From Ninja to Shinigami

Chapter 34: Down Time

By: jacke44

Beta'd by: Scheffinator

[Naruto POV Konohagakure]

Naruto was currently sitting in a chair in one of the little dance studios, watching as two of his younger sisters practicing to dance. While he was also writing down in a notebook, he looks up from his notebook when he hears a small voice say "mommy did you bring my water bottle?"

As he looks to the left, he sees a woman looking through a bag and sees that the mother had forgotten to bring it. He then reaches down into his own bag and brings out a new water bottle and says "here you go. You can have this one." The little girl quickly accepts the bottle and says "thank you." Once she was done drinking, she quickly goes back to the dance floor. The woman then looks at him and says "thank you, I cannot believe I forgot to bring it."

Naruto put on his smile and says "it's OK, my family is always making sure we have supplies with us and it is always better to have extra than not having any at all for situations like this." That is when he noticed there was no other men currently in the studio as it looks like it was all the mothers. He also noticed that some of them did not seem to have a wedding ring on their finger along with sending him looks and each of them had a large smile on their faces and were giggling into their hands. Before anything else can be said, the teacher says "that will be it for today and remember to practice your dancing and I will see you next week."

(Random road)

Naruto along with both of his sisters were making their way back to the compound, both of the sisters were talking about how they did in class today and wondering what they were going to work on next week.

The group was brought to a stop by the sound of a voice saying "hello Naruto." The group turn to look in the direction of the voice and see that it is Sakura.

Naruto can instantly tell that there was a big difference in the way she was from before the invasion, for one thing she had gotten rid of her old uniform and was now wearing a battle dress. She also had Muteki Tekkon strapped to her back.

Naruto looks at Sakura and says "how are you doing Sakura?" With Sakura replying "I am doing good but I would like to have a talk with you if you have time." Naruto looks at his watch and says "we can talk for a little bit but I have to get ready for my date tonight with Hinata-chan."

Before anything else can be said, one of the 2 little girls at his side pulls on his sleeve of his jacket and says "Big Brother, I gotta go to the bathroom." Naruto quickly starts to look around for a bathroom but he is drawn back to Sakura, when she says "my house is up the street, we can go there." Their group then quickly makes their way up the street.

(Haruno House)

Upon entering the house, Sakura calls out "mom I'm home. I had to bring some friends over. I'm going to leave them in the living room for right now, could you make some tea?" From somewhere in the house they hear a voice say "OK honey." Sakura after showing where the living room was, she takes the hand of the little girl and goes down the hall.

Naruto along with the remaining little girl standing in the living room were looking around, he spots pictures and walks up to look at them noticing that they are pictures of Sakura when she was younger with her parents. The sound of a door opening draws his attention to a woman with blonde hair. He was able to recognize her as Sakura's mom, Mebuki if he remembered correctly.

Mebuki was shocked to see the boy that she had known had had a crush on her daughter for years standing in her living room. She was also aware of how her daughter had treated him over the years and she had never agreed with what she had done to him and said to her constantly to be nicer to him. As she had never held any resentment against him for the 9 tailed Fox attack.

Naruto give a small bow and says "hello I hope that my group is not disturbing you today."

Mebuki put on a smile and says "you are not. I was just doing the dishes from this morning. It's nice to finally meet you in person after hearing so many stories about you from my daughter. I would also like to thank you for what you did in the invasion with saving myself and my mother."

Naruto replies "no thanks are necessary. I was just doing my job." He then turned back to the pictures on the wall and says "I am glad to see that she had a great childhood with her parents which is shocking due to fact that she was always complaining back in the Academy about you butting into her life."

Mebuki gives a small laugh and says "we did try to make her childhood happy and as for the fact that she says I was butting into her life she was always over dramatic about everything we did. If we ask one simple question, it was like the end of the world."

Sakura along with the little girl come walking into the living room to find everybody laughing. Catching the last of the conversation, she hears her mom say "here she is in this picture when she was 2 years old in an inflatable pool that we had just bought for her, not even a minute after we put her in it we had to quickly take her out due to the fact that she thought it was a toilet because we had just started potty training her and she had an accident by going number 2 and we had to empty the entire pool and rinse it out."

Sakura quickly runs up to her mom and grab the photo album letting out a scream of "moooom."

Mebuki turns and looks at her daughter, reaching out to grab the photo album back then she smacked her daughter on the head with the spine of the book and says "what have I told you about taking things out of people's hands?"

Sakura begin to rub her head and says "not to" she then hears small laughing coming from the side. Looking over she sees Naruto laughing into his hand.

Naruto manages to stop laughing long enough to say "I should've come over here years ago, your moms got some pretty funny stories about you. Along with some pretty funny baby pictures Sakura-Chan."

Sakura's face had gone to a color of pink that matched her hair.

Naruto then says "don't worry about it. I have recently found out it in the Mother's Handbook to embarrass her children."

Sakura looks between her teammate and her mother, who is nodding her head in agreement. But her mother's face becomes white as he says "just like it in the Children's Handbook to embarrass their parents when they have grandkids to tell all of the stories about how they messed up raising them."

Sakura now had a larger grin on her face as she looks at her mother.

After a few minutes of laughing, everybody goes into the living room and sits down, besides Sakura who stands in the middle of the room facing Naruto. She then says "I wanna apologize for everything I ever did to you when we were in the Academy. For years you tried to be my friend and I always pushed you aside. Growing up I didn't always have friends so when I made friends who were making fun of you, I joined in because I didn't want them to not be my friend's anymore. I know that is selfish of me, and looking back I now realize you would have been a better friend growing up. You would have always been by my side helping me when I needed it."

She then looks up and says "I also want to apologize for the way I treated you after the second exam along with the way I treated you when we were in the store. I know that saying I'm sorry cannot make up for what I did but I hope you would accept my apology and know that I am going to make myself a better person after what you told me during the invasion. I took a long hard look in the mirror and I did not like what I saw. What I saw was a little civilian girl who was trying to play kunoichi, this same little girl who almost got her mother and grandmother killed because she did not have any of her equipment with her because she wanted to look cute for a boy. A boy who wasn't even worth it."

Naruto looks at Sakura and could instantly tell that she was being truthful and she really wanted to change herself. Standing up he walks up and put his hand on her shoulder and says "I'm glad to see you're finally coming around. I've always known that you would one day be a strong kunoichi. One of the reasons I never forced you out of your fangirlism phase was because you had to wake up yourself and you had to realize what you could become, not what someone else wanted you to be. Just remember, from now on when you walk out that village gate to go on missions you are not just Sakura Haruno, you are the face of the Hidden Leaf Village the people will judge the Leaf Village by the way you look and act. You are also the role model for the next generation of kunoichi's at the Academy. You have to ask yourself one question. What type of role model do you want to be for them, a love sick fan girl or somebody they can look up to and inspire to be like?"

Sakura in a small voice says "what happened to you? You are nothing like you were before."

Naruto with a smile says "that is because I was wearing a mask to hide who I really was. There's a lot you don't know about me," but before anything else could be said the sound of a bell ringing from upstairs got everybody's attention.

Mebuki gets up and says "it looks like Ainu-chan is up" and says "hopefully she's feeling better."

Naruto looks at Sakura and says "I did not know that you have a sister." Sakura shakes her head and says "it's my cousin on my mom's side, she hasn't been feeling well the last couple days and because her mom has to work constantly, we have been keeping her here."

Naruto looks at her and says "would you like me to take a look? I have medical training. I'm not a full medic but I do have some training and might be able to help."

Sakura looks at him and says "I guess that's something. I did not know about that. When did you start training to be a medic?"

Naruto with his foxy like grin says "I have been training for a couple years now. I did a lot of volunteer work when I was in the Academy but we can discuss that later."

Naruto follows Sakura upstairs and into one of the rooms. Upon entering it, he sees a little girl, maybe 7 or 8, in the bed laying down and can tell that she is not feeling well by the color of her white skin and sweat on her forehead.

Sakura is explaining to her mother that Naruto had some medical training and was offering his help.

Mebuki nods her head and says "that would be helpful. We think she just has the flu but we're not sure."

Naruto walks over to the writing desk and takes out a scroll and releases a black bag from a storage seal. He then looks at her and says "because I'm not just putting on a few bandages for a scraped knee as you are the currently legal guardian of her, I need you to stay in the room while I give her an examination due to the Leaf Village Medical Code Chapter 9 Section 2: no male medic without his full medical license being approved may be authorized to examine a female child under the age of consent without the legal guardian present. If the legal guardian is not present, he must have at least two females present, during the examination for her safety."

Naruto opens the bag and looks at her and says "does she have any allergies to latex or any other's that I do need to be aware of?" Mebuki replies "she has a mild allergy to peanuts."

Naruto goes to the bed and sits on the foot and looks at the little girl and says "my name is Naruto. I just wanna give you a quick examination. Normally a medic just needs the guardian's consent but I would like for yours as well. Are you OK with that?"

Mebuki says "it's OK sweetie, he just wants to help."

The little girl nods her head and says "OK. My name is Ainu," then she says "you're not gonna give me a shot, are you?"

Naruto gave small laugh to himself as he thought about how it was always the first question that they ask when he gave check-ups to little kids and says "no, I'm not gonna give you a shot. I will be giving you a once over," as he begins to do the basics, taking her temperature along with listening to her lungs and heart, etcetera. After a few minutes he goes back to his bag and pull out some medicine and says "you were correct, it's just the flu" he then take out 2 pills and walks up to the bed and says "I need you to take these, it will help with your fever OK Ainu-Chan."

Naruto watches her take the medicine and smiles when she is done, then he walks back over to his bag and pulls out a small scroll and walks back over to the bed and releases a storage seal releasing a box of toys. He then says "because you were such a good little patient you may pick one of the toys from the box." Ainu begins to look through the box and selects one in the shape of a red and gold bird. she could swear she could hear a small voice in the back of her head calling to her to pick it. When she picked it up she would swear she felt this warmth spread through her entire body and felt like a piece that has been missing from her had been found.

Naruto then packs up everything and says "we need to be going but I think you should know I will be going out on a mission soon and I might be needing your help Sakura so make sure you have your supplies packed and ready." He then looks at Mebuki "it was nice to meet you, I would suggest a deep broth soup tonight for her for dinner tonight," he then hands her two more pills "if her flu does not go down by tomorrow, I would suggest you take her to the doctor. She might need something stronger than what I gave her."

Mebuki replies "it was nice to meet you as well and thank you for what you did for Ainu."

Sakura then walks him to the door and says "I've notice that the people of the village have been treating you like a hero, almost like what happened in the Land of Waves for what you did in the invasion and I'm happy to see you're not letting it go to your head like some people would."

Naruto looks at her and replies "heroes are not born, they are made. The true test of a hero isn't how many people he can save, it is how he acts after the fact, and how he chooses to live his life afterwards."

Sakura watched as he walks down the street and whispers to herself, "I'm gonna show you. I'm going to change, then one day I will be able to walk next to you again with my head held high, hopefully one day as your friend again."

(Hinata POV Uzumaki Compound)

Hinata was in her room with Ino and Tenten, along with all of her little sisters, as they were ripping through her wardrobe looking for a dress that she was going to wear for her date with Naruto tonight. She had been shocked when she woke up this morning and found a note on her door to expect a date tonight. She had immediately ran to find Kurenai, but was not able to find her and chalked it up to her having a mission. When she came back to the compound, she had begun to quickly look through her wardrobe which had drawn attention of all her little sisters and Ino and Tenten who had been at the compound trying to find their own mini-me's.

Hanabi opens a box and sees a blue dress in it. She quickly shows it to Hinata, who has a bright smile on her face as she remembered she had bought that dress if she had ever worked up the courage to ask him for a date, so it was quickly decided that that would be the dress that she would wear tonight.

Ino then says "so we have the dress, let's start working on your hair, then we will do your makeup, then we will have to find you some sexy underwear, and by the time we are done with you, we might need to buy you a white dress because there is no way he is going to wanna look at any other girl."

Hinata had gone candy apple red in the face from embarrassment because of the underwear comment, but you could tell she was happy because of the large smile on her face. Ino looks at Hanabi and says "see if you can find a pair of nice shoes to go with that dress."

(Naruto POV)

Naruto was waiting in the dining hall where he had been told to wait. He was wearing a nice pair of dark pants along with a white button up T-shirt and a red tie along with a black jacket. He had done his best to try and tame what little hair he had on his head and had purchased some new cologne which he hope Hinata would like it.

He was deep in thought, going over everything he had planned for tonight when suddenly he can hear the door open and sees Ino slide into the room without opening the door all the way. She then looks at him and says "you look really handsome tonight." She then walks up and straightens his tie, she then gives it a tug and says "if you try anything with her that she doesn't want you to do, and if I find out about it, you are not gonna be happy." She then gave him a kiss on the cheek. She then walks back to the door and says "I present to you, your date for tonight." When she opens the door, Naruto sees Hinata wearing a blue dress with a lavender overcoat carrying a small handbag with white sandals.

This caused his brain to shut down and he begin to babble, making all of the little girls and Ino begin to giggle at his reaction. Luckily, he was able to snap out of it quickly enough. He then slowly walked up to Hinata and offered her his arm and said "well if you are ready, let's head out." Before they leave Ino gives Hinata one last hug and whispers in her ear "just remember what I said if you decide to take your relationship father tonight take it slow."

As the two of them were walking down the street, Naruto clears his throat and says "I know that you're still nervous about tonight Hinata-chan, that's why I arranged a special treat. I hope you don't mind but this is not gonna be a single date. I arranged for a double date for us."

Hinata looks at Naruto and says "who is the second one?"

Naruto puts on a smile and points his finger in one direction making her look and see none other than Kurenai and Asuma, both of whom were dressed nicely. One of the largest smiles he ever saw on her face blossomed as she runs forward and hugs Kurenai.

Kurenai was able to quickly catch her and return the hug. She then holds her at arms-length and look her up and down. She then takes her hand and takes her a few feet away from the men.

(Kurenai and Hinata POV)

Kurenai looks at the girl that she had always considered a daughter, since she first took the mission to be her tutor. she then says "look at you, you're all grown up, going on your first date." Hinata, who had a red blush on her face, says "it's not that big of a deal."

Kurenai looks at her and says "of course it is and I have to admit, I love the outfit you picked out. I'm guessing that you had help from Ino?"

Hinata looks up at her and says "how did you know Kurenai-sensei?"

Kurenai, with a small grin on her face, says "I have known you for many years and I know for a fact that you would not be wearing a push up bra if it wasn't for her," as she poked above her chest indicating that her breasts were higher up then they normal would be.

Hinata's blush went up a color as Kurenai gave a small laugh. Kurenai's face then became serious as she leans in and whispers "I hope that you are planning on being safe if you take it to the next level tonight. I know for a fact how it can feel getting what you always wanted. I don't want you to make a mistake you're gonna regret later."

Hinata, who had managed to tone down her blush says in a whispered voice "she wouldn't let me leave the bedroom without using the Birth Control Jutsu. She also gave me a warning that if we did that, I had to take it slow because apparently, he's larger than most boys his age." Kurenai gives a nod of her head and says "that was smart thinking on her part but there's a few things I wanna tell you as well."

(Naruto-Asuma POV)

Naruto turns to Asuma with his foxy grin and says "so I hear you had an interesting week of pranking spree done to you while I was out on a mission."

Asuma looks at Naruto and says "I will admit they got me pretty good. They were pretty clever in some of their pranks but I have a feeling that they had help from someone because there were some of them that just could not have been done by 3 little girls."

Naruto gives a nod of the head and says "my guess would probably be Tsume." But before he could say anything else the 2 girls came back. He then says "now that everyone is done talking, let's head to the restaurant," he then offered his left arm to Hinata.

(Luxury restaurant)

As the group walks into the restaurant, they walk up to the hostess desk. The woman working at the desk looks up and sees Naruto and her face instantly becomes one of rage and says "you're not welcome here demon. Get out. We sell food to humans." Before anything else could be said, the voice of a man is saying "what is going on here?" The group turn to look and see a man walking up wearing an expensive suit. The man looks at who is standing at the podium and his face becomes one of shock and quickly looks at the hostess and says "you are fired. Get out of my restaurant. Don't ever let me catch you anywhere near this place again. How dare you talk to one of my customers like this." He then snaps his fingers and 2 large men walk up and say "yes boss?" The man says "please make sure this woman is escorted off of my property." Both men walk up to the former hostess and grab one arm each before heading towards the door.

The man then turns to look at the group and says "my deepest apologies Lord Uzumaki. If you would please follow me, I will escort you to your table personally." The group followed him across the restaurant to a raised platform with a table surrounded by a velvet rope. The other table occupants were whispering to each other because of this, all knowing that this particular table was reserved for only the highest of class. Upon reaching the table, Naruto pulls out the chair for his date. Hinata gave him a small smile as she sat down. Asuma was quick to follow suit for Kurenai.

The manager then introduces their waitress for tonight and says "whatever you need please let her know." The waitress takes out a notepad and says "can I start you off with something to drink?"

Naruto replies "yes. We will take two bottles of sake, one bottle diluted by 10% clearly marked please along with one glass of red wine for the lady" after writing it down she quickly heads to the kitchen.

Kurenai looks at Naruto and says "why a bottle diluted by 10%?"

Naruto says "it is because although Hinata and myself are both technically considered adults due to our status as ninja, I do not believe our young bodies can handle too much alcohol." While thinking to himself 'that and Yoshino would kill me if she knew I was drinking too much and allowing Hinata to drink as well.'

Kurenai nods her head and says "I agree with you. I don't think you should be drinking too heavily at your age." Soon the waitress quickly returned with their drinks. She then takes out her notepad and says "now can I take your order?" With everybody quickly placing an order.

Naruto then looks at Hinata and says "so how is your apprenticeship at the hospital going Hinata-chan?"

Hinata manages to contain her blush at being talked to by Naruto and says "it is going well. I'm learning so much form Sara-sensei and she has been testing the limits of my abilities. We found out my abilities cannot cure someone who has a disease, but I can repair the damage it has done to the body. She had me test it on a woman who had lung cancer as it was affecting her lungs and her ability to breathe. My abilities were able to repair the damage done to the lungs. She still has lung cancer but the damage is nowhere near as bad as it was and she no longer has to be hooked up to an air tank."

Kurenai gives her a small smile and says "I'm glad that you're now being able to live out your dream of becoming a doctor." She then looks at Naruto and says "and how are you doing with your new responsibilities as a clan head?"

Naruto let out a breath and says "it's a lot of responsibilities. I have been getting a lot of mail from different nations, everything from marriage proposals to trade agreements, along with requests for help. One of the most interesting of the letters I got was from the Land of Water. It would seem that the rebels have finally won the war in Kiri thanks to me sending someone to help them. And it appears that the former leader of the Rebel forces, a woman by the name of Mei Terumi, has been named the Godaime Mizukage." Both Hinata and Kurenai instantly sit up straighter with a look of pride on their faces upon hearing this.

Asuma gives a small nod of the head and then says "so what else was in the letter?"

Naruto replies "it was basically her saying thank you for the help I gave and that she was willing to make a trade agreement with my clan. She also told me about how the village was starting to rebuild itself after the war." He then says "I feel sorry for them because now they have to face the hardest part of the war."

Hinata looks at him and says "what do you mean the hardest part of the war?"

Naruto replies "most people believe the hardest part of a war is the battles but I believe the hardest part is the end because then you have to do a final body count. Just like most people think soldiers have the hardest time during a war but personally I believe it's the civilians that have the hardest time during a war because both mothers and fathers along with wives and husbands along with children have to sit at home and wait for news of their loved ones, not knowing if they're ever going to see their children again or their spouse or their mom and dad and every time there is a knock at the door they have to hope and pray there's no bad news." All three of them look at him with a sad face and give nods. It was Asuma who says "in a way you are correct." Soon their dinners had arrived and they continued to talk about various things. Once the dinner was finished, Naruto looks at Hinata and said "how would you like to go have a dance on the dance floor?"

Hinata, with a slight blush on her face, replies "I would love to." Kurenai manages to cut into the conversation and says "before that I believe we should freshen up. Come along Hinata I want to freshen up your hair."

[Hinata and Kurenai POV]

It did not take but a few moments for the women to had into the bathroom. Hinata instantly looked in the mirror and found out her hair was perfect. She then looks at Kurenai and says "my hair looks fine. Why are we here?" One of the other women in the room happened to hear that and laughs and said "honey I'm taking it this is your first date?" Hinata gave a small nod of her head.

Kurenai then says "one of the most important lessons you need to learn about dating is, as women we have to make sure we always keep our men on their toes." The same woman as before says "what she means is, if you say you going to be gone five minutes you got to take at least 10." All of the other women in the room begin to chuckle to themselves.

[normal POV]

Both Naruto and Hinata were dancing slowly to a song, with Hinata's head resting on Naruto shoulder. Hinata looks up at him and says "so how did you learn to dance so well?" Naruto let out a small chuckle as he says "back when she was going through her heiress training Ino had to learn how to dance and neither Shikamaru or Choji would help her, so Inoiki would drag me into the studio to help. She would always make a comment about how a proper boy should learn how to dance and how handy it would come in the future when I went to start dating."

Naruto then says "I know I've apologized before but I want to do it again Hinata-chan. I wasted so many years in the Academy without recognizing you. If I ever discover a technique to travel through time, I will go back in time and kick myself in the butt. That or I could blackmail myself. I did a lot of embarrassing things as a kid that I'm not proud of." Naruto did not recognize the evil little grin that spread across Hinata's face as she said "like what?"

Naruto, not recognizing the trap that she had set, replies "well there was this time I was stuck at Ino's place during a thunderstorm when we were about seven or eight and it was my turn to take a shower and when I went in, I saw one of Ino's training bras on the ground as I knew what training bras and bras were as I had a lot of women in my life at the time and as I had heard her complaining about how uncomfortable they were to wear them and being curious as I was, I decided to try it on to see. But the moment I had put it on Inoiki happened to walk back into the bathroom to hand me a new towel and Ino also happen to be walking past the door. After I explained what happened, they would not stop laughing and teasing me about it. What made it even worse was they told the other moms. To this day they still like to tease me about it." He then froze realizing what he just said and looked down at Hinata realizing what he just said to her and that she managed to trick him into giving up a piece of dirt on himself.

Hinata, who has a small grin on her face, says "I'm sure that information will come in handy in the future." Naruto replies "I think I'm beginning to have a bad influence on you."

Both Asuma and Kurenai, who happened to be dancing nearby, gave a small laugh. Kurenai whispered to herself "that's my girl," as she watched the girl that she had always considered a daughter dance with the boy she always wanted to get with, and with the stealth of a kunoichi, pulled out a camera and took a picture of the young couple.

After enjoying a few more dances, the two couples were walking down one of the streets near the Academy, when suddenly Naruto stopped, turns and looks at Asuma and Kurenai and says "can you give us a minute? I want to talk to Hinata alone for a minute." Receiving two nods of the head as they walk over to the tree staying off to side. Naruto then looks at Hinata and says "I know that you and the others have been talking about weddings and the truth is, I don't know if you're just joking or you're going to be serious but I want to ask you something. So if we do end up getting married, I would like to have two separate ceremonies, one big ceremony for everyone including all the other Nobles that will have to be invited but I was thinking we could have a small ceremony before that with our close family and friends, and I was thinking we could have it on this very spot."

Hinata, with a look of curiosity on her face, begins to look around. She then looks at Naruto and says "why would we want to have it here?"

Naruto replies "because it was on this spot 5 years ago that we met for the first time, when those bullies were making fun of you for your eyes and I stupidly tried to take them on to save you by myself and I was thinking what better place to make a permanent commitment to each other than the very spot where we first met."

Hinata stood there looking at him for a moment before realizing what he said. She then reaches up and grabs his head and begins to give him a deep kiss. Naruto responds by wrapping his arms around her back and leans into the kiss. Off to the side, both Asuma and Kurenai were both able to hear clearly what was said with both of them having different thoughts about it. Kurenai thinking about how that has to be the most romantic thing she's ever heard in her life and was thinking along the lines of 'that boy definitely needs to open a school to teach all the other men how to properly act with a woman.'

{inside of Kurenai mind}

We see chibi's of all the wives dragging their husbands toward a school.

While Asuma was thinking about how Naruto was making all the other men look like second-rate act's in the romantic department, while also making plans to secretly talk to him about getting some tips.

After ending the kiss, Hinata laid her head on his shoulder and began to just rest there. After a few moments of not hearing anything, Naruto looks down and finds out that she had fallen asleep or that she had passed out. He wasn't sure which one so he gave a chuckle and picked her up in the bridal hold. He then looked at Kurenai and says "would you please come back to the compound, so you can put her in her pajamas? This dress is too nice for her to sleep in." He then put on his foxy grin and says "if not, I could always take care of it." Kurenai places a kiss on Asuma's cheek then looks at Naruto and says "if you even try that, I will make sure that story about you and the training bra gets out," making his face go white. Kurenai knew perfectly well that he was only joking as she walked up and said "let's go home."

{Uzumaki Compound}

After handing off Hinata to Kurenai so she could go place her in her bed, Naruto heads into one of their general areas where everybody hangs out in the compound. Upon entering the room, he sees there are still a few of the kids sitting around along with a few of the servants. In one of the back corners, he sees Tsunade. When he gets to the table, he sees that she is playing 3 Card Monte with a few of the boys and if the look on her face was any indication, she was not doing well. Naruto gave a small laugh as he watched what he knew was the leader of the boys take the last of her money before walking off.

Shizune was sitting in a chair off to the side and shakes her head as she watches her master's head hit the table as she said "I told you that was a bad idea to play that game with him." Naruto then says "you have no idea how right you are his father was a professional card dealer and professional conman before he died and taught his son everything he knew."

Tsunade looks at him... before realizing what he just said. Quickly standing up as she starts heading in the same direction as the boys. A few moments later you could hear loud screaming coming from several boys.

Shizune decides not to get involved and says "so how was your night and your date?"

Naruto replies "day went better than I could have hoped for. Now if you excuse me, I'm going to hit the hay myself. I got a busy day tomorrow." As he is walking down one of the hallways, he looks out a window and sees the boys hanging upside down from a tree with rope tied around the middle of their bodies. He then decides that he's too tired to deal with this and he leaves it alone.

[Hokage Tower, the next morning]

Naruto was standing in the office with Tsunade and Anko as he was telling Hiruzen about how he would be out of the village for a while as he was heading to the Hidden Cloud Village and how he was going to hire several of his friends to escort him now as a security force. Due to the fact that he was the Daimyo of the Land of Whirlpools he could not just show up as a regular civilian, it would be expected of him to have a security force with him.

But before Hiruzen could ask him who he was taking, there was a knock at the door and the head of Aimi poked her head inside and said "I'm sorry for interrupting your meeting but there was a woman here from the Land of Waves saying she's got something." Hiruzen tells her "send the woman in." The group sees a woman walking in wearing a Shihakusho with long black hair kept pinned to the back, with flat bangs that hang to the right side of her face with glasses with a slight oval shape to them. Naruto was able to recognize her as Nanao Ise. Naruto watches as she walks up to the desk and says "are you Hiruzen Sarutobi?" Upon receiving confirmation that he was, she reaches in her pocket and pulls out a scroll. "I am here to inform you that we have captured one Jiraiya of the Sannin who illegally entered our village and was captured spying on the Academy and I am here to talk about the terms of release."

[Omake: you learn something new every day]

(Sunagakure)

Temari was currently walking down one of the roads in the village. She was so lost in her thoughts she was not paying attention to where she was going. Thinking about what had happened when they had returned to the village and to the council and had shown them the new contracts that the 2 villages had come up with. Of-course those on the council had been angry that the Hidden Leaf was asking for so much.

It was not until they had informed them of what had happened with the new Lord Uzumaki bringing up an old contract between the villages of the Sand and the Land of Whirlpools. When they saw how much money was going to be brought in because of this, it had caused one of the elderly members to have a heart attack but luckily or unluckily he would manage to pull through after everything had calmed down. They revealed that he was willing to give them a new seal to help the village. After explaining what it did, the remaining members on the council had started to talk about approaching him with a marriage proposal for one of their kunoichi. Temari, being the daughter of a Kage, knew that she would be the proposed bride. She was very conflicted, as she was very loyal to her village and did not want to leave but at the same time, from everything that she had heard from various women in the Leaf Village, he was known to be very respectful and very protective of women and did not see them as merely objects to be looked at like a lot of men.

She was snapped out of her mind as a small child bumped into her. Looking down at the child, she sees it is a little girl in second hand clothes which she can tell by the discoloration of them. Bending down to make sure the child was OK she asked "are you OK?"

The girl looks up at her and says "yeah, I'm OK. It is just that it is so bright out along with being so hot outside, I wasn't looking where I was going." Temari put on a small smile and says "well between you and me, I heard a rumor that it might get fixed here soon, but don't tell anybody," the girl gives a small nod of the head.

Temari reaches into her pocket and pulls out a small ryo and says "why don't you go buy yourself a small ice cream on me." The girl quickly accepts the ryo and gives a small bow saying "thank you."

Temari watched as she runs down the street and in the direction that she knows there's a small ice cream stand. She then looks around herself to find out where she is and she sees that she is in front of an old book store. She shrugged her shoulders then she walks in.

Temari spends a few minutes walking through the rows of shelves looking at all the different titles of the books. She had just put back a book on poetry when she hears an old voice say "and what can I help you look for today?" Looking to her right she sees an elderly woman.

Temari, deciding that it would be rude just to come and look around and not buy anything, she then remembered about not knowing anything about the Uzumaki clan so she decides to take a gamble and says "you wouldn't happen to have anything on the Uzumaki clan, would you?"

The elderly woman looks at her and says "not too many people remember them. I actually came from the Land of Whirlpools. I was one of the lucky ones who managed to escape its destruction."

Temari with a look of surprise on her face says "are you an Uzumaki?"

The elderly woman begins to laugh so loud it sounds like she is cackling. Once she calms down, she says "no I am not a member of that family. My family owned a small store in the village capital of Whirlpool."

She then walks behind the front counter and opens the glass door with several books behind it. Pulling out three of the books. She then places them on the counter and says "these are all I have on them. This one is a history of the family, the second one is a history on the Land of Whirlpools, the third one is on all the traditions and customs."

That is the one that Temari grabbed first and began to look through it. Stopping at a random page, she then says "it says here that the women of the clan were not normally allowed to be on the battlefield and that they always stayed in the village," she then says "how barbaric is that?"

The elderly woman begins to give a small laugh and says "while it might seem barbaric, one thing you should know about that family is the women were always the stronger of the family. That is the reason why they were always left in the village as a last line of defense. In all of my years of living, never have I seen anything more frightening than a female member of that family protecting her child and I once saw two of the tailed beasts clashing in battle."

Temari thinks about that for a minute and says "so they weren't technically being sexist, they were just wanting to leave the best fighters at home in case the enemy managed to break the line."

The elderly woman then points to the history book and says "I see that you are a kunoichi so I would suggest that you read this as well due to the fact that it describes the first female to ever reach S rank, Nakano Uzumaki. She was known as the Hōshin Engi (A/N Soul Hunter), she was a bounty hunter before the Great Wars and she earned her nickname by becoming so feared, it was said that if your name ever appeared on her list your soul would be next to meet the Shinigami." she gave a small laugh and says "only one man ever managed to escape from her."

Temari, with a look of curiosity, says "who was that?"

The elderly woman replies "none other than her husband. The story goes he was a simple thief from a small country who took something from a noble and she was assigned to go track him down but it turned out that he was quite the slippery fellow. The two of them ended up playing a game of cat-and-mouse for over a year. By the end of which they ended up falling in love with each other and she had found out that he had been setup and he had not stolen anything from that noble and ended up dragging him back to the Land of Whirlpools due to the fact that he did something no one else had ever done before, he managed to get off her list alive."

Temari then reaches into her pouch and pulled out her money and says "I will take all 3 of the books."

Temari, after leaving the store, begins to walk home so that she can read the new books in peace. As she turns the corner, she sees a small group of boys playing on a crumbling wall. Right as she was about to tell them to get down, one of them begins to fall. Temari quickly runs towards the boy to hopefully catch him, but before he hit the ground, she managed to go on more than 3 steps before a wave of sand shot out of an alleyway managed to catch the boy.

Temari turns to look and sees Gaara slowly walking out of the alleyway, she then turns back and sees that the boy has been put on the ground. She then says "you should not be playing on this. You're lucky my brother was here to save you or you could have been really hurt." The group of boys quickly gives a bow and says "thank you" before running off.

Temari turns to look at her brother and says "were you following me?"

Gaara gave her a blank look and says "Uzumaki told me that we should lookout for our family and that was what I was doing."

Temari thinks to herself 'he really has changed since he got his seal fixed.' She then says "well let's go home. I actually managed to track down some books on his family." And for the first time in many years brother and sister walk through the village side by side.