't even think he can get drunk…"

That explanation made a few things click for Sakura. While she was a student of Tsunade, she also spent her fair share of days learning under the Sannin's first student Shizune, a skilled healer and poison user in her own right. "Damn….that's going to make things harder…" She hissed as she looked over Nen's body. Her eyes narrowed as she caught sight of the twin serpents wrapped around each arm, and pulling one arm up for a closer inspection, she noticed that the tattoos were not just cool clan markings like those of the Inuzuka. No, interwoven in the scales were seals and kanji.

"Here…theres something here…" She pointed several of the seals out to Naruto. "This is definitely a seal, similar to the Cursed Heaven seal but…not as complex…I have an idea, something Kakashi-sensei and I worked up to try and control Sasuke….but I'm going to need a few things."

"Name it." Naruto quickly responded through grit teeth, and in that moment Sakura could see the weight of guilt that was on her blonde teammate's shoulders. She had seen that same look before when they were younger. No doubt Nen was this way because of something "The Boss" had done, or believed he had done.

"Alright." Taking a deep breath, Haruno Sakura switched into professional mode. "I need lots of clean hot water, and empty buckets. A hundred or so acupuncture needles, and a pair of thick gloves. Also, if Hinata can be let out, that would hugely help, but for that I will need you to leave the room Naruto." She could see him start to object, so she continued. "As long as you are in the room, she's going to just faint on me, and then she's worthless."

Naruto narrowed his eyes at that last comment. He had always known Hinata to randomly faint, though never seen it affect her on missions. He had always chalked it up to some type of illness or blood pressure issue, but Sakura was making it sound like it was his fault. Before he could overthink the issue, he heard a wizend voice from the doorway "Don't worry about it Boss, I'll keep an eye on everything." Sensui offered, seemingly appearing out of nowhere. "You go talk with the Daimyo and get her up to speed."

With a sigh and a smile, Naruto nodded to his elder second-in-command. "Thank you Sakura." He stated to the foreign medic with an earnest clap on the shoulder before turning to the other medics and guards in the room. "Alright, for the rest of this operation, Sakura here is in charge. Listen to her and get her whatever and whoever she asks for. I'll be in Lady Haruna's office or my own, someone get me a full report once things are done here."

Once again, for a brief moment, Sakura was caught off guard by how quickly and easily everyone followed Naruto's orders. But that was not a path to dive down, for now she had a patient to take care of.

TTTTTTTTTT

Several hours later, a tired Sakura and Hinata followed Sensui down the halls further into the compound, finally stopping in front of a pair of large doors flanked by armed guards. With a nod from the older shinobi, one of the guards (whom Sakura now faintly reconized as the woman who was leading the group who arrested them in the first place) stepped inside the room and quietly shut the door behind her, before reopening it rather quickly. "Lady Haruna and Lord Naruto, I present Sensui the Fire-Dancer as well as Haruno Sakura and Hyuuga Hinata of Konohagakure."

The trio entered the large office to find a seemingly exasperated Lady Haruna sitting behind her desk. However, the desk itself was moving rapidly up and down, the cause of which was quickly found to be from one Uzumaki Naruto doing pushups while the heavy wooden desk was on his back. "Please, tell me everything is good and well, because I don't know how much longer I can contain him." The daimyo of the Land of Vegetables asked as she pinched the bridge of her nose.

Hinata couldn't help but let out a slight giggle at Naruto's antics. This was the first time she had seen him since he had left to train, and she was surprised with how much he had grown but in some ways it looked like he had changed little. Sakura then cleared her throat, prompting Naruto's attention. Quickly, he rolled out from under the desk and caught it before it slammed to the ground, sheepishly rubbing the back of his head as he stood at Haruna's right-hand side, another thing that Sakura noticed and added to the list of growing concerns.

Clearing her throat again, Sakura turned her attention to Lady Haruna. "The operation was a complete success. We were able to use a combination of pressure point acupressure and blocking of chakra points to keep things as painless as possible as well as control his bloodflow. He will need a few days to rest and recover fully. If you would like, I can write up a full report."

"That would be amazing, thank you." Haruna responded before shifting back in her seat, leaning back and pensively rapping her fingertips against each other as she stared down the two foreign shinobi. Naruto's jaw clenched, he had seen this exact stance from Haruna before, and knew exactly what it meant. "Now, would you mind explaining what exactly the two of you are doing in my damn country?"