A/N: This time we find Konoha desperately trying to play catch up to Oto's growing displays of hostility. I never thought that Konoha's spy network would be completely ineffective; it just seemed "too convenient" to me. Yeah, yeah, story plots, dramatic tension, etc. Any spymaster worth his salt should have been able to read the signs of pre-war time stockpiling and exaggerated troop movements. Perhaps Jiraiya shouldn't have spent as much time in the brothels, neh?
On with the show (and the Omake at the end).
~Siva'a-tasi
~III~
Chapter 18: A Pound of Flesh
~ Previously on No More
Without undo haste, Naruto crossed the Market District into the Red Light without diverting per his original intentions. He'd seen enough friends today and the rest were still in Wave cleaning up Team Seven's mess.
Waving to the ladies of The Cherry Blossom, Naruto pushed chakra into his legs and covered the distance from the street level to his entry hallway in a single leap. Tonight, he was beyond their reach.
Tomorrow he would assess his progress and begin true growth. He had a long way before he could stand up against his family's enemies. He'd need that in order to break away from his crummy existence.
Just before he stepped inside his apartment, something horrid passed over him making his body shudder. It wasn't anything he'd felt in Konoha before, so he had nothing to compare it against. It wasn't equal to the malevolent hatred the Kyuubi could generate but it was vile, and dark, and bitter.
When he turned in the direction of its source, it vanished like the wind.
~III~
~ The Morning After ~
Naruto's workout the following morning went flawlessly, once he dealt with the passed-out drunks in the hallway next to his apartment. The reinforcement seals he'd pirated from his mother's journal and etched onto every window and door of his residence meant that villagers (and shinobi) couldn't break in. Drunkfest participants (as Naruto referred to festival goers), robbed of their favorite sport for the first time in years, defaulted to petty (attempted) vandalism and graffiti. They were too drunk to try breaking down the adjacent walls and Naruto resolved to find a solution to the garish paint for next year.
This also meant he needed to take his fuuinjutsu education seriously after surviving this horrible holiday rendition.
Fortunately, drunkfests in Konoha also meant even fewer people out before the sun's rays the following morning. This meant that he had free run of the entire village, ANBU shadows notwithstanding. Standing deep in his "appropriated" slums district training ground, Naruto glanced across the chilly grass and smiled at the twenty-five pairs of clones working through both the academy basics and his unfinished Tetsuken forms. Today they would get a little help.
Leaping to the rooftops and across the still snoring village, he worked his way to Training Area Ten, the training spot for his team. His keen ears could pick up no sounds coming from Area Nine where the twin taijutsu monsters would normally be hard at work pulverizing training posts the repair squads would need to resuscitate later. They were good people and Gai offered to help him with one of the three styles he wanted to incorporate into the Tetsuken when he overheard Naruto was "developing his own path to youth," as he'd energetically referred to it.
Even though Gai knew nothing about either ancient art of Aikido or Pencak Silat, he was well-versed in the Plains Clan's use of Krav Maga. It was a brutal close-quarters taijutsu form perfectly suited to fighting multiple opponents in open areas with little cover. It provided both a solid standing and ground fighting capacity that melded nicely with what he believed Pencak Silat to be, the latter filling in both perceived weaknesses of his standup fighting style while adding a potent aerial takedown component nicely. It was a merciless and especially unforgiving combination making Naruto secretly wish the "Beautiful Beasts of Konoha" would return from whatever mission had whisked them away a week ago.
That was enough drooling. He had plenty to focus on in the meantime.
A single seal, a large wave of smoke, and a satisfying exhale preceded a wave of two hundred clones spreading out among Area Ten. Five pairs of twenty clones shot out to different sections of the training ground and began their appointed tasks starting with chakra control and moving through air, earth, water, and lightning elemental affinities. Naruto smiled at the last group knowing that they had the longest way to go given that he'd spent no time building up that element. The remaining hundred broke up into similar groups but instead focused on specific jutsu assigned to each elemental affinity.
He could feel Titus vibrating quietly on his forearm, the sea serpent pleased with the change in training.
Flashback no Jutsu – Birthday Night at Naruto's!
Naruto sat cross-legged on the floor, Opal (fully covered and sitting seiza this time) and Titus in both their human forms as they sat across from him. Both had been quiet up until he'd returned from his stroll and his clones were finally dispelled, the latter very interested in Naruto's training notebook on chakra management.
"You are going to need to choose which one of us to bond with when the clan finally accepts you as its summoner." The older sibling seemed calm and focused even as his little sister bristled, her face blushing a brilliant shade of pink.
"He's mine, Titus! We've already gone over this! His status as the U~ōkā makes that irrevocable!" She was clearly unhappy with his continued wheedling and was unwilling to concede her summoner despite the blood link to Naruto's deceased mother.
"We've agreed to nothing," his arrogant smirk moving over to his flustered kin. "Only one of us can bond with him and, as an acknowledged Uzumaki," the dark-haired male thrust a finger in Naruto's direction, "he is well within his right to follow in his mother's footsteps." Clearly the younger female did not approve of his badgering and her frown turned into a full-blown, fang-bearing grimace.
Naruto found her smile very similar to his own in addition to the feral cuteness it gave her human form. Too bad she didn't have the same whisker marks…
"Why can't I bond with both of you?" The innocent question from the blond human promptly sidetracked the whole argument as both summonses turned to stare at him in abject terror, Opal's hands shooting up to her mouth to stifle her gasp.
"Never joke like that, Naruto-sama." Naruto blinked at the new show of respect from the normally withdrawn male sea serpent. "The bonding process will refine your Uzumaki," a blatant coughing from his sister made him pause, "or Senju chakra awakening your latent bloodline traits." He reached up to set down Naruto's unfinished cup of tea on the floor where they could all look down into it, the light green liquid sloshing about gently as it settled in the bottom third of the container.
"I ask that you suspend disbelief and pretend that the tea in the bottom of this cup represents your Uzumaki chakra buried deep with the pools of your reserve. It is untouched as you've not learned how to tap into it and it has not reached full maturation because you've not yet bonded with your chosen summons." Naruto nodded once.
"This chakra, as it is today, is about one and a half times more dense than normal human chakra. This extra density makes it more potent meaning that you can either use less to achieve the same effects that normal shinobi can when they use their chakra." Naruto nodded again. "Or, you can use what we will call your usual amount with this chakra to increase the effects of your jutsu overpowering them and your opponents, once you learn how to tap into it."
This sounded very promising to the smiling Genin.
"Now pretend that the empty air in this cup, the clear space above the green liquid, represents your normal chakra and that this cup is full to the very brim. This chakra is identical to the same energy all of your classmates have in their chakra networks. It is light and flows through your chakra network like water and functions just like you've come to expect when using it in the course of your responsibilities." Naruto nodded again but something had been tickling the back of his mind.
"Just how much chakra do I have compared to my classmates? I've been told that I have a lot but not by how much." The Stormbringer paused for a moment to consider his response before rising up, going to the kitchen returning with a white bowl approximately three times the size of the tea cup. Naruto nodded appreciatively.
"That's not bad. If my classmates have this much chakra and I have this much, it makes sense that I would have such a hard time with the smaller jutsus. This much chakra overflowing in my network would be hard to control."
Opal shook her head and pointed to the tea cup.
"This represents your Hokage, Naruto-kun." The Genin turned ghostly pale while her brother set a teaspoon down on the saucer the tea cup rested on.
"This spoon represents your average classmate," the smirking male admitted with some relish.
The living room was extremely quiet for the next few minutes.
Flashback no Jutsu – Birthday Night at Naruto's, Kai!
Their conversation went into the early morning hours and addressed how they would help him awaken his clan chakra, but he'd need to pick one to be bonded with. Apparently, the process would strain his tenketsu, more specifically his larger chakra coils that regulated flow and back pressure, to the breaking point. Uzumaki before him tried to bond with both strains of summons with spectacular failures; an exploding chakra network meant a slow death for the shinobi as their body ruptured and bled to death. Since it would destroy his chakra network, not even the fabled Uzumaki bloodline would be able to save him as he bled from his skin and every conceivable orifice.
It was not a death Naruto Uzumaki wanted to consider. He would have to make up his mind and pick one eventually. He just didn't want to hurt either one but how did you choose between chakra chains and the mokuton? That was cruel and unusual punishment.
Then an idea popped into his head when he remembered Titus' comment about the purification process straining his chakra coils. Didn't he read something in Tsunade Senju's medical dissertation on shinobi health and maintaining a strong chakra network?
Shaking off the night's discussion, Naruto jumped off through the trees and out of the main gate with only a brief discussion to the ever-present gate guard duo just coming on watch for the day. Signing out to go train, he worked his way west from the village then southwest until he found a clearing large enough to do what he wanted to achieve. With another heavy sigh, Naruto pierced his left thumb then swiped the blood across his right palm. Five short hand seals later as he molded an obscene amount of chakra, Naruto slammed his palm down onto the dew-covered grass.
[Ninpou: Kuchiyose no Jutsu: The Iron Brothers!]
The runes spiraled out fifteen meters in all directions before exploding into a massive cloud of smoke. Puffing lightly at the sudden sensation of lightheadedness, Naruto glanced up to see the massive form of a purple-highlighted toad in the dim light of pre-dawn. He was amazed at the height and breadth of the massive summons, the heavy shield and body armor matching nicely with the spiked sasumata clutched in his massive hand.
"Greetings, Uzumaki-sama," the enormous summons croaked out.
It was as he was staring up at this massive battle toad, his back and neck craned so that his face was nearly pointed up into the night clouds above, that a deeper voice cleared a throat much closer to his earthbound location. His head snapped down to come face to stomach with a similarly-garbed battle toad that still towered over him even though this second one only reached the larger toad's kneecap.
Similar warty skin tone. Similar plated body armor and skullcap minus the shield and sasumata. Similar stocky build with bulging muscles underneath it all. What was different were the spiked gauntlets covering his fists and forearms as well as the alternating green and white face paint streaking out from the center of his face (done kabuki style) with red streaks in the middle of his chin and one at each temple. He was the one that cleared his throat.
"Wow. Bad-ass!" It came out before Naruto could stop it and he blushed briefly remembering too-late the Toad Sage's caution about respect.
The smaller toad blinked, smiled, then looked up to his larger brother. "That settles it, Ken-kun. Let him sign it." The toad's voice was like boulders rolling downhill. It was an ominous bass that vibrated Naruto's bones and made his body thrum.
"Very well, nii-san, though I am a bit ungraceful." Naruto blinked in shock. Apparently, the smaller toad was the older of the two. Not put out in the slightest, he stepped back as the larger toad set his shield down on the ground, the inside of it turned to face him.
Inside the cover near the lower edge where large welds joined the inner liner of the shield with its metal outer shell, there were spaces in between that held engraved names, all of the previous ones appearing to have been scratched out by some tool.
"Naruto-sama, please sign in blood using the hand you wish to summon us with." The blond Genin nodded before biting his right thumb and penning his name in the space. "Now, coat each finger tip and imprint them next to your name."
Once it was all said and done, the human watched in awe as his blood burst into flame. Following the fiery strokes of his digit, his name and fingerprints literally burned themselves into the golden metal as it all etched itself into the surface permanently. When it was finished, the metal ring pivoted one space clockwise with an audible clang.
"We were beginning to think you'd back out on us, Naruto-kun." The last Uzumaki turned to the smaller of the two and shook his head firmly.
"Never. Even if I can't be the next summoner of the Gama, Ero-sennin promised me that a small relationship with the toads had been arranged and that is a piece of my father back in my life. It's that important to me."
The larger toad's chest swelled with pride. All of the Gama were proud to be associated to Minato Namikaze. To have a chance to bond with the last Namikaze was a great honor that set them above the rest of the Gama, one they would not disgrace.
A heavy paw landed on his shoulder nearly folding the legs of the smaller human.
"I'm told that you want to learn how to fight toad style," the towering brawler croaked out. Naruto nodded and briefly explained his intentions for his personal fighting style, both toads nodding as they listened along. When he finished, they looked at each other and said together, "The Gamatetsu."
Naruto seemed perplexed. "Isn't that your name?" he asked, his knifed hand indicating the shorter of the two. Gamaken's rumbling laughter shook the earth.
"Naruto-sama, nii-san's fighting style is how he earned his name. Once you learn it, you'll understand why he is referred to as the Iron Battle Toad of Mount Myoboku."
They would spend the remainder of the training session doing light contact sparring so that his new Gama-sensei could evaluate where his skill level resided. Gamaken plopped down along the treeline and watched the two jockeying about with a warm smile on his face.
The brothers Gama had begun their journey.
~III~
A heated shower (with the ever helpful Naruko) and a hearty breakfast only served to increase Naruto's great mood. His combat training with Gamatetsu confirmed that his style would merge well with the toad's hardy juggernaut fighting katas. Starting Monday, the Brothers would be reverse summoning him to Mount Myoboku where his training equipment lay, and they would begin training his skin in what he was calling one of the Five Venom forms.
Naruto didn't even know that certain frogs and toads could be poisonous, and he promptly set a clone loose on the library to study up on it.
~ Future Fuuinjutsu Training Montage ~
Over breakfast, Naruto discovered plenty more to keep his clones busy as they delved into his growing Sealing library. With several books on calligraphy, medical and biological systems, and the Konoha Fuuinjutsu encyclopedia test set, he would have his clones read through them all in four separate sessions.
The first read was for general knowledge. The second would be to foster retention. The third was to generate understanding of the material and the fourth read was for familiarity and detailed comprehension. No actual sealing work was to be done in the small apartment as seals gone wrong tended to have catastrophic results.
Instead, all of them would turn to mastering calligraphy and improving his scrawling handwriting. Making sure to buy plenty of cheap ink from stores other than the A.S.C. (Abe-san wouldn't let him pay for anything and Naruto hated feeling like a leech), the clones would spend the rest of the following week correcting every flaw in his technique then hammering the process into his memory until it was all ingrained. Thousands upon thousands of pages found their way into the trash but, by the time he started meeting with his team again, Naruto's handwriting had gone from barely legible to near-textbook perfect print.
He was ready to get serious about studying fuuinjutsu and working his way through each tome on his own.
Each double-sized book followed a similar format. The first five-hundred pages were straight material covering the core subject of the tome. What followed came as a detailed glossary explaining each term and definition, followed in turn by whatever relevant appendices were needed to expound upon critical subject matter in enough detail to help work through the material of the book. A large practice section assigned to each chapter of the book came next and the final section was a thousand question test meant to be taken by the student.
Each tome referenced an official test he would need to request in order to become certified. He'd have to ask Hokage-jiji about that once he could bring himself to speak with him again. Discovering the A.S.C. still rankled him a bit, and the fact that the Hokage more than likely knew about it, but he would have to swallow his pride to get his certification.
As to the practice material, Naruto never allowed himself or his clones to write in the workbook or test sections, instead preferring to have clones copy the relevant material on blank sheets (more calligraphy practice) so that he could complete the necessary task, and have it graded. His clones were very intolerant concerning mistakes and anything less than a perfect score meant remedial work and retest.
They refused to cover the test questions until he was able to answer everything correctly, something that took months and months of dedicated study (eventually). It was a fortunate thing that he only had a few re-tests during the first few books of the series.
From the first week of November to the end of March, Naruto would work his way through each of the ten volumes in the Konoha series. Typically, his course study would take a few weeks followed by a day or two of remedial exercises and the exam. In tandem with his work, he continued to have clones reading both past and upcoming tomes to refresh the data in his mind building on his retention. April would begin the real challenge as he started digging into the seven tomes his mother left as his partial inheritance.
~ Future Fuuinjutsu Training Montage – Kai! ~
Working in his extracurricular studying with his normal team work and personal training, his Fuuinjutsu work eventually far outstripped his rapidly-improving Tetsuken development, even with Gai's help learning Krav Maga following the Nami incident. Their return in November did bring with it several pleasant additions outside of his martial training.
Naruto was able to pick up and enhance his matching gauntlet with seals similar to his left-handed one. Now with a complete set, he was ready to go "full battle toad" as he called it, minus the knobbed spikes on the gloves of his daily sparring partner.
Understanding what happened to Tenten, her return also seemed to come with a lighter heart. She'd been part of the final wave to clear out Gato's goons and the mission had done her a lot of good. Vindication, even if it didn't come with forgiveness (Inari and his mother wanted nothing to do with the entire wave of Konoha shinobi), was a healing balm all its own.
It also returned Hinata and her team meaning that his dark-haired friend returned no matter how strained she seemed to be around Ino. What was worse, this odd tinting of their friendship seemed to be mutual much to the blond boy's confusion. Didn't they like each other in the academy? Even less understandable was the damn fox's constant laughing every time he tried to figure out the dysfunction between the two girls.
~ Current Time: Monday Morning, Training Area Ten ~
"Welcome back, Team Ten." Asuma seemed rather rested and pleased with himself upon their return from authorized downtime. Naruto's head tilted to a jaunty angle as he considered the contented glow of his sensei, the lit cigarette notwithstanding. Shikamaru took pity on him.
"Kurenai-sensei agreed to go on a date with him once she returned from Nami." Even though Asuma's smug grin imploded, his good mood remained for the morning training session and the afternoon's D-ranks.
Time flew by all the same and restlessness began to settle into Team Ten with their thirtieth consecutive D-ranked mission in the bag. Figuring he tortured his team enough, Asuma figured it was time for a change. The Konoha Chunin Exams were still several months away but his Genin would need lots of preparation between now and then.
~III~
Jiraiya sighed in disgust even as he flopped down onto the worn couch hugging the wall in his sensei's office. "I don't see what the big deal is over this. It happened so long ago," he whined sounding like the petulant twelve-year-old he pretended to be most of the time. "Can't we just ignore it?"
Hiruzen was not amused.
"And that is precisely why this is a problem now." The older man was waving a rolled missive sealed in red wax bearing a flowered crest. "You never took any of your actions outside of your network seriously and now," he waggled the scroll angrily before slamming it down onto his desk, "your actions have come back to bite another shinobi of this village squarely in the…" the ancient man nearly swore which raised a few hidden ANBU eyebrows, "…pooper!"
Jiraiya whistled appreciatively. The old man must have been ticked to go to that extreme. Would he be half as pissed if it affected anyone other than Naruto? The self-proclaimed super pervert couldn't say for sure, but he was having a hard time getting worked up over skipping out on some promise to a horny kunoichi from that flyspeck village over two decades ago. She hadn't even cared about a duel until after they'd finished those three bottles of plum sake and stumbled out of bed the next morning with massive hangovers and no clothes.
His face tinged a rosy hue at the memory of her overdeveloped curves. The kunoichi from there were nicely heeled so Naruto would end up with a real beauty on his hands if she was anything like Marika. He remembered the brown-haired amazon fondly despite the drama.
"Am I supposed to feel horrible about my past?" Jiraiya's honest confusion nearly made the Sandaime Hokage explode with rage. The insensitive man clearly felt no empathy.
"Feel bad? Apparently, that is beyond you, which is why you will be there to personally watch your 'godson's' fall from grace." Jiraiya's face blanched to a sickly green color. "You will take responsibility for this, Jiraiya, one way or another. If you're going to sacrifice him to pay your debt, then you will be there witness it first-hand."
Jiraiya's grumbling followed him up from the couch and out of the office window, once again to the nearest bar.
A certain cat-faced ANBU was writhing in her hiding spot counting the minutes until she could flee and find her best female friend. Anko was not going to enjoy this work story. If that woman didn't get off her ass, she was going to lose him forever.
~III~
"Why are we doing this again?" Pregnant pause. "Over." Naruto sighed as no response returned over the headset.
"Sigh. Chicken Little, this is Dirt Dauber… Kami this is stupid… Why are we doing this again? Over." He tried to ignore Ino's incessant giggling in the background.
"Dirt Dauber, this is Chicken Little, focus on the mission and we'll get it over with quickly, Over." Naruto groaned, released his resistance seals, then dashed down a very familiar-looking alley. The brown cat with the bright red ribbon meowled in terror as a multi-colored streak scooped her up and deposited it into a waiting cat carrier before there was even time to claw the Genin bloody. Throwing the headset into a jacket pocket, Naruto leaned forward into his blinking team leader's face and growled out his mission report.
"This is Dirt Dauber, mission accomplished, over." The angry blond sauntered off to the Hokage's Tower not even looking back at his other still giggling teammate.
Hands thrust firmly in his pockets with a hard set and uncompromising jaw, Naruto sauntered with the single-minded purpose of closing out this mission as quickly as possible before drowning his sorrows in a steaming bowl or twelve of Ichiraku's. His disgruntlement was disturbed by the rhythmic patter of Ino's sandals on stone and the corresponding meowing of a cat being gently bounced in a pet carrier. He found the sound humorous but tried his best not to smile at the mental image of the angry / terrified feline growling angrily while its body bounced with each of Ino's hurried steps.
He failed.
Ino's still giggling persona caught up a moment later. "Wait up, Dirt-." He whirled on her with a finger pointed in her direction forcing her to pause while he glared menacingly at her.
"Don't you start with me to." Ino smiled and nodded her head as she quick-paced herself to walk side-by-side.
"I have a proposition for you."
Now Naruto realized that Ino was a beautiful young girl and she was most likely going to be absolutely stunning when she fully matured. Despite trying to keep his distance from Konohans in general after their stint in Istoria, he found himself gradually being sucked into Ino's and Hinata's orbits no matter how prickly he tried to be. The ANBU trials didn't help as he found himself glancing at her from the corner of his eyes wondering how her recovery was going. That said, the opening from that statement was too good to pass up.
"Why Ino, I never figured you for that kind of girl, but I'd be honored - once we're both old enough." The girl's gaping mouth and scarlet cheeks, followed promptly by a half-hearted slap to his bicep, suggested his glib comment struck home.
Ino was a scrapper, however, and didn't want to be outdone in the flirting department.
"Maybe after the Chunin Exams next summer we can talk but, for now, I want to talk strictly training and what we could do for each other."
Naruto actually blinked as her comment registered. Once his mind rebooted and scrubbed away the image of a mostly naked Ino laying on his chest in a dark inn deep in Istoria, he blinked away his daze (while wiping away the slight nosebleed) and turned to his shadowing teammate noticing her satisfied smirk.
"I'd like to help you with your sensor training in exchange for more help with my taijutsu. I don't want to lag in the combat department, and I want to be able to defend myself if we ever get split up." He nodded appreciatively at her decision. "I refuse to be the damsel in distress anymore."
Naruto looked at her seriously and, without skipping a beat, responded with, "Tomorrow morning, my place, zero-five-hundred."
At first, she balked. It took all of two seconds before her sharp mind made a quick decision and her mouth closed with an audible click.
"Five it is handsome." Naruto's brow furled in confusion long after Ino's smiling face peeked into the carrier to check on their bounty, her soft voice making pleasant cooing sounds to pacify the still disgruntled feline. Trying not to notice how the light played off Ino's shiny coat of platinum blond hair, he turned back to the approaching Hokage Tower and started sorting out a starter training program for the scrappy female.
Shikamaru observed their interaction before groaning out his tenth "Troublesome" of the day. Asuma could only chuckle as the four made their way to the mission hall where a frantic Madame Shijimi awaited the return of her "pumpkin."
~ III ~
"Well done, Team Asuma." The three Genin standing at attention blinked in surprise. "Your team has more than met the minimum mission requirements to be considered a 'seasoned shinobi team' and, as such, have earned the right to bear your sensei's name." Ino seemed pleased but the other two varied between lazy indifference and blatant apathy. Hiruzen was at a loss for words matching Iruka's muted concern.
Deciding to move on, Hiruzen held up another scroll from the C-rank section of scrolls. "I believe this one best suits your team's infiltration and information gathering skills. Good luck, Team Asuma."
They bowed, Naruto a bit stiffly, before turning to file out of the mission room. Iruka sighed heavily at the tense aloofness in his former student.
"I know, Iruka-kun. Perhaps his heart will soften once the pain of betrayal has dimmed with time." The ancient leader of Konoha turned to greet the next group of Genin arriving for their round of chores, er, important D-rank missions.
Outside the tower, Asuma broke open the string seal and glanced through the assignment with a puzzled look on his face. His three Genin, once standing off a respectful distance, began to crowd around him so they could find the source of his puzzlement.
"Looks like we'll be traveling plus-one on this one," Asuma whispered almost painfully.
"Wow! Jiraiya of the Sannin is going with us?" Ino sounded impressed despite Asuma's growing sense of dread. The Toad Sage still held a healthy grudge against their sensei and with good reason. Asuma learned from his father that he'd nearly killed the Sannin's adopted godson, the most terrifying secret he'd ever heard.
"You all have the rest of the week to prepare for this. I suggest you all read up as much as you can about Nadeshiko Village before we go. This is billed as a diplomatic support mission for the Toad Sage who will be trying to win them to our alliance, meaning we all need to be on our best behavior." His eyes took in all three Genin.
"Pack for three weeks and be prepared to meet the Sage at our eastern gate next Monday at zero-six. Do not be late." He vanished in the usual puff of obnoxious grey smoke leaving his students to swat the offending cloud away.
"Troublesome," erupted from Shikamaru even as he shuffled off to speak with his father. Naruto's strength was not going to help them here and he needed a fresh opinion.
~ III ~
The Rusty Kunai was not a high-brow club or brothel. Life's seedier shadow embraced the entire establishment, it's swarthy shinobi clientele adding to the dismal atmosphere and sticky table tops. More often than not, its members embraced the shadows choosing to drink silent toasts to their fallen comrades and loved ones. When sounds other than clinking saucers or cups intruded, it was usually accompanied by doleful show tunes and semi-sober chorusing. The Rusty Kunai was a living shrine to the departed, a place of painful memories. The happy had no place there hence the fact that the raging kunoichi looking to murder the snow-capped pervert was in the perfect backdrop for the act.
Seated at the bar and well-lost in his cups, Jiraiya did not feel the hateful emotions directed his way nor the see the fist that sent him sprawling to the disgusting floor of the The Kunai. Rubbing his jaw with one hand, he glanced up bleary-eyed into the scowling visage of Anko Mitarashi, her fist still clenched and bruised from greeting his rather rugged jaw.
Behind her stood another lovely kunoichi of flowing purple tresses bracketed by the ebony mane of a crimson-eyed beauty that stole his breath. Yugao and Kurenai looked to be equally disturbed by whatever egregious act he'd recently committed so he opted to soothe the savage female beast with witty charm.
"If you wanted a reason to kiss me, there's no need to bruise my handsome face first. We can skip straight to the appetizer if you like." It was delivered with the same roguish charm he'd used to beguile many a fierce female before, so it came as a huge surprise when the angry purplette roared, drew a kunai in each hand, then tried to lunge his way. Whether her target was either his heart or his groin, he could not tell.
If not for the two (still) arguably angry women behind her grabbing her around the waist and torso, he might have died on that floor, his blood mingling with the spilled sake and other congealing liquids. His charming smile fell as he saw the tears falling from her eyes and her roaring hatred petered out into growling sighs and grunts as she heaved against the restraining arms of her friends.
With a sigh, he rose from the floor and tried to brush off the new stains to his attire with calloused palms. Deliberately taking the time to stand fully erect and meet her glare with heated indifference, he grabbed his bottle and a fresh cup turning to wander off into the bar for a different perch but not before turning to impart one final jab.
"Why are you so angry with me? You are the one that gave up any claim to his heart. If you want to be angry, find a mirror." And with that, the rumpled Sannin turned his back on the lunging woman to seek a darkened corner of solitude.
A very miserable Anko Mitarashi dropped her kunai in defeat and sought the nearest bottle of sake to drown her own misery in.
~III~
Fed, showered, and snuggled into bed, Naruto closed his eyes and waited for sleep to claim him. He was looking forward to his visit tonight.
When he stood and stretched in the soothing purple cavern that resembled the Umihebi grotto, Naruto took one casual stroll to make sure it was large enough to accommodate a fully-grown member of the species. With several mental pushes, he forced the wall out another thirty meters and then duplicated another perch to host her brother.
Despite their warning, he was determined to finish his solution before the Chunin Exams.
"I haven't seen you in a while, maggot." Naruto ignored the jab at his expense. There was a lot going on at the moment but he'd make up the lack of attention soon enough.
"I have a gift for you tonight, Kyuubi." The bijuu raised an eyebrow now that its interest was peaked. The cushion was an enormous boon when it came to comfort, one that almost raised his status from complete abhoration to mostly-disliked. To the Kyuubi, this was monumental progress for any meat-sack. Sucking up at this point would garner him little extra prestige but the All-Powerful Kyuubi would indulge the "Jailer" just this once.
Slapping his palms together into a Ram seal, Naruto's eyes closed tightly as his brow began to furrow and sweat. At first, nothing appeared to happen and the Kyuubi's snort began to turn into a hearty chuckle at the perceived failure. Then the entire cavern began to vibrate and tremble as tons of earth began to shift and move about just beyond the now worried bijuu's sight.
The ground behind the chakra construct's cherished bed pillow fell away before sloping upwards, the tunneling earth exploding outward as a mouth opened up to reveal a clear evening sky and enormous trees. It was nighttime beyond what appeared to be a cave with another set of hardened bars identical to the ones keeping the Kyuubi from his keeper. The great fox was stunned even as it carefully tread to the opening just small enough to allow the bijuu egress into the night sounds of the forest just a careful dash away.
Large slitted eyes closed in heavenly bliss as wind, what felt like actual cool air currents, rushed in and across the Kyuubi's whiskers and fur. It could smell rich, fertile earth and moisture. It was hypnotic, the sensation was heavenly and the great bijuu's body shuddered at the sensation long forgotten. Nevermind how it was possible, the great creature's heart throbbed with the ache of freedom just beyond its reach.
That pleasant sensation turned to bitter rage as it turned from the barred opening and growled at the smiling human.
"Why would you torment me like this? Why show me freedom only to take it from me?!" The growl surging from the enormous fox's chest made every bone in Naruto's avatar tremble.
"My gift is beyond those bars, Kyuubi-san." A pair of enormous crimson orbs grew larger trying to grasp the advantage the devious human might seek in such a gesture, its ancient mind finding little to glean.
"This makes no sense! You would set me free?" The blond human shook his head from side to side.
"I cannot do that, Kyuubi-san and you know it. Too much rides on me being able to keep you from destroying Konoha and our lives both depend on me keeping you tethered to the seal until it's our time to go, unless I find a way to set you free without killing us both."
Kurama rocked back onto his haunches in shock. 'He knows.'
"What I can do is allow you to roam beyond this cage. It's not real, per se, but it's as real as I can make it. If you're interested in making a deal with me, that is." The great bijuu's head tilted sideways very much like a normal fox.
"What do you want, maggot?" Naruto grinned feeling he had the hook inserted for the first time.
"A partner, for now. I'm willing to earn your friendship over time." Kurama scoffed thinking nothing with humans was that simple. "You're the only being that can't leave me and we've been stuck together from the beginning. You've helped me, whether you wanted to or not, and I see no reason not to help you in what little ways that I can." He motioned to the barred exit. "This is one of the ways that I can help you."
The towering fox swung its muzzle around to take in the very active night of Naruto's mindscape, its great eyes closing as a gentle breeze of clean forest air wafted past its face. He could hear owls and other nocturnal animals, its mouth watering at the sounds and smells of any fox's favorite prey hopping about in mindless contentment.
"Of course you'll need to be tethered to the seal. I haven't found a way to prevent that yet." Kyuubi's great head nodded once.
"But I'm willing to give you freedom to roam and stretch your legs. Perhaps you'll be able to indulge in some forgotten habits?" It wasn't really a question but the great bijuu's chest was pounding. If only the measly human understood how significant his offering was to someone deprived of total freedom for over ten human decades.
It was like nirvana served on a platter of fresh venison.
"And your demands?" Kurama hadn't even turned from the tempting portal just beyond reach.
"Only one: Civility towards the Umihebi. At least one of them will be visiting or perhaps residing here from time to time and I don't want you molesting them in any way." Naruto swept one arm to the stone basins and water pools he'd created earlier.
Kurama considered the request and tried to hide a smile. The boy was more like his parents than he realized, their overly-caring natures placing the comfort of others before themselves. Perhaps this one could be trusted. Perhaps-.
'No! One step at a time.'
"I accept your terms. Bind me however you need to." The great bijuu didn't want to sound desperate but freedom, no matter how limited, was too tempting a fruit to pass up.
Naruto made the same hand sign and three things happened. A collar of black silk lined with golden seals on all sides appeared around the fox's neck, which elicited a disgusted clucking of teeth from the large being. Then the large bars blocking the exit withdrew into the earthen floor. Finally, the fox took several tentative steps up the short incline until its head broached the entryway and caught a full muzzle of the crisp night air, its steps pausing just long enough to revel in the full breeze.
With a howl that shook the heavens, the great Kyuubi no Youko churned the rich soil as it raced off into trees large enough to make it seem like a normal-sized fox.
~III~
When her alarm went off at four-thirty in the morning, Ino assumed the world was ending. No sane person in their right mind ever rolled out of bed that early. With an angry scowl to her heart-shaped face, the bedraggled blond fumbled with the squawking box until she'd hit enough buttons to silence its angry howl.
Tumbling back under the warmth of her blankets, her mind wandered back to the golden skin tone of her blond teammate and a lazy smile spread across her face.
It was as she pictured his rugged, smiling, kissable lips that something clicked in the back of her head and one eye shot open. Flipping her head around, the clock now read four-thirty-four and she winced in agony. She'd almost forgot. She volunteered for this.
Throwing off the warm shield of her covers, the bleary-eyed blond staggered to her small bathroom, brushed her teeth, then ran a brush over her hair long enough to tame it into a ponytail. The rest became a blur as she threw off her pajamas, shrugged on enough workout clothes to be decent (noting the growing spillage from her sports bra), then grabbed her prepared workout duffle as she stumbled down the stairs.
A quick kiss to the cheek of her chuckling father as he sipped his morning tea and she was out the door. By the time she crossed the village and jogged up to the street outside of Naruto's crappy apartment, she was wide awake and he was standing outside glancing down at his equally rundown watch.
Her wincing smile did little to alleviate the raised eyebrow of disappointment.
"G'morning, Ino." She chuckled weakly and responded as a clone popped into existence and offered to take her bag upstairs.
"Workout rule #1: For every minute you're late, we add another lap to the warmup." He turned and started walking further south into the slums. Glancing at her watch Ino noted it was three after five. Hopefully whatever training field they were running around wasn't going to be too big.
She was cursing his name by the time they finished her second lap around the village and resolved never to be late again.
Ino picked up a few more training rules before the morning was done, such as, "Never stop until you can't go anymore," and her personal favorite of, "Never leave a set unfinished (even if you have to rest for a few minutes to do every rep)."
"One-ninety-eight… one-ninety-nine… two hundred!" The exhausted kunoichi fell backwards onto the grass, her hands clasped behind her head and her knees clamped together and bent while he held her feet firmly to the ground. For some reason, she imagined her abdomen sore for different reasons when she finally got a chance to get hot and sweaty with Naruto. Her abs were convulsing in a very unpleasant manner and oxygen was at a premium for the moment.
Naruto leaned forward to gently pat her tummy, an action that brought extra heat to her already flushed face. She was quite happy that the steam rising from her body hid her shock.
"Soon this will be a mild warm up and you'll be knocking out twice the amount." He gently tapped the side of her thighs and offered a hand up. "We'll do this exercise twice this week and then, once we get back from Nadeshiko, we'll up it to three times a week."
Ino swayed and had to grip his shoulder until the world stopped spinning. Naruto's face wrinkled in concern.
"Let's get you cooled down and some water in you. Once you're steady again, you can jump in my shower and get cleaned up."
She nodded weakly and leaned on his shoulder for the walk back to his place, her exhausted mind enjoying the warmth of his skin against her face. It was while she was clinging to his shirt that she noticed he wasn't soaked with sweat like she was, and it perturbed her. In helping her correct her neglected physical training, Naruto had held back.
"How (pant)… is it that (puff)… you're not even tired?" That was the extent of her speaking powers at the moment.
Naruto simply held up the back of his left hand so she could see the glowing seal on it. "I'm not tired because my normal workout is three times yours and I use resistance seals. They're better than weight seals, or even gravity seals. They force every part of your body to work instead of the parts made to oppose gravitational vectors pulling you downward."
She blinked away the idea of Naruto using complicated terms like "gravitational vectors."
What followed was a short description on the three types of seals and how they worked. By the time he'd finished, both were seated at his small table while the clone from earlier served up heaping helpings of breakfast. Fluffy eggs, oats, bacon, toast, milk, water, and orange juice covered the table in platters and carafes.
~*I*~
Anko watched the two teenagers trek upstairs to Naruto's apartment. She smiled briefly glad to see that their growing relationship was moving forward. He deserved a little happiness in his life before-."
Her face twisted up into an angry grimace. Jiriaya and the Hokage were planning to throw him another pile of shit and she couldn't have that. He had a right to know what he was going in to. He had a right to have a choice in whom he loved, well, as much as he could anyway. Deep inside she realized how hypocritical her words were, but this was beyond acceptable. This was heinous and unforgivable. Digging deep into her conviction, she made up her mind and gathered her courage.
Anko stepped from the shadows across the street and started moving towards the lower courtyard of Naruto's apartment building only to stutter-step to a stop.
Appearing out of thin air was Jiraiya of the Densetsu no Sannin, the Great Toad Sage. "Shit," she mumbled under her breath.
"That's as far as you go, Anko. Don't make me hurt you."
"Let me by, Jiraiya. The boy deserves to know the truth." The massive shoulders of the Sannin heaved once casually.
"He deserves to follow the orders of his Hokage. That's all the honor a shinobi ever needs." She scoffed loudly.
"No matter how much it benefits your sorry ass?" Anko was getting angry again like she was in the bar the other day.
"No matter what befalls the whole situation."
"You self-righteous bastard!" The insult didn't appear to faze him. Jiraiya had been called worse before after all.
~*I*~
It was a veritable feast for the starving girl, and she dug in wholeheartedly. Pretty amazing how working yourself to death made everything taste fantastic.
"So, Naruto," she began with a tentative grin, "what's a girl got to do in order to get her own set of resistance seals?" Her blond teammate blinked then blushed before standing and peeling off his shirt, something that dropped her jaw as she ogled every etched line of his brick-hard torso. Naruto pointed to another diamond shaped seal exactly in the middle of his chest.
"There are five seals needed to make a complete set. You've seen the ones on my hands and feet, right?" She nodded trying to hide her nosebleed. "The first four are tied to tenketsu but the fifth seal, the regulator," he pushed chakra into the seal on his chest and one of the glowing strings of characters winked out becoming dark ink, "is tied to a major chakra coil, one of the eight gates to be exact. It links all five and regulates your chakra to increase the resistance on every tenketsu in your body. Without it, all you have are gravitational seals that affect you unevenly."
~*I*~
"Last chance, out of the way." Anko was beyond common courtesy at this point. She'd given up on respecting the ancient relic of the Third Shinobi War once he chose his own life of comfort over the life of his godson. As far as she was concerned, he'd burned what few bridges of civility the kunoichi had left.
"Not gonna happen, girlie. This goes beyond you and me and comes from the top. He's going. He's fighting. It's final." Anko snarled in contempt.
"If you were half the man you run around the elemental nations claiming to be, you would have settled this debt with Nadeshiko years, hell, decades ago! Pushing your debt off on Naruto and calling it some 'honorable promise between warriors' is just bullshit and you know it!"
He couldn't argue that fact, but it was too late to do anything about it now. He'd heard that Marika was dying, some rare blood disease among the Nadeshiko. She might have a few years left but that was it. Besides, she was too old to have kids now and that was the only reason for the stringent challenge rules: procreation.
He'd stalled hoping time and fate would lend a hand and some sick bastard-in-the-sky kami had delivered. No sense crying over it now.
"Konoha needs the alliance with Nadeshiko Village. Nadeshiko Village needs a strong heir to continue their line of succession. It's a sweet deal and Naruto gets a woman that will be devoted to him until his lights dim for the last time."
"But she won't love him!" the angry Snake Mistress roared out. The Toad Sage merely shrugged as if none of that mattered.
"What do you care? Didn't you say, 'he wasn't good enough for you' anyway?" The air quotes didn't lessen the emotional slap that made the purplette flinch. "Don't tell me you forgot that part because he didn't."
"Everyone keeps reminding me of that!" Jiraiya's eyebrow rose in amusement. "I'm planning to make it up to him! Soon!"
"Sorry, Snake Hime, but it looks like you're out of time." She charged blindly then, rage and bitterness having taken over. As the kunai sailed past the leaning Sannin's head, he stepped forward to sling an arm across her chest to catch the kunoichi in a modified clothesline. As he pushed backwards with his arm, almost casually, the world tumbled into a roiling, retch-inducing whirl of chakra.
~*I*~
Ino's face flushed as she considered what was required. The spot on his chest, the Harm Gate, he'd called it, on her body would be nestled deep in her cleavage which meant she'd be mostly exposed to him. Could she be that bold?
"I understand something like that might be too much to ask of a casual friend so why don't we just-."
"I'll do it!" Her outburst stopped him cold.
"Ino?" He wanted to be absolutely sure and not get pounded, or worse arrested, for giving her the seal she was asking for.
"I said…" she paused to take a deep breath, "I'll do it." She stood up to stare him squarely in the eyes. "What do you need me to do to get ready?" Her hands were clenched into tight fists.
~*I*~
When the world stopped spinning, Jiraiya flung the still growling woman away from him. He'd been aiming for somewhere, anywhere really, on the far side of the village, the Hokage Monument looming over his left shoulder and the northwestern wall of the village towered behind his growling opponent.
"I've said this before, but it needs retelling. You had your-" His words got cut off as the Sannin's meaty palm shot up to catch her fist, his body unmoving.
"Save it, perv. You've got nothing I want to hear anyway." Jiraiya pulled on the fist in his right hand sending her arm high as he ducked his shoulder slamming it into her chest. The inner perv in him chuckled at the blunted impact of her chest against his shoulder, smirking idly to himself as the now furious young lady flickered away to deliver a strong kick to the middle of his back sending the already off-kilter Sannin rolling forward.
Glancing up once he'd stabilized his body, Jiraiya's eyes narrowed at the falling shadow above his head having no time to enjoy the view of Anko's falling heel drop. It seemed like she was using her revealing clothing and firm body to distract him. The problem was that it was working.
He leapt away just before the ground cratered, dust flying into the air and obscuring his view. It was a good thing that the old Hattori compound was largely abandoned, the few remaining clansmen and women moving to a smaller mid-rise complex in the market district where they continued the family's millennia-old sword-making tradition.
"[Katon: Ryūka no Jutsu!]" rang out from inside the settling cloud of dust and grit.
'Damnit! Forget she was a flame wielder!' Not believing he had the time to fly through the handseals for his next jutsu, the toad sage churned a huge amount of chakra into water, puffed up his cheeks, and exhaled for all he was worth. '[Suiton: Suishouha!]'
His mouth formed a large "O" as a solid stream of water shot out, spread out to a meter in width, then met the streaking dragon of pure fire barreling towards him. The resultant steam blanketed the entire area forcing the combatants to step back from the bursting heat.
Jiraiya immediately flashed a tiger seal and vanished from view. [Meisaigakure no Jutsu!]
When the steam dissipated, Anko's eyes narrowed at the sudden lack of a towering, white-haired shinobi. Nipping her thumb, she flashed through five hand seals and hissed out her summon's name, an enormous dark blue viper appearing in a rush of smoke coiled around Anko's body.
Anko giggled. "Hey, Aki. It's good to see you too hun, but we need to hunt sweetie." The snake perked up, its tongue already tasting the air. "We're hunting toad sage today and I'm very hungry."
The snake affectionately nuzzling the deadly kunoichi told the Sannin all he needed to know. This pile of scales would defend its mistress violently and a big brawl wasn't something he could afford right now. The small horned ridges by the tip of its nose also meant big trouble; he wouldn't be able to hide from its keen senses. Jiraiya started flipping through an impressive number of hand seals as he prepared two of his favorites.
The eight-meter snake uncoiled with its head close to the ground as is slowly slithered forward in search of its prey.
~*I*~
"Um, I need clean dry skin to apply the ink and I'll need access to your hands, feet and-." His head nodded in the direction of her chest.
"Okay then." She walked over to pick up her duffle then headed down the hall to his shower. The clone that served breakfast merely clapped him on the shoulder before gathering up the empty plates and scattered mess.
With a deep breath, Naruto started to prepare for the process laying out a heavy blanket on the floor to make her comfortable and setting his sealing vials and brushes out on the table next to where he'd be working. As an afterthought, he turned up the now working heat in his apartment enough to make it warm for a normal person, well, someone not born with the Kyuubi inside them since the fox kept him flush with body heat.
~*I*~
Jiraiya sped from the nearest cluster of small trees, his right palm slamming down onto the dry earth sending out an undulating ripple in waves. As the ground heaved and bowed, it began to melt into sludge and muck sucking and pulling at the large snake's body as it dragged the summons beneath the surface.
"Aki-chan!" Anko's panicked response bordered on the extreme. [Katon: Ketatamashi Makai!]
Puffing out her chest and nearly losing the cover of her trench in the process, Anko exhaled until a rod of fire burst from her mouth taking the form of a flaming spear. Grabbing onto the object before it could fall to the earth, she lunged forward one huge step heaving the burning javelin with all her might. Unable to move for fear of releasing the drowning viper, the spear (traveling at inhuman speeds) took the Sannin directly in the chest knocking him up off his feet as his body burst into a cloud of smoke.
A panting Anko blinked in shock even as she released her summons back to its home realm, the creature now partially trapped and submerged far enough to show only its nostrils. She'd gone through a good deal of chakra with those last two jutsus and she was beginning to feel the drain.
She caught just enough of a blur to bring her arms in to block the hard kick directed at her ribs from her rear guard, the blow bruising her chakra enforced arms and sending her into the nearest treeline.
Jiraiya charged in after her so she kept moving changing her free-tumbling flight into tactical evasion.
[Hebi Ninpou: Sen'ei Jashu!] Even as she loosed the summons, Anko leaped upwards and away from her pursuer. From the corner of her eye, she witnessed her dark green constrictors entangle the stronger nin's ankles, legs, arms and upper body.
Not bothering to make sure the Sannin was paralyzed and bound, she dashed off to the Slums to deliver her warning.
~*I*~
Kneeling on the floor Naruto felt himself ready to conduct the procedure. He was not, however, ready for Ino when she emerged from the bathroom.
She'd re-wrapped her lower body and donned her usual purple skirt and spandex shorts. Around her tiny waist she wore her forehead protector like a belt and her long hair draped her shoulders down to her lower back. Only a towel, pressed modestly to her chest, barred the rest of her figure from his eyes.
The two locked eyes and stared until Naruto's gulp caught her attention and she broke eye contact. In a heated blush, Naruto motioned to the blanket and asked her to make herself comfortable. While she was doing that, he fled into the bedroom to retrieve a pillow for her neck and head.
Once Ino was on the blanket and situated, Naruto gently took her feet and placed them flat on the floor so that he could see the tops.
"It's very important that you hold still Ino. Sealing can be dangerous if the seals themselves aren't perfect." She nodded her understanding then fought for the next ten minutes not to giggle and twitch while he marked up her feet. Her sounds changed noticeably once he started blowing gently on the seals to help them dry, but he pretended not to notice.
"Okay, stay like that until I can charge the entire seal matrix." He then took one hand at a time and laid them out to the side of her body and completed the next step, her lips parting slightly once he started blowing on the backs of her hands.
"Last chance, Ino. Once I move the towel there's no turning back." Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes heavily lidded, but the young lady pushed on with a firm nod. Naruto asked for her forgiveness then straddled her midsection, his body held up above her own by his legs as his hands gently lifted the towel to lower it to her stomach. He tried not to let his eyes linger on her body despite the sharp intake of air from his teammate.
~*I*~
Anko landed on the third-floor walkway between apartments in a huff believing she'd finally given the perverted bastard the slip. With heavy steps, she bolted for her goal, apartment three-oh-two only to slide to an abrupt stop as a six-foot orange toad with blue highlights landed in front of her. She cursed despite herself.
Summoning a snake would escalate things to a deadly conflict and, even if Naruto and his teammate were the only innocents around, she couldn't risk it. Snakes and toads were mortal enemies.
Anko's tension eased slightly remembering that Naruto usually left a window open on the backside if his apartment. Turning to flank her warty nemesis, she abruptly came face-to-face with the Gama Sannin and his very strong arm lock, both of their hands clamped onto the shoulders of their opponent.
"You are not ruining this," the angry sage snarled.
A weary Anko Mitarashi could only snarl back.
~*I*~
Pink, erect, and perky. Naruto focused instead on the creamy expanse of skin in the direct center of her chest and placed two fingers where the soft mounds began to distort the soft epidermal layer with their generous curves. He didn't have the ability to accurately guess her measurements, but they were easily the size of his hands and well-rounded. Instead he leaned in with his brush and chakra ink once he located her rapidly-pulsing coil.
Despite Ino's best efforts, he had to pause often to allow for the rapid rise and fall of her bare chest so that the characters of the seal weren't distorted and harmful to her. Once the last character was in place, and he was sure that it was perfect, he gently blew on the ink and tried not to choke on his spit when her face blossomed a deep cherry red, her lips parted, and her sweet moan hit his ears.
He glanced up long enough to see her lower lips pinched by her teeth before returning to her goose-bump riddled skin. Setting the jar and brush aside, he lifted his left hand into a half ram sign, pushed chakra into the two fingers of his right hand as he pressed them directly beneath the seal, then whispered, "Fuuin!"
The array glowed, his chakra racing through her network to link them all. Ino, not prepared for the tingling sensation arcing across her entire body, arched her back thrusting her chest up into his face with a grunt. Once the seal took effect, Naruto lifted his hand from her chest and looked up into Ino's face to make sure she was okay, the girl's eyes opening to lock with his as her heart hammered in her ears.
"All done?" she hissed out.
Unsure how she'd react, Naruto nodded quietly then reached down to lift the towel freezing as her hands clamped to either side of his head pulling his face back up to look into her own.
"Good!" Her body surged up off the floor as she smashed her lips against his frantically, almost desperately as her mouth began to work at his lips first individually then simultaneously.
Naruto's entire world froze as he melted into her embrace.
~III~
"Another denial from Konoha?" The hooded figure seated on the street-side bench didn't seem surprised in the slightest. At least she wasn't until the much taller woman wearing a skin-tight battle garment common among Nadeshiko kunoichi grunted her disbelief.
"No, My Lady. It would appear that Konoha has finally answered our challenge."
The slim figure sitting peacefully lifted her head from the peacefully eating pigeons to meet her attendant's incredulous stare with disbelief of her own. Tossing out the remaining crumbs in her outstretched hand, Lady Shizuka, heiress apparent to the Nadeshiko empire, held out her hand to take the offered missive.
Intelligent green eyes scanned the document once then twice, her mind capturing each and every stroke of the kanji heralding from the Land of Fire. It would indeed seem as if she'd get her chance to unleash pain upon the student of the man that broke her mentor's heart. He would pay for his patron's crimes.
At least Marika would be able to watch as she did so and gain some measure of honor back from the old coward. It would seem that he'd be joining the delegation.
As she rose from the bench to retrace her steps home, Shizuka couldn't help but think that sometimes patience was a virtue.
~III~
[Jutsu Used In This Chapter]
[C-Rank] Katon: Ryūka no Jutsu(Fire Release: Dragon Fire Technique): The user spits flames from their mouth that, like a dragon's, quickly travel forward in a straight direction. Upon contact with a target, the affected area is engulfed in flames. Whereas the Great Fireball Technique will burn everything in the vicinity, the Dragon Fire Technique is more narrowly focused at its initial target, likened to a projectile. When first used by Sasuke Uchiha, he uses wire strings to guide the Dragon Fire Technique to his target's face. The anime later shows it burning through a line of enemies, with the flames moving from one enemy to the next. Despite these two cases, the Dragon Fire Technique seemingly does not require a medium through which to be transmitted.
[B-Rank] Hebi Ninpou: Sen'ei Jashu (Hidden Shadow Snake Hands): This technique allows the user to summon snakes, usually from under the sleeve, but from other parts of their body as well, as seen when Orochimaru summoned a snake from his mouth. The snakes allow the user to attack from a fair distance, and can be used to restrict the target, or bite them with their venomous fangs. The snakes can also open their mouths to extend Kusanagi-like blades.
[A-Rank] Katon: Ketatamashi Makai (Fire Release: Piercing Hell Strike): By using both hands instead of just one, the user can turn a Katon: Housenka no Jutsu into a thin compressed spear of heat and flame. The user then grabs the spear from his mouth and hurdles it towards the opponent, hopefully impaling it through their body. Even if it misses, this spear will cause the opponent to lose their breath because of the heat and may cause 2nd degree burns and dehydration. This will also evaporate any water it comes within 2 feet of.
[A-Rank] Ninpou: Meisaigakure no Jutsu (Hiding with Camouflage Technique): The user controls the reflection of light around their body using chakra, causing their form, shadow, and even breathing to become invisible to the unaided eye. Because they perfectly blend in with their surroundings, the user can sneak up behind an enemy without being noticed. Only dōjutsu like the Sharingan or Byakugan can see through it.
Because only the user's appearance is camouflaged, they can still be discovered through scent or the sounds they make.
~III~
Omake: The Scales of Justice
Iruka stood nervously to the side of his Hokage, his arms wrapped protectively around the brace of files clutched to his chest. These were important and to lose them now, especially after ignoring the suffering of a student under his care would only compound the professional black eye of an otherwise impeccable teaching career.
The Hokage had trusted him to be impartial, to be unbiased, so that he could perhaps turn around the ongoing tragedy that was the jinchuuriki's academic profile. He trusted him to be fair-minded enough to give the boy a chance.
His trust had been clearly misplaced.
As the few remaining Council members sauntered in to take their seats, some still jubilant from a week-long celebration (longer than normal) of the recent graduating class, Iruka grimaced at their gross displays of self-congratulation. Many of them openly bragged about finally putting the demon brat in his place. Several more were planning lavish feasts this week to continue the celebration. Truly it was a time of gluttony and hubris.
It made him sick to his stomach knowing that he was unwittingly complacent in their scheme, his breakfast from an hour before trying for the third time to fight its way up as his revulsion peaked again.
As the last seat claimed its representative, each one standing patiently behind their chair awaiting the Fire Shadow's arrival, Iruka panned the crowd to see who might intercede on his behalf to help the boy. Several of the civilians were chatting amongst themselves but he ignored them outright; the vast majority of them reveled in the boy's suffering, many of their subordinates referenced directly in the two separate bundles of papers he now clutched to his chest. His one grey area came in the sometimes-confusing attitude of Mebuki Haruno, his eyes flickering to her age-lined face. She alone in her vaguely-neutral stance towards Naruto, however, did not absolve the others of their involvement. Their stink presided over ever incident of abuse at the hands of someone either directly in or affected by their circle of influence and he hoped to make them pay for it.
With that ringing conviction, he turned his attention to the shinobi side of the Council.
Tsume-san might stand by Naruto as she never openly lashed out at him, her clan losing only a few members in the early fight against the Kyuubi. He was fairly certain that the Ino-Shika-Cho trio would weigh in if asked, especially since Inoichi had aggressively defended the boy on more than one occasion staving off Danzo's attempts to annex the child under his care.
That thought sent a shudder down his spine as his gaze passed over the mummified shinobi. The warhawk's placid stare never flickered, never flinched. It was… unnatural.
Iruka never knew how to read the Aburame or Hyuuga Clan heads. Both seemed closed off entirely to him, almost like unemotional zombies. At least he knew the Hyuuga were motivated by political leverage so, in the event that either the Uzumaki or Namikaze Clans were to make a comeback, he felt certain the weighty Hyuuga might lean in if only to gain favor with the newest clan of note.
His musings faded as the Hokage stepped into the room sending a comforting nod his way. It wasn't every day that your Hokage asked you to make enemies of nearly every civilian clan in the village.
As the most powerful shinobi in the village took a seat, the political dignitaries of Konoha settled into their respective spots and dug in for what they assumed would be an average night of backstabbing and position grubbing. As the room stilled, Iruka took several deep breaths and tried to picture them all in their underwear.
The only one remotely appealing turned out to be Tsume Inuzuka. The rest simply made him shudder.
"As many of you are aware," the Sandaime began, "our most recent graduating class has been turned loose on the shinobi population of Konoha." Many of the Council, even those with grown children seemed overly ecstatic.
"Unfortunately, some questionable behavior has come to light within our academic body and, as the headmaster of the shinobi educational program I am ultimately responsible for whatever happens there. That does not mean that I will be taking full and sole responsibility for it, however.
"Here to enlighten the Council on what we've discovered is our senior instructor, Iruka Umino." The scarred teacher stepped forward and began handing out annotated sheets with notes in red.
"Once he's finished with his presentation, I will be explaining exactly what will be happening next."
The dark tone in the Hokage's voice made several of the sitting Council members shift uncomfortably just as wave after wave of killing intent from the shinobi side of the Council began to zero in on several specific members of the Civilian Administrative Committee for Internal Affairs.
"It has come to the attention of administration that certain procedures and evaluations have been compromised and altered to present false paper trails. It has also come to the attention of cognizant authority that numerous shinobi-in-training have been irreparably harmed through neglect and miss-training, thereby jeopardizing their ability to function cognitively in the field. In front of you are three years' worth of documentation citing specific and numerous examples of these misdeeds and the supporting interviews with T&I corroborating the involvement of external parties guilty in high-level treason against this village, the shinobi responsible for its safety, and the Hokage." Many were now squirming uncomfortably in their seats as the Chunin prepared to continue.
"Now, I'd like to turn your attention to Appendix C, the Konoha Shinobi Code and the penalty for…"
By the end of the meeting, all of the clan heads would be aware of just how much shorting Naruto's education affected their own children meaning more than a few seats on the Council would open up for election on short notice.
~III~
A/N: In the early stages of the Chunin Exam Arc, we find Konoha looking to shore itself up with allies. Will it be enough and what price is Konoha willing to pay to gain these allies?
Ino, towel once again firmly in place, taps the writer's shoulder and hands him and angrily-buzzing phone.
Excuse me, it appears I need to take a phone call from a rather annoyed agent. See you next time!