"The Greatest Idea Ever"
By Quick-n-Popular
Disclaimer: "Naruto" and its characters are not mine.
A/N: I appreciate the feedback I got from you all for the last chapter. Good and Bad, they're great in helping me to try and deliver a good story to the best of my abilities. I know I've taken chances with some of my choices for the characters and world of Naruto yet I hope people will enjoy what I can present. (Also, I'm ashamed to admit that I have only have read the manga and seen two of the movies of Naruto, but seen nothing of the anime. My apologies.)
Now, on with the story.
Chapter Sixteen: Lost Souls
It had been a week and a half since Jiraiya took Naruto and Tenten out of the village of Konoha to track down and enlist Tsunade of the Sannin as the next Hokage for Konoha.
Some members on the village's council were divided on the likelihood of success on bringing the elusive Senju woman back to the village. There was great promise as Jiriaya had volunteered to find her; being a former teammate of the legendary medic would work in favor of her possibly agreeing to take up the position.
Others were not so convinced. One man in particular, who was a part of that collective, viewed even the idea of recruiting the volatile woman a bad choice. However, very few would have the same viewpoints as Konoha's old War Hawk did. Now, deep within the sub-dwellings of the village, in a dimly lit room, the bandaged man looked over a report that was handed to him by one of his covert agents.
"So, that fool managed to bring her back after all. Hmm?" His lone eye narrowed as he read a certain part of the intelligence. "The Jinchuriki and that student of Maito Gai's brought back an elite Cursed Mark wielder. Interesting…" Danzo then took the paper with the intelligence and held it to an open flame of a candle on his desk, burning the paper until it was reduced to ash.
'THIS might make it easier to negotiate with that man, lest more gets out about his experiments. Especially since his "pet" got spirited away. Besides, he also owes us; WE who left the "door" open for him and Suna.'
Everyone within the group was quiet as they made their way into the village of Konoha. After a journey of more than a week, for some; three days travel for the others, it was of some relief to have returned. Though one of the group wasn't conscious at present and just remained limp as she was bundled and tied to a wooden carrying rack on Jiraiya's back.
Both Naruto and Tenten had been, occasionally, eyeing their still prisoner in trepidation due to the fresh memory of how she had tormented them each with horrific hallucinations and almost killed after doing so. Both teens weren't going to take any chances, even with the three adult superiors monitoring the Kunoichi as well; the teens' experience with her made them THAT cautious.
However, at present, Tsunade wasn't giving their captive a thought, much less a glance; as she was staring at the Hokage Tower in quiet contemplation.
As they reached a certain point, Jiraiya addressed everyone. "This is where I leave you all. I'll take the girl to the Torture and Interrogation division. Naruto, we'll meet in a couple of days at the regular spot and time, okay?"
Naruto nodded in understanding.
Jiraiya nodded in return before turning to Tsunade with a grin on his face, "Hime, when I am done, perhaps we can-"
"We'll be leaving you kids here, too." Tsunade said, cutting off Jiraiya's attempt to hit on her; "I imagine you two might be called in, especially if they announce any promotions from the interrupted Chuunin Exams. Anyway, we'll see you later. Shizune, let's go." The pig-tailed blond marched off to the tower with her student struggling to keep up.
Jiraiya sighed dramatically, 'Here I am, left carrying the bag. Though this "bag" looks nice, so does fire until it burns you alive. Oh, well. Such is the life of a famous novelist. Hmmm, I wonder if I could use this Kunoichi as a character in my next book. Yeah, she could be in a maid's outfit….' He walked off with a little more pep; writing in his little notebook, as Tayuya's wrapped up, lifeless-like, form swayed in the bundle she was in as he carried her on.
Watching the two leave, Naruto turned to Tenten who, like him, made very little conversation with the two Sannin and Shizune.
He was about to ask her what she planned to do, now that they were back, but she spoke first.
"I'm going to see what my team is doing." She then smiled as she looked at him, "How about you?"
Naruto turned away and shrugged, "I dunno, maybe I will do the same? I just want to get reconnected again. It feels as if we've been away longer than we really have."
Tenten reached into her back pack and brought out a tray of dango. Sticking a loaded skewer into her mouth and then sighed deeply. "We DID make it back, though." She then patted him on the shoulder before turning and walking in the direction of the training area where Team Gai met.
Naruto watched her leave until he decided to move himself.
"Hey Moegi, has our target done anything yet?"
A little girl with orange hair sighed as she looked in a bored expression at her friend and the leader of their small gang, Konohamaru Sarutobi.
"No, she looks like she's still relaxing outside the bath house. Now, can we please leave? Iruka-Sensei is going to get mad at us for cutting, again."
Konohamaru scoffed, "Now, why would he do THAT when they'll soon be pinning medals on us for catching a foreign Kunoichi up to no good in our village!"
Moegi sighed and wondered where Konohamaru sent Udon to. However, she was a little bit happy right now that their friend, Konohamaru was getting his sense of mischief and adventure back. After he spent a long time staying at home, grieving, when the Sandaime passed. Seeing Konohamaru act like his normal self brought her and Udon's spirits soaring back as well.
"She's up to something, I just know it. After all she- Wait, is that...It's Ni-chan!" The young boy with the scarf lept up out of his and Moegi's hiding place and ran up to Naruto Uzumaki who looked surprised.
"Ni-chan! Where have you been? Are you okay? Hey, you look a little bit cooler!" Konohamaru thundered off.
Naruto blinked before he settled into a chuckle. He didn't realize how much he would have missed seeing his little protege coming up and chatting with him like this; like since when they first met. After coming back from all that had happened with that mission, this felt refreshing to Naruto.
"I've been away on a mission with my new Sensei, that's why you haven' t seen me around." Naruto answered the first question. He decided NOT to tell the little boy that the mission was to get Tsunade to become the next Hokage as it would probably upset Konohamaru. Naruto was about to ask how Konohamaru has been when an irritated voice called out.
"Hey, you two little brats; we need to have a little chat."
Naruto noticed Konohamaru, along with Moegi, suddenly turned pale and nervous. Turning, the blond swordsman saw that a casually dressed girl with hair wrapped up in a towel, carrying, in one hand, a bucket with shampoo, soap and other necessities; the other hand had Konohamaru's friend Udon by the back of his shirt collar.
The girl was scowling at Konohamaru and Moegi, "I'm getting really annoyed with you three always spying on me and bugging me on my days where I'm trying to relax."
Konohmaru at first looked nervous but then a confident smirk appeared on his face and he pointed at the girl, smugly, "THAT'S where you're wrong! You're an enemy Kunoichi here to steal the secrets of our bath house!"
Naruto's eyes widened in bewilderment at his protege's accusation of this girl; for such a bizarre crime.
The girl, though, looked as if she's heard this accusation from the three kids before as she let go of Udon who scurried away to get, safely, behind Moegi and Konohamaru.
She then put down her bucket and punched her fist into her palm, threateningly.
"Do you REALLY want to mess with me, again, you little brats?"
Konohamaru continued to grin victoriously. "Unfortunately for you, we have a secret weapon. Heh, heh, heh." The young Sarutobi then took a couple of steps forward before he patted Naruto on the back. "C'mon Ni-chan, go get her!"
While the girl looked surprised by the commanding shout and the fact that the kid was avoiding the fight by shoving it on someone else, who was not involved in this; the blond teen, in the meantime, was face-palming. He then turned around and bopped the kid on top of his head with his fist, "You moron!"
The girl, with the momentary pause, finished drying her hair with her slackened towel she had on her head, as she did so, she was looking at blond curiously before suddenly she went still, "I know you. You're the teammate of that pink-haired girl I faced at the Exams."
Naruto, looking up from Konohamaru, who he was chewing out for childishly using Naruto to fight his own battles; looked confused before the girl removed the rest of towel completely off her dry head, showing off long black hair.
Looking at her more closely now, It then came back to Naruto. She was the Oto Kunoichi Sakura faced in the first one-on-one matches.
But why was she still here?
"She's the enemy, Ni-chan! Take out your sword and chop her into pieces!"
"Ah! The time! Iruka-Sensei's going to yell at us again…"
"Why didn't you guys come to get me earlier? That girl's real scary..."
Naruto sighed. He felt tired and he almost had forgotten about Konohamaru and his gang's wild antics. The last time was when he was having dinner with Tenten at the BBQ restaurant and these three kids pulled something on Tenten, ruining the moment Naruto was having with her. The blond really just wanted to see Kakashi-Sensei, eat at Ichiraku's, and then crawl into bed. He's had more than enough excitement because of that battle with Tayuya, which nearly killed him and the girl that was special to him.
"Um," The black haired girl started, "I really am not here to do anything. My village thinks I'm dead most likely, so I haven't been in contact with it for quite awhile."
"Liar!" Konohamaru said, while hiding behind Naruto.
"Hey, Konohamaru, Try and relax, okay. There's no way she's walking around here with just you guys watching her. Am I right, uh…?" Naruto looked at the girl struggling to remember her name, despite the fact it was at only one time during a very distracting event.
The girl smirked, amused at his bad memory, "It's Kin Tsuchi."
Naruto nodded, "Naruto Uzumaki. Now, going back to my original question…"
Kin nodded, "Well, I got injured from being attacked by one of the Shinobi from my village, but got healed by some stranger, who then handed me off to your Chuunin gaurds. I've been on house arrest ever since. I'm allowed sometime to come to this bath house to get cleaned up but there are Anbu and others who are ALWAYS watching me."
Kin then looked at Konohamaru who was peeking at her from behind Naruto, "As I've been telling you, kid, I am just trying to relax. Hell, they took all my weapons so I got nothing; even this guy's teammate has made me lose confidence in my ability to fight bare handed."
Naruto sighed, "Well, after facing off against your village's "Kunoichi from Hell", what you tried to do to my teammate during your match with her seems friendly by comparison."
Kin tilted her head in intrigue, "Yeah? Who was she?"
"Tayuya of the Sound Four."
The Former Oto nin's face stiffened. "Her?... Seriously?"
Naruto nodded, "My teammate and I and fought her, just three days ago; and we just barely managed to beat her."
Kin swallowed anxiously and was about to open her mouth to say something before a voice down the road called out to her.
"Hey, Tsuchi, it's time to go back to the safe house. Oh, you're not alone, I see." The man was tall and in a Jounin flak jacket with a blue bandanna covering his dirty blond hair and he had a senbon needle sticking out of his mouth like a tooth pick.
"I'm sorry, Genma-san, I was just catching up with the teammate of someone I faced off with in the Exams." Kin apologized and made a quick bow.
Genma nodded, "Yeah, I know him too, seeing as I was the proctor for the last part of the Exam. How ya doing, Uzumaki-san?"
Naruto shrugged.
Genma nodded, "Actually, I'm glad I ran into you. Someone was hoping you'd come meet with them seeing as they're now out of the hospital and want to make sure you haven't gotten lazy since they've been gone."
Naruto looked clueless for a minute as he wondered who the man was talking about before he connected the dots and a relieved smile appeared on his face.
Maito Gai watched as his returning female student had a spar with her teammate, Neji Hyuuga as Lee took observed from the sidelines. The Green Beast of Konoha was happy to have his Youthful students come together again. However, watching the girl move in and out of her katas in this Taijutsu spar, he noticed the numerous emotions sweeping across her face as well as her muscles tensing as if they were in a 'fight or flight' situation. Judging by Neji, her opponent, he too was seeing something that gave him a look of concern.
The spar eventually ended in Neji's win, though if Tenten were at her best it would not have been such an easy victory.
As they stopped for lunch, Neji, before Gai could, asked Tenten about her mission, since it wasn't deemed classified and Gai knew about Tsunade already.
Eating a rice ball while removing the pickled plum, Tenten thought for a moment on how to answer.
"How much do you want to know?" She asked. She'd be more than a little embarrassed if she had to go into great detail, like the dance she and Naruto had in that one village. So she hoped she could avoid telling about EVERYTHING that had happened.
"When you came out here, you briefly mentioned that you ran into a Kunoichi of Orochimaru's." Neji said, trying to read her expression as he laid out his question, "Was it a difficult fight?"
Her rice ball consumed, Tenten opened a new tray of dango before answering her teammate. From the corner of her eye, she could see Lee looking serious with his little notebook out, ready to take down what she was about to say; which had her smiling.
"Well, at first, we weren't sure if she was the only one as she kept herself hidden and made her summons do her dirty work." Tenten continued, "We think that, because of her abilities, Orochimaru felt confident enough that she was all it would take to kill us; so there probably wasn't anybody else out there."
Lee raised his arm, like he was in class, "What were her Summons fighting abilities like?"
Tenten shrugged as she took out the skewer from her mouth, "Really simple. There were three and despite their size they moved like regular Shinobi do. Their weapons were maces and clubs but they had no other abilities."
"How long did it take to defeat them? Or did you two have to defeat her first?" Neji asked.
Tenten shook her head, "Naruto killed them while I was…" Here she stopped and looked away in bitterness. However, it was brief before she sighed and continued, "She had a flute that could control her Summons and to cast Genjutsu on her targets. Just the sound in a close area could have anyone fall under her Genjutsu spell."
Neji closed his eyes as he now understood what had shaken his teammate so much. Genjutsu, while a useful Shinobi ability, was diabolical when used on people in specific ways. The Hyuuga, then, carefully asked her, "Were they hard to break?"
Tenten looked to the ground, closed her eyes and nodded. "I taught Naruto the same trick I learned from one of my Dad's clients: carrying a senbon needle to release you from the Genjutsu. However, Tayuya's Genjutsu made it almost impossible to keep clear thinking."
Gai decided to save his youthful student from going into more detail than she was comfortable with by pushing the story forward.
"How did the two of you finally beat her? Was she still using long range tactics?" He asked.
Despite his best intentions, Tenten looked conflicted, possibly a bit nervous about retelling this part. Gai was about to open his mouth to tell her they could stop there, when Neji put his and on her shoulder and ask, "Do you want to continue?"
Tenten took some steady breaths and then wordlessly nodded.
Her teammates and her Sensei waited patiently and finally she told the most difficult part of their fight with Tayuya of the Sound Four.
"She had used a regular bunshin clone to drive me away so she could attack Naruto first. When I came back, I saw she had used some kind of jutsu to change her appearance and become stronger. Naruto was under such a heavy, powerful, Genjutsu that he couldn't resist Tayuya when she had a kunai against his throat." a tear slid down the bun-haired teen's face but she managed to continue, "I got there in time and I disarmed and wounded her before the two of us attacked one another." She sighed, "After I wounded her in the stomach, Naruto had finally came out of her Genjutsu and knocked her out."
"Where is she now?" Neji asked, surprised but having no issue with them not killing the Kunoichi.
"Probably being interrogated as we speak," Gai said, trying to save his kunoichi from having to talk about her enemy more. He then gave a smile, "You've had a hard journey, my youthful student. Be proud of your growth."
Neji gave a rare smile and nodded to Tenten as well. Lee gave a thumb's up and yelled an encouraging, "Yosh!"
Tenten, however, was looking down in with a pained expression. She said in a low voice, "Gai-Sensei, I still feel... scared. If I hadn't caught on to that copy and hadn't been fast enough... I might have lost someone special to me."
Her head then came up and she looked at her Sensei and team, with a burning resolution in her eyes, "Can you train me to make sure this doesn't happen again?"
Gai smiled and nodded affirmatively.
Shino Aburame was walking in a quick pace. For some strange reason, the kikaichu insects in his body, were behaving strangely. They felt agitated, anxious, and above all, imploring Shino to go to whatever has their attention. Shino, logical as he was, and that he was his partners' host, complied with their demand and followed their guidance all the way to the top of the Hokage Monument.
He paid no attention to the scenic view as he finally found what his kikaichu were so interested in, but as to WHY, he didn't have an answer. His Kikaichu had lead him here to find a wounded girl with short mint-green hair, tan skin, wearing white clothes. He noticed the Taki headband around her neck and knew he had to tell his father about this as he would be the only one awake at their home at this hour.
Sending off one of his insects to contact the head of the Aburame house, he looked at the girl who finally opened her eyes and spotted him.
Shino's muscles tensed, prepared for a fight, and then he watched as she reached out and touched his ankle, before she spoke.
"Beware of red clouds...red clouds are coming….." Her eyes then shut and she became unconscious.
To be Continued….
A/N II: This is another short chapter but it's helping me frame things for a much larger chapters going forward. As for Fu's introduction here, it has a purpose, so rest assure I'm not just bringing her in for the hell of it.
Anyway, thank you you all for reading. Till next time.
Q-n-P