Chapter 4: Negotiations and Schemes

"Can't believe it's this hot…" Furukawa Nen complained, wiping his brow. It was the hottest point in the day, and the heavy cloak he had chosen to wear was getting the better of him. It didn't help that Konoha happened to be the only place in the Land of Fire devoid of shade-providing trees, ironic given its name.

"Well, take off the cloak then." Yoko the Blind retorted, likewise wearing a hooded cloak. She usually opted to wear her hitte over her eyes, but given the need of discretion she went without. It was one thing to go in full gear while escorting the merchants you came with across the nations, but actually going into a Shinobi Village wearing another nation's symbol out in the open without some type of formal invitation was a very good way to start a war. "Otherwise, shut up and help me out."

With a sigh, Nen gave up and started looking again. Giving up his cloak and showing off the serpent tattoos of his clan this close to the Land of Rice Paddies (he would remove his own organs before he ever called it the "Land of Sound") was not worth the risk. Doubly after Konoha had famously gotten themselves invaded by that same place just a few years back. Just the thought of being so close to those lands his family was forced to vacate made his skin itch with a need for vengeance and blood. But now he was on a mission, and the time for vengeance would come later. The Boss had promised him as much.

But for now, the pair had to just bide their time while waiting, an opportunity which Yoko had taken to find a replacement for her damaged blade. Their teammate Sensui had suggested a weapon made by the Fuuma clan, a clan with some connections to Konoha. And as impressive as Yoko's skills were, she still missed out on basic things like being able to read signs, hence her need for Nen's assistance. So, forgoing the heat, the pair started up their search in earnest.

TTTTTTTTTT

"Miss? The Hokage will see you now." The simple sentence snapped Tori's eyes open, ending her meditation. Most people would be nervous with their first meeting with one of the Five Great Nation's military leaders. But most people were not trained since youth just for this exact purpose. While her teammates were masters of the battlefield, Tori the Wanderer excelled in the backroom, the negotiations and art of delivering bad news while still retaining one's head.

Standing up, Tori gave a quick look over her outfit. One of her finest silk kimonos, a soft neutral forest green with prints of lotus plants, accented by an obi of deep dark red. Hair was in place with a couple of hair pins (which doubled as weapons if needed), makeup was on point, and the scrolls she was tasked with delivering were in her hands and still sealed. Taking a deep breath, she stood and entered the Hokage's office.

The first thing she noticed was the seemingly impressive piles of paperwork. It was not uncommon for Lady Haruna to have some forms or scrolls on her desk at all times, but she ran an entire, admittedly small, nation. The fact that so much fell onto the Hokage was an interesting thing to keep in mind.

The second thing Tori noticed was that the office was far from empty. She was nowhere near as good a sensor as Yoko or The Boss, but she could sense what she presumed to be four guards hiding in different corners of the office, standing completely motionless and under quiet effecent genjutsu. Again, this was the kind of thing her training had expected her to find, and it brought her some small amount of pride to know she had not gotten rusty.

"Godaime Hokage, I am Tori, here on behalf of the Daimyo of the Land of Vegetables." She spoke as she arrived before the Hokage's desk, giving a respectful half-bow. It was then that Tori noticed the third thing, the Hokage had a terrible poker face, instantly showing a mix of concern and confusion at the introduction. Perhaps the rumors of her being a terrible gambler were true after all.

"And what does the Daimyo of the Land of Vegetables have that's so important that it had to be hand delivered?" Tsunade asked with a raised eyebrow. It had been two months since the whole Swamps and Demons debacle, the timing could not be a coincidence.

"A simple renegotiation of some of the trade terms between your village and their nation." Tori replied, keeping her face steady as she handed over one of the two scrolls. The pair were duplicates, one for each party, and both already marked with Lady Haruna's signature. "Certain recent events have been brought to the forefront of the Daimyo's attention, and have her to reexamine her terms with several villages and nations. Sadly, due to Konoha's security and location, it is the last location we have been able to reach. Additionally, the Daimyo had wished to come to this visit personally, but other events prevented it."

Nodding along softly, Tsunade opened the scroll and began to read, her eyebrow twitching as she read through the details. The increase of imported produce made sense, but also there was a significant decrease in exports and promised missions…"So you speak on behalf of the Daimyo?" Tsunade asked, an obvious vein growing in her forehead. At Tori's simple nod, she continued. "What exactly did we do to warrant a drop in services?"

Tori allowed herself a small, professional smile. "Oh, that has little to do with anything Konohagakure has done or hasn't done. Rather, the Daimyo has found herself in the possession of a small elite fighting force and simply has less need of those services. And in the name of transparency, I am also allowed to state that the Land of Vegetables is increasing their use of Kumogakure and Kirigakure shinobi for those needs as well. Both geographically and financially, using Konohagakure shinobi is simply becoming less feasible."

The vein was now prominent as Tsunade glared over the top of the scroll. The young woman before her was a professional bureaucrat, throwing around massive complicated words like they were kunai. But the Hokage did still have something up her sleeve. "I believe that the Daimyo needs to remember who is the reason she is on the throne to begin with…"

The sudden turn nearly caught Tori off guard. Not that she wasn't expecting it to happen, but rather how soon it had shown up in the conversation. It was almost like she was dealing with the Raikage again. But this veiled threat was one that was easily countered, and Tori let out an honest grin that exposed one of her fanged canines, a habit she had picked up hanging around The Boss. "Godaime Hokage, let us both be honest for a moment. The reason Lady Haruna survived and is currently the Daimyo may have been because of Konohagakure shinobi, but it was because of two particular shinobi, one of whom you have already declared a missing-nin."

The news hit Tsunade like a punch in the gut, but not even she was ready for the next bit. "And to be frank, Godaime Hokage, it is because of that history that she is even offering this token of good-will. Rather than publicly and loudly declaring an embargo against you and trying to get other larger nations to join them…" To say that the Land of Waves had been unhappy with the Naruto situation would be an understatement, hell the kid was a national hero there. This was much more in line with the reaction from Suna, who wanted to punish them while at the same time avoiding a war.

Tori was enjoying every minute of this. The Hokage was just as bad in these situations as her reputation had proceeded, which meant she would easily be able to play through some of the stickier subjects with ease.

TTTTTTTTT

The past few months had been stressful for Sakura. Lady Tsunade had refused to say anything more on the subject of trying to bring Naruto home, and her own team was even worse about the subject. Sasuke would just refer to him as "a lucky idiot who should be dead", and the new replacement Sai was just a blank wall. Even Kakashi was useless in the situation, just giving some cryptic response about "trusting those who lead", which to Sakura just reinforced Shikimaru's theory that something had come down from up top.

So, she had been spending more and more time with Team Asuma. At first it was just to try and figure out this mystery, as Naruto was a good friend of both Shika and Choji. But then it grew into more team bonding and generic friendship, spiraling out to include Teams Guy and Kuranai as well. It was during one of these larger evenings that Sakura realized just how dysfunctional her team was. Naruto had been the glue holding their fucked-up little family together, but without him she was left with a vengeance-obsessed trauma case and….whatever Sai's deal was.

Today was like many other days since the mission to the Land of Demons, with the mandatory group practice coming to an end without ever feeling like they were an actual group and Sasuke leaving to do more practice on his own. Desperate to bury her own feelings on the subject, Sakura wrangled Ino and Hinata to a girls day in the market square.

The trio of kunoichi were enjoying their time, as best as they could. Hinata had been slowly spiraling into a deep depression ever since Naruto was declared a missing-nin, and the missions they all were on were just getting harder the stronger they got. But for this one brief moment of the day, the three young women felt like schoolgirls again, chatting and checking out new items from the merchant booths.

But all that joy and merriment would come crashing down in a moment. As the trio moved down a side-alley, they passed a pair of cloaked figures, one with his hood down who Sakura instantly recognized. Before anyone could stop her, she had lept into battle, slamming the man against the nearest wall. "You…you were one of those ninja we ran into in the Land of Swamps." She growled, tightening her grip on his cloak as she raised her other fist. "What the hell are you doing here?"

Ino took a step forward to try and play peacemaker, but she was cut off by the sudden flash of a drawn sword, the second figure staring at the two other Konoha shinobi while dropping into a casual stance. "Nen, I thought you didn't want to cause an incident." The hooded figure called over her shoulder to her compatriot who had been slammed into the wall.

"Not exactly my fault here, Yoko." Nen retorted in pain, clenching his teeth. One gloved hand was holding onto Sakura's wrist, and the other snapped out from within the cloaked sleeve. Sakura could feel the pressure of the ninja-wire he had sent out wrapping around her free arm, if she followed through on the punch there was a good chance she would get her arm sliced into like butter.

A tense few moments ticked by before Sakura released her grasp, letting Nen slump down onto one knee. With a flick of his wrist, the foreign shinobi released the ninja-wires as well, leaving a few minor papercuts on Sakura's upper arm as the only proof of their existence. Though by the way Nen was holding his ribs with his other arm, it was obvious that he had gotten the worst of the exchange. "Hnn..it was Sakura right? I remember you from that dustup in Demon…No wonder The Boss spoke highly of you."

With a sigh, Yoko sheathed her new blade and shook her head. Rubbing her arm, Sakura looked between the two and carefully considered her next move. She had already made a huge faux pas by assaulting a stranger, so she might as well pull a move out of her master's playbook and make a huge gamble. "The Boss? You mean Naruto?" She asked cautiously, keeping her eyes on the duo.

The two cloaked ninja looked at each other for a moment before Yoko gave a shrug. "He did say she was smart Nen…" She replied nonchalantly, almost entertained by watching her teammate work himself out of this puzzle. The beating of hearts in this little group made its own little symphony of tension and excitement, and she could practically taste the aura of one of the women slowly starting to loom over the group. It wasn't quite the same as a typical killing aura, but similar, like they had said a trigger word of some sort.

"Yes, Uzumaki Naruto. The great outcast of Konoha." Nen replied coldly, his eyes boring into Sakura, two pairs of green eyes locking onto each other as if each one was waiting for the other to make a move. "Nearly gave his life for the village, and what was his repayment, hmm? You know, growing up I always heard about how you assholes in the 'Great Five' wouldn't know honor if it spit in your face, but it wasn't until I met The Boss that I knew it to be true."

Narrowing her eyes again, Sakura took a single step closer to Nen, almost taunting him. "Honestly I don't know what you're talking about, I just want to know why you are here." The stress was getting to her, and she was a step away from causing an international incident, but honestly she didn't care at this point. "And if he's here or not."

"No, he isn't." A different voice cut in from outside the showdown, as Tori the Wanderer stepped forward, pulling out her sharpened hairpins and letting her hair down. "As for what they are doing here, they are my escorts. We were sent on behalf of the Daimyo Lady Haruna to negotiate with your Hokage, and these two had told me they would be spending the time stimulating your local economy…" In response, Yoko lifted her new sheathed blade, prompting a smirk from the blonde negotiator. "Well with that being done, it does look like we have overstayed our welcome."

Taking the given out, the pair of shinobi from Vegetable slipped over to their negotiating squadmate. Tori gave a polite bow before the three took their leave, making a quick pace towards the gates of Konoha. As soon as they were out of eyeshot, Sakura herself turned and stomped away, ignoring Ino's calls for her attention. She was done dealing with this constant misdirection shit, she was going to get her teammate back.

TTTTTTTTTT

Sensui the Fire-Dancer rolled the scroll up and burnt it to ash, sending the messenger pigeon on its way. The timing couldn't be more perfect, as the ship Naruto had left on was just coming back to dock. It was a small craft, built to carry no more than one or two people at most, a favor that The Boss had called in. Apparently he was a big deal here in the Land of Waves, so much so they had actually named a giant bridge after him.

"Well good news on our end, Tori pulled off a miracle and got a full signature on the terms, so your Lady will be happy…and apparently the other two had a run in with your old squadmate…" The older shinobi stopped his update once he noticed Naruto's face, stoney and serious, a gaze he rarely ever saw on the young energetic man. With a sigh, he pulled a pair of handrolled cigarette out of his jacket pocket, offering one to Naruto.

The blonde took the cigarette and lit it with a basic jutsu Sensui had taught him. It wasn't his proudest habit, but it was one he had picked up recently, and to be frank the blend of tobacco Sensui had mixed together was better than anything the pre-rolled ones had. After a few quiet moments on the dock as the sun set, Naruto finally spoke up. "I didn't want to believe it was real…but after I kept finding it in books I just had to take a look for myself…"

Taking another drag, Naruto blew out a long thin stream of smoke before continuing. "We weren't able to make landfall because of all the whirlpools and eddies…Uzushiogakure is an accurate name…but I could see a few bits, a few ruins….Damnit Kakashi, some days I wish you hadn't told me anything…" He muttered aloud to no one. "Now I kinda get it though…why Duckbutt was so hung up on vengeance, why the Hyuugas were so stuck up on honor and shit…"

"So….are you going to go back, rebuild it or something?" Sensui asked curiously, watching the sunset. He didn't mind being a mercenary, but being an on-call shinobi with a regular place to sleep most nights was nice to have again.

"Yeah…something…" Naruto said cryptically, pinching out the cigarette and stuffing it in his pocket. "Let's go get some dinner. Once the rest of the squad gets here, I'll fill you all in on things. Hopefully Haruna won't kill me for this idea…"

TTTTTTTTTT

A/N: For anyone curious, this here is the map I've been using. It's the most accurate one I can find since they won't ever give us an offical one, so big props to it's maker.