Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. The original content though (Character, locations, and jutsu), those are mine.
When Tayuya woke up, she expected to find herself back in one of Orochimaru's labs, being prepped for another outlandish operation. To a certain extent, she even hoped that was where she was. It had been a part of her life for so long now that it had become a comfort of sorts. To lose one of the only constants that had been prevalent throughout most of her life was something Tayuya simply didn't want to cope with.
But she knew she wasn't that lucky.
The warmth of a nearby fire was all she needed to feel to know she wasn't home. The comfort of the blankets wrapped snug around her, and even the soft pillows that her head was resting on. All things that opposed the harsh nature of her home, of her life in general. To Tayuya, the harshness was an anchor. The rock that helped her keep a hold of herself, to build herself upon. Much as a blade needed to be constantly sharpened, she too needed to be reminded of the reality of things; a task easily achieved with pain or suffering.
But now, as she experienced the comfort brought by the kindness of a relative stranger, Tayuya couldn't help but feel lost. And she didn't just mean that in an emotional sense either. Having opened her eyes and observed her surroundings, she could say without a doubt that she was physically lost as well. The mountains, the large eerie expanse of water that she was at the edge of, even the oversized forest on the other side of her; nothing was familiar, with even the trees and plant life being unrecognisable.
The only thing she did recognise, albeit with a notable degree of frustration, was Naruto, casually sitting off to the side of the makeshift campsite. Tayuya immediately regretted waking up upon seeing him, and for a moment, even considered pretending to be asleep for a while longer, if only to avoid him for as long as possible. Unfortunately, she knew he wasn't stupid. Naruto himself had mentioned having been labelled S-rank, and even if it were only a recent occurrence, that still went a long way in the shinobi world.
To put it bluntly, in Tayuya's own words, being S-ranked was like announcing to the world that you were a seriously dangerous fuck with very few limitations. To achieve the rank was to do something outlandish, something so over the top that most hardy shinobi pissed themselves, in either astonishment or fear. The question now was just what kind of S-rank shinobi Naruto was. As it was, he was under the assumption that he now owned her, and depending on what kind of person he was, tayuya's situation could be either really bad, or slightly manipulable.
"You can go back to sleep if you want to. We're not in a hurry anymore" he said offhandedly, giving no physical inclination to knowing she was awake.
Tayuya grumbled tiredly and sat up. "That's not very comforting to say, asshole," she muttered. "And would you mind telling me just where the hell we are? I'm getting sick of waking up in strange places."
Naruto smiled. It was good to see that the girl hadn't lost her attitude. With everything that had happened to her recently, Naruto was rather impressed with how well she was holding up. Still, he knew it was temporary. Even shinobi with the strongest of fortitudes were capable of breaking at some point. It was only a matter of time before Tayuya finally snapped. But thankfully, it wasn't now, which gave him time to deal with a few issues without much interruption.
"We are in the Gurētonyūto Valley. Sacred home of the salamander summons, and luckily for us, a safe place to stay out of the spotlight for a while," he explained.
"Great Newt Valley?" the girl said questioningly, looking around once again at the strange world around her. To be fair, it definitely looked like a place for a summons to live, if the stories of the sage lands were anything to go by. Didn't mean that she believed him completely though. After all, the only man to hold the salamander-summoning contract was Hanzō, and that guy was a legendary shinobi of monumental proportions.
"Yes. And before you think of going exploring, I'd advise against leaving the campsite," Naruto said casually. "I have only ensured the safety of this area for the moment, and the locals won't hesitate to eat you if you wander off."
Tayuya sneered. "I'm calling bullshit on this one. There is no way in hell that we're in the home of the salamanders. Even if you had a contract with them, there's no way you'd bring someone like me here. So how about just telling me the truth."
"Okay then, if that's how you feel, why not take a guess as to where we actually are?"
She snorted. "Well, all things considered, I'd say that we were in the sage lands of the toads," she said smugly.
Naruto gawked at her slightly. "Huh. And why would that be your guess?"
"Uh, simple really. You're the son of the Yondaime, aren't you? He summoned toads, so did his teacher, Jiraiya of the Sannin, so it only makes sense that you'd hold the contract," she explained in a matter of fact tone.
Naruto looked at the girl in mild shock, his surprise clearly evident. "Okay then, miss smarty-pants, where are the toads? If we are in fact in the land of the toads, then shouldn't there be toads all around?"
Tayuya paused. "Uh… maybe you're keeping me in a secluded spot. You know… making sure that I can't harm any of your precious summons."
"If you could harm any of the toads of Mount Myōboku in your condition, then they would have a lot of explaining to do," Naruto drawled. "But, to your credit, you are quite perceptive. Assuming that I have the toad contract based on rather stretched evidence is… cool, I suppose. I wouldn't say it's impressive, but you're smarter than I had thought you were. Strangely enough, you aren't actually wrong either. I do, in fact, possess a contract with the toad summons. Still doesn't mean that we're at Mount Myōboku though."
"Hmm, I guess that makes a bit of sense," she muttered, narrowing her eyes at him. "But your explanation there only brings up more questions. Like why you're even bothering to tell me all of this stuff in the first place. Aren't you afraid I'll leak information?"
"Eh, I'm not really worried about any of that anymore. The more people learn, the more reasons they'll have to avoid me. Those that try to hunt me down probably won't match me anyway, so I don't have much reason for concern," he said offhandedly. "Besides, it'd be more likely that the hidden villages would want to capture me once they learn of my lineage, my little ransom at Konoha, and the fact that I hold two summoning contracts. If they are trying to capture me, then I have the obvious advantage of them not being able to kill me, or cripple me too extremely. It generally leaves them all at my mercy to kill as I please."
Tayuya stared at him suspiciously, searching for any signs that he was either joking about killing or simply lying. Far too often had she come across soft-cock shinobi, unwilling to bend their saint-like beliefs for the greater good. Considering his caring of her, Tayuya had assumed as such of Naruto, but so far, he was showing himself to be redeemable. His outright killing of his target was a good sign, and while at the time it had been a little inconvenient, it was an aspect of him that she could respect. Even now, as she observed him keenly, he showed literally no signs of lying. He was completely prepared to kill everyone that came after him, and with such a casual regard for it too.
For a brief moment, it almost made Tayuya think that there was hope of them getting along… to the same extent as there was hope of the Shinigami giving up a soul from its hoard, or of Kami herself having a drunken make out session with her.
Terribly unlikely.
"Well, cockiness aside, you seem like a cool enough guy. So, why don't you just let me go and I won't have to spend the rest of my existence making your life as miserable as possible." she said in a sickeningly sweet tone.
Naruto smiled at her warmly. "That's a really sweet offer, and normally, I'd take the deal. But I'm going to say no on this occasion. Sorry."
Tayuya snarled. "Why the fuck not!" she yelled. "What the fuck did you even buy me for? And don't you dare say anything about sex, because I swear I'll rip your dick off before you managed anything."
"Why does everyone always jump to that conclusion?" Naruto mumbled to himself. "Do I really come off as someone that would buy a girl for that purpose?"
"A little bit, yeah."
"Ugh, that's annoying. I'll have to do something about that later," he muttered. "But to answer your question, I did technically buy you for the purpose of company. Gets a bit boring travelling around by myself all the time. You seem entertaining enough."
"Still sounds like you want to fuck me."
Naruto scrunched up his face in a sour expression. "As cute as you may be, I'm not that kind of guy."
Tayuya blushed angrily. "Don't call me cute you asshole! No one gets to call me cute!" she yelled.
"Aww, but you get even cuter when you're mad. You turn red and match your hair," he teased.
"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Stop saying that or else!"
"Or else what? You'll keep yelling at me?" Naruto asked. "I'm pretty sure I could cope with that."
Tayuya snarled and turned away with a growl. She wasn't sure what she was angrier at, his teasing, or her own forgetfulness of not having anything to actually threaten him with. It was humiliating at this point to be so completely outmatched and not even be in a fight. To simply know that any and every outcome of a struggle on her part would end in her defeat made her stomach sink. Even if she got away, she was in one of the hidden lands of a summons. It was usually impossible to find such places, let alone find a way out of them.
"How long was I asleep for this time?" she asked, taking note of the absence of pain throughout her body.
He shrugged. "A few hours at least. I'm not too good at keeping track of time unless it's in days."
"Why aren't I in pain anymore? A few hours isn't long enough for me to have healed completely?"
Naruto grinned sheepishly and scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, about that…" he said nervously. "I might have accidentally poisoned you with one of the most potent neurotoxins in existence."
Tayuya's eye twitched violently.
"Don't worry though, you won't die," he assured her. "I brought us here so I could give you the antidote. Only place that you can get it in large quantities… so long as you have the contract with the salamanders that is. Still, you took a lot of the stuff in, so side effects are expected. You probably won't feel much of anything for a while yet, and it wouldn't surprise me if you lost some degree of muscle control."
"The fuck do you mean probably?" the redhead yelled. "Shouldn't you know everything about this shit? What made you think that fucking me up with poison was a good idea in the first place?"
Naruto pouted childishly. "It's not like I did it on purpose. Jeez, I save your life and this is the thanks I get."
"Don't take that kind of fucking attitude with me, you dumbass! You aren't the one who got poisoned!"
"Hey, I breathed in just as much poison as you so don't get on a high horse about that. Luckily for me, this isn't the first time I've been poisoned by a salamander, making the whole healing process much easier to deal with. Actually, what you're dealing with right now is mild in comparison to a real dose of the poison. Of course, it's still nothing compared to what you've already been through."
"The fuck is that supposed to mean? What would you know about what I've been through?"
"Well, I did get the Hokage to perform a full medical check while we were in Konoha. It hasn't really surprised me how good you are at ignoring pain considering all the operations you must have had performed on you."
"Eh, I was mostly doped up pretty well for those. Orochimaru was cruel, but he wasn't an idiot. What's the point in making a better shinobi if they're too busy screaming in pain to be used properly?" she said offhandedly. "He didn't like to waste supplies either, so yeah, if you really want to know for sure, I am pretty good at ignoring pain. You, however, are proving to one major pain in my ass that I'm struggling to do so with."
Naruto laughed. "I'm like that apparently," he said. "My sensei almost killed me a couple of times for it. Said I was too annoying to let live. Something about preserving whatever peace his mind was holding onto."
Tayuya deadpanned at him. "Uh-huh. That really doesn't surprise me at this point. Too bad he didn't go through with it."
"Well, I'm sure he would have, but a jinchuuriki is a hard thing to replace on short notice, especially for the Kyuubi." he replied.
The girl's eyes widened ever so slightly. "So that's what they did with it? Always wondered how the Yondaime Hokage managed to beat it, you know, considering how dramatic and over the top all the stories about it are. You'd think it would have simply flattened the village and walked off before anyone could stop pissing their pants."
"Aren't you supposed to be a little more, I don't know… shocked?" Naruto asked. "Normally people are distancing themselves from me by now."
"Yeah, wow, you're a jinchuuriki. Big deal. Get over yourself. There are a lot of special snowflakes out there that are scarier than you. I mean, how bad can the Bijuu even be if they all got beaten and captured by one guy," she drawled.
Naruto gawked at her. "I've never thought about it that way."
Tayuya rolled her eyes. "That crap aside, how long are we going to be stuck here?"
"Well, it'd be a bad idea to travel too far until the poison is all out of your system. Given how well you seem now, I'd guess at least another day or so, maybe less."
"Great," she grumbled. "Then I at least hope there is somewhere safe to bathe myself."
Naruto pursed his lips. "That depends on your idea of what safe is. Most of this place is toxic. The lake, the streams, a lot of the air, most everything is laced with poison. Now that you've had the antidote, you should be fine for at least a week. You'd have to drink a lot of pure poison to counter the effects. But you could still lose enough muscle control to make swimming difficult, especially with only one arm."
"So… it's a no go on the bath?"
"Unless you're okay with me keeping an eye on you."
Tayuya glared at him. "I think I'll just wait," she droned. "But so long as I'm awake, why don't you explain to me exactly what your plan is from here? You said you bought me from Orochimaru, so I assume that I'm going to play some sort of a part in things."
Naruto smiled. "Very astute of you. But to be completely honest, I haven't planned very far ahead. You are currently acting as a real fluke to things. I was originally heading for Sunagakure, so I'll probably just continue with that."
"Ugh, fucking Suna. Why are you heading towards a desert shithole?" she asked.
"No real reason," he said. "I've just been travelling around for a short time and that's one place I haven't been to yet. Wouldn't mind meeting up with whoever the next Kazekage is supposed to be. Making good connections early is always a good idea."
"Yeah, well, you have fun with that. Drop me off somewhere on your way so I can continue actually living."
"Not a fan of the heat?"
"Not a fan of getting my head cut off," Tayuya said. "Even if you weren't there, it's pretty common knowledge that Orochimaru killed the last Kazekage and masqueraded as him to kill the old Hokage. As soon as the people of Suna recognised me, I'd be killed. They'd most likely torture me for information first too, so yeah, count me out on that little adventure. I have come close enough to death enough times to do me for the next year."
"Well, if that's your only reason, then you shouldn't worry too much. I'm confident that I can stop them from touching you, or at least killing you outright. Worst comes to worst, I can just reverse summon both of us back here."
Tayuya sighed. "You really suck at this, you know that."
"Huh?"
"You bought me, you moron. You aren't supposed to listen to my complaining as if it matters. I belong to you. Just make me do what you want and stop trying to change things for my benefit. It's actually starting to creep me out a little."
Naruto shrugged. "Never owned someone before. Sorry, but I'm mostly clueless on how it's supposed to work. Not that I really care. I only bought you because stealing from Orochimaru would be a bad idea."
Tayuya smirked slyly. "Oh? So you were going to steal me?" she asked. "Sounds like the plot of one of those sappy love stories. The gorgeous femme-fatale stolen from her harsh masters clutches by the," she glanced at Naruto, "Questionably dense guy that mutilated her earlier on in the story."
Naruto groaned. "I said I was sorry."
"I don't care! I'm still not over it!"
"I can see that. Still, referring to yourself as the femme-fatale of the story is suspicious. Aren't they the ones that are supposed to trick the protagonist into dangerous situations?" he asked curiously.
"Eh, more or less," she replied, levelling a harsh stare at him. "And it's the gorgeous femme-fatale. Don't get it wrong again."
Naruto hummed thoughtfully. "Again, you're cute, but you still need to grow up a little before you can get called gorgeous."
"I'm sixteen dammit!"
He stared at her in surprise. "You look like your fourteen."
Tayuya seethed. "That's not my fault! And the jokes on you, you creep. Now it looks like you just went and purchased a child for your sick fantasies."
"I told you I'm not that kind of guy!" Naruto exclaimed.
"Try explaining that to everyone else. All I have to do is cry out for help and accuse you of doing all kinds of disgusting unthinkable things to me. Who do you think they're going to believe? You or the scared little girl with a missing arm?" she said, a smug look on her face as she watched Naruto's own morph into an expression of confusion and horror. "Now, unless you want to end up classified as a paedophile, I suggest you start doing exactly as I say, starting with cooking me something to eat."
Naruto continued to stare at her in stunned silence for a few seconds before giving her a goofy grin. "Yep, you're definitely going to be fun to keep around," he said with a laugh.
Tayuya hung her head. "Whatever. It was worth a try," she said quietly. "Well then, since it seems you intend on actually keeping me, now would be a good time to tell me what you expect of me. If sex isn't what you're after, then what exactly is it you have for me to do? A one armed, poisoned, and arguably half-dead teenage girl isn't what I would call a good labourer."
"Be good company. Keep things amusing. Simple things really," Naruto said casually. "You're doing a good job so far, so I can't imagine it'll be hard."
"Hang on… you're actually gunna keep me around just so you can talk to someone? I thought you were joking about that," she said. "Wait! No! Fuck no! I'm not going to spend who the hell knows how long just following your stupid ass around for amusement. I'm a fucking kunoichi and I deserve to be treated as one. You bought me as a kunoichi, so you are going to use me as one."
Naruto gave her a questioning look. "You do know what being a real kunoichi entails, right?"
She smirked. "It entails death, sex, sacrifice, and a few inhumane things that most shinobi claim to be above. A kunoichi does whatever she needs to do to get the mission done, no matter the moral or emotional conflict. It's all the pansy fuckers in those stupidly peaceful villages that are ruining it. They all forget that being 'too good' or 'above' such things is leaving the dirty work undone. You don't have to worry about me being squeamish towards anything. I'll do whatever I have to."
"That's useful, I suppose. But I doubt I'll need you to do anything excessive," he replied.
Tayuya pouted. "You are going to be one piss poor master. At least Orochimaru let me kill people."
Naruto shook his head. "I never said I wouldn't let you kill people. Hell, that could actually make my life a little easier so long as you're good at it. I just don't expect you to do anything that could be otherwise avoided."
"Eh, whatever. Still going to be boring," she said, taking a moment to actually look around at her surroundings again, an unsure expression on her face.
"You're wondering how I have the salamander summoning contract, aren't you?" Naruto asked.
Tayuya glared at him. "Don't do that," she said. "But yes, I am curious. As far as anyone knows, only Hanzō of Amegakure had the contract."
Naruto smiled. "Yep. He was really protective of it too. Nearly killed me when I tried to take it the first time. Of course, it wasn't until after I survived the ass kicking that he agreed to train me. Although I'm still pretty sure he only did that because he needed a punching bag and I'm very hard to kill."
"Oh, it just gets better and better with you doesn't it? First, you were just the son of a Kage, then you're also an S-rank shinobi, and now you're telling me you were trained by Hanzō of the fucking salamander. One of the most powerful pseudo-Kage to ever live."
"You make it sound so impressive. A lot of people have been trained by exceedingly powerful shinobi. It's not that uncommon. It doesn't necessarily mean that I'm anywhere near his level."
Tayuya ignored that comment. "So what? He just let you sign the contract and you became his apprentice?"
Naruto's smile fell. "Not exactly. Student or not, Hanzō wasn't willing to let anyone get their hands on the salamander contract. He deemed it too dangerous if the wrong people got a hold of it."
"Then how the fuck do you have it?!" Tayuya demanded, getting rightfully annoyed at his avoidance of the answer.
"I waited until he died, and I stole it from his grave."
Tayuya grunted. "Boring," she said. "You could have at least added some kind of epic battle to the story. Now you just come off as a weak thief."
Naruto gave her a fake smile. A habit he had never been able to completely shake off from his childhood in Konoha. He remained silent, letting Tayuya ramble on about the art of dramatizing stories for the sake of entertainment. He could have told her more about what happened on that day, the memory of it having yet to fade in the slightest. It hadn't even been a year since Hanzō's final battle, if it could be called that. To anyone who had witnessed it, it was anything but. It was the complete and utter slaughter of a single man at the hands of someone claiming to be a god.
It took some time before Tayuya finally got tired enough to go back to sleep, voicing her insistence on not being woken up until they were able to leave. Naruto was glad to finally have some peace and quiet to think about things. Not to say he wasn't enjoying having someone to talk to about mundane things; it would simply take some getting used to after so long of wandering around by himself.
The first real subject of thought was his intentions with Suna. Tayuya had made a good point when she said the village populace would want her head, and Naruto didn't doubt that it would happen. He was confident that he could keep her from being killed, if necessary. The problem came with how he would do so without becoming a criminal in the eyes of the village. That left killing anyone who tried to kill Tayuya as a bad idea, unfortunately. There were other ways though. More complicated, but less violent methods of solidifying the girl's safety. It was just unlucky for Naruto that those particular methods involved the one thing he hated most of all…
…politics.
A big room full of old people with stuck up attitudes, outdated ideals, questionable morals, and pockets that were never full enough. Above all else, Naruto despised the political systems of the shinobi villages. It wasn't even because he had struggled to understand so much of it for so many years of his life. No, it was simply because he was sick of watching what were once symbols of peace and prosperity, great communities striving towards bringing everyone together, decay into nothing more than massive training facilities for armies and well-trained mercenaries.
Well, actually, that was how Hanzō would put it. Naruto hadn't lived long enough to truly understand how drastically the villages had changed over the years, but he knew that Hanzō had a point. It made him wonder just how naïve Hashirama Senju was in creating Konoha and almost single handedly bringing about the shinobi world as everyone now knew it. Did the acclaimed 'god of shinobi' not take everything into consideration when he gathered together as many trained killers as he could to form a village?
After all the wars, as well as the distribution of the Bijuu, Naruto was inclined to guess the answer to be no. A decent attempt on Hashirama's part though.
Sighing quietly, Naruto checked to make sure that Tayuya was actually asleep before calmly going through some hand seals. He bit his thumb and placed his hand on the ground before being enveloped in a cloud of smoke. The smoke cleared quickly to reveal the change of his surroundings, now being a large room occupied by only himself and two old looking toads. Fukasaku and Shima, the heads of the toad summons, neither of which looked overly calm.
"You two have some serious explaining to do," Naruto said irritably, crossing his arms.
"Now, now, Naruto. There's no need to take a tone with us. We only did what we thought was…" Shima tried to say
"Don't even bother, Shima," interrupted Fukasaku. "We don't need to explain our actions to you, boy. Our contract with you is subject to stipulations, one of which being that we are not required to follow your orders."
Naruto ignored the toads. "I made a simple request. Don't tell Jiraiya where I was going. Even Gamabunta thought that was a good idea. The old toad sage even thought it was a good idea. So what the hell were you two thinking in telling him where I was going. Not only that, but you even told him I had a girl with me!" he said angrily, glaring at them. "Explain. Now!"
"Naruto, you know that Jiraiya only wants what's best for you," Shima said. "If you would only allow him to teach you…"
"I won't allow him to teach me anything! I've made it by perfectly fine without his help. I didn't need it before, and I don't need it now."
"We were entrusted with the key to your seal, boy. Only Jiraiya is capable of using it properly to maintain the Kyuubi. As such, it is our duty to keep him informed of your whereabouts in case you lose yourself to the Bijuu," Fukasaku said. "The safety of thousands is a greater priority than keeping you happy."
"I already have the stupid fox under control. If there was any way he could get out, he would have already done so by now. And for the record, I can just as easily use the key myself. You just won't let me have it because you're so desperate for there to be something that I might need Jiraiya for."
"The great toad sage's prophesies must come to fruition if we hope for the world to know peace. All of the prophesies point to you being the one he spoke of, but only if you learn under Jiraiya's tutelage. A student with the power to save or destroy the world," Shima said.
Naruto stared down at them questioningly. "That prophesy also states that it is Jiraiya's actions that will determine the path that student takes. Did none of you consider that it is this course of action you're taking right now that would push me on to the path to destroy everything?"
The toads remained awkwardly silent.
"Exactly. Do a little thinking before you actively start pissing off the kid who holds the power to destroy the world," Naruto said. "Now would be a good time to stop keeping Jiraiya informed. If he tracks me down through information you provided him, I will be coming back here to tie up loose ends. That's the only warning you're going to get."
Naruto didn't wait for the toads to reply before reverse summoning himself back to Gurētonyūto valley, leaving Shima and Fukasaku to dwell on the warning he had given them.
"What are we going to do about him now?" Shima asked.
Fukasaku frowned. "Nothing, for now. We can't risk provoking his wrath just yet. With the salamanders on his side, we wouldn't stand much of a chance and we aren't yet sure of his ability to control the Kyuubi," he sighed. "We have no other choice but to leave Jiraiya to his own devices for a while. Hopefully he can find Naruto on his own and put the boy on the right path."
"But what about what Naruto said? What if this is the wrong thing for Jiraiya to do? He wants to teach the boy how to properly harness the Bijuu within him. Forcing him to do so could be exactly what pushes him onto the wrong path."
"That is just a risk we are going to have to take. Whether he wants it or not, the power of the Kyuubi is the only way to assure that he is strong enough to overcome any tasks that lay ahead, regardless of the path he ends up taking."
The next day found Tayuya strangely calmer than usual. The morning rituals went by quickly, the boring and mundane routine actually helping her feel a bit more at ease with things. However, her reason for being calm wasn't due to the casualness of the morning, nor was it due to her physical sluggishness, no doubt a side effect of the poison. No, it was more due to her own curiosity.
For whatever reason, Naruto had been oddly quiet the whole morning. If she was reading things properly, then Tayuya was safe in assuming that something had pissed him off. In the back of her mind, she really hoped that her antics up until now weren't the cause of his anger. The last thing she needed was for him to beat the shit out of her, or kill her. As such, Tayuya remained quiet herself. Staying as calm as she could while continuing to observe the boy from what she deemed a safe distance.
As the morning dragged on, during which time they had yet to leave the land of the salamanders, Tayuya noted the gradual decrease in Naruto's irritation. It was somewhat slow, but soon enough he was back to his usual self. His relaxed and cool composure returning, serving to unnerve the girl more than his anger ever could. Compared to Orochimaru's cocky-calmness, Naruto's was far more deceiving. He was simply relaxed. It was almost as if the world could fall into chaos and he still wouldn't care.
The only time he broke away from his calmness, was when he would glance at her curiously. She couldn't tell exactly what he was thinking, and she was somewhat sure that he thought she wasn't noticing him do it. The best she could come up with was that he was thinking about what he was going to do with her. As it was, Tayuya knew she was mostly useless now. Even her talent in Genjutsu would take way too long to get back up to speed without her ability to play a flute. It would be a waste of time, and the money he spent for her, for Naruto to fuss around trying to train her. That really only left a handful of options since she still wasn't at all convinced by his saying he only wanted company.
He could sell her; possibly make some money back depending on whom he sold her to. Slavers wouldn't pay too much due to her missing arm, but a village might dish out a good sum for information on Orochimaru. He could also whore her out and make sure that he got some kind of profit from her, not that she would let herself live long enough for that to happen. Then he could actually be serious about the whole company thing, which Tayuya was starting to see as a fate worse than death. The backup plan for all of this was to get killed by someone in Suna before the worst happened. Until then though, Tayuya was content with seeing how things played out.
"You know, some would consider it rude to stare like that," Naruto said.
Tayuya rolled her eyes. "And some would say it's creepy to keep glancing at a girl the way you have been. So how about you fess up and tell me what's gotten your panties in a twist?"
Naruto pouted. "I don't wear panties, Tayuya."
"I don't care. Now fess up," she retorted. "I am not going to deal with you having these stupid little temper tantrums and be left in the dark about it."
"It wasn't even a temper tantrum," he said. "I was just a bit annoyed, that's all. Turns out that the guy trying to hunt me down was getting information from the toads."
The girl narrowed her eyes. "How the hell would someone be able to get information from the toad summons?" she froze, "Oh fuck no! You're getting hunted down by Jiraiya of the fucking Sannin! What the hell! I just escaped one and now I'm going to get killed by another one… right next to your sorry ass no doubt. Aaagh! Less than two fucking weeks and you completely fuck everything up for me!"
Naruto looked at her in surprise. "Has anyone ever told you that you are good at piecing things together?"
"Shut up! I'm having an end of life crisis right now!"
"You're not going to die. Hell, Jiraiya probably won't be able to find me for quite some time yet. Tsunade probably still has him stuck in Konoha doing something. Most likely replicating my explosive seals. Not quite sure how I feel about that, but I can't really complain," he said with a shrug. "Anyway, we need to get going. The salamanders don't like people staying around for long periods of time like this. Makes them all edgy and paranoid."
"Yeah, that's a great idea. Let's go to Suna and get killed. Bloody fantastic plan."
"You aren't going to die. Stop being so pessimistic."
"No! I'm not trusting you with my life. You've done a terrible job with it so far."
"You're still alive."
"By luck, if that! I'm sure the only reason I'm still half functional is because of the efforts of Tsunade."
"Well, sure, you could look at it like that. But I still carried you there, and I looked after you while you were recovering."
"More like looked after yourself, you perv. Feeling me up while I was unconscious."
"Oh god, not back to this."
"Pick a different destination. Don't, and I'll just keep whining and complaining until you get rid of me."
Naruto groaned. "I can hear that," he muttered. "But luckily, I'm highly skilled when it comes to dealing with loud and annoying people."
Walking up to Tayuya, Naruto fished a slip of paper out of one of his pockets. Grabbing the girls hand as she lashed out at him and moving it aside, he pressed the paper to her throat, causing it to stick before stepping back and watching as Tayuya ripped the piece of paper away from her, revealing the now clearly printed seal on her skin.
"What the…" she went to yell, only for her voice to completely disappear.
Naruto sighed in relief. "Beautiful silence. Now I can see just how annoying I must have been when I was younger. No wonder Hanzō made this seal for me. Although I guess you're the one stuck with it now."
Tayuya tried to yell at him, getting angrier and angrier at the lack of voice until she eventually gave up with a silent huff, glowering pathetically at Naruto.
"If you behave, I'll remove that once we reach Suna," Naruto said, trying his hardest not to laugh at her childish pout. "I'll even buy you whatever food you want once we get there if you hold that cute expression for the journey," she immediately scowled, "Yeah, that was a long shot. Oh well. If they manage to corner us and we have no way of escape, as unlikely as that is, I'll let you personally slit my throat. But if we come out unscathed, then you need to stop doubting me so much. The world is bad enough without you pointing out all the negatives of it."
Tayuya screwed her face up into a sour expression, making an excessive and crude gesture that Naruto translated to mean 'You're a cunt'. It also helped that she mouthed the words very clearly, pointing at him before cupping her hand between her legs.
"Is that really necessary? You were vulgar enough with your words. Please don't act them out like that, for all our sakes."
She flipped him off.
Naruto took a deep breath. It was going to be a long ass walk that was for sure. Once again going through the necessary hand seals, he began thinking about just what it was he was going to do in Suna. Despite being one of the big five shinobi villages, Suna had very little to offer outside of puppetry and poisons. The latter of those was easily equalled by some of the lesser villages, so their only real unique trait was the puppets, and a handful of mostly dead Kekkei Genkai.
Glancing at Tayuya's missing arm, he was struck with an idea. It wasn't the first time he had thought of it, but now that he was focussing on it, he was coming up with some interesting ideas. All that was needed was for Tayuya to give her consent on the idea. The expenses and convincing required would be dealt with later. Putting his hand on her shoulder, Naruto bit his thumb and smiled at her.
Maybe after this she would start being a little nicer to him.
If only he knew how wrong he was.
A/N:
So, this chapter took a little longer than I had originally intended, but it's here now, so that's a relief. Not sure how long the next one will take since I am gradually running out of free hours of the week to actually sit down and write, but I hope it's up for you guys sooner rather than later. As you can see now, the next couple of chapters will take place in Suna, allowing me to introduce the all-time fan favourite Gaara, along with Temari, who is a personal favourite of my own for... reasons. It will also be a great setting to actually have Naruto do something. While I do so love writing dialogue and character interactions, action scenes are a requirement in a story like this. Unfortunately, as I have stated in my other fanfics, I am very unskilled at fight scenes, so don't expect to much from them.
Reviews are going well so far, aside from a few exceptions. Please keep leaving them as you finish each chapter. Let me know where I did good and what I fucked up, but most importantly, please give me advice on how to fix the problem for future chapters.
Anyway, that'll be all this time.
Till next chapter guys.
Don't forget to review.
Soul out!
