2,518"Are you seriously gonna wear that?"
"Hell yes!" Naruto shouted the tip of his tongue peeking out from his teeth as he tried to push the string through the tiny opening.
"You're a ninja." Hana said drily, raising a slender eyebrow. "Not some jingling Kabuki. How the hell do you expect to pull off stealth?"
"With skill!" He answered smiling as the string slipped into the hole before shifting his grip and spreading the length of cord out to show off the two headbands tied to it, dangling like an oversized pair of dog tags.
Kakuzu's Takigakure and Hidan's Yukigakure symbols were quickly tied around his neck, the sheets of steel glinting there.
She face-palmed, half groaning. "You're going to get yourself killed with those."
"Hey come on!" Naruto pouted. "My first real kill was an S class ninja! Two of them! How many people can say that? I deserve to show off!"
"Yes clearly you're Hashirama come again." She groused "If of course we exclude the ass kicking you got afterwards."
"I didn't see you doing any better!" He shot back with a huff, finishing tying off his two trophies with a clink of metal as he pulled on the wire. "I'm gonna have nine of these by the time I'm done. One for each Akatsuki!"
"Again, only if we discount the ass kicking you got after."
"I'll get stronger." He answered simply.
"With what? Hopes and dreams?"
Naruto grinned. "Nah I've got a plan!"
"Mind sharing then? Uchiha Itachi is no pushover, not even when he was a green as a grasshopper's ass gennin."
Naruto shrugged. "Well one of the things that was helping him hand me my liver and beat down my delicate confidence and self esteem was because I just wasn't fast enough to get close whenever I realized I was in an illusion. Even when I would break it he'd just be able to stay far enough away to make it not matter. I couldn't get close enough to hurt him."
"So you're gonna learn some long range skills?" Hana asked.
"Hell no!" Naruto scoffed. "I'm just gonna get fast enough to punch his face in when I see him next time."
Hana slapped her forehead. "Honestly. You're sabotaging your stealth and now think you can just get fast enough to catch Itachi before he comes after you a second time? Are you trying to sound like an idiot or does it just come naturally."
"Ummm..."
"Nevermind." She rolled her eyes. "So fine. What's this plan of yours to get faster?"
Naruto smiled. "Well-"
The door opened and the two Konoha nin turned to see Bee, Samui, Karui and Omoi marching out of the Raikage's office.
"How'd it go?" The blond asked.
"We're cool." Samui answered before pointing behind her with her thumb. "You guys are up now though."
Naruto and Hana nodded moving from their respective seat and place on the wall before marching past the four members of the Kumo team and marching into A's place of work.
"Close the door." The mountain of a man growled, and both Konoha nin swiftly obeyed, closing the double doors with clicks.
"First off I'll say thank you for helping one of mine."
"No problem"
"Sure"
Then his big finger swiveled over to point at Naruto. "But you shouldn't have dragged Bee out of Kumo!"
"He dragged me!"
"You dragged eachother." Hana cut in before adressing A. "He didn't convince Bee anymore than Bee convinced him. They both went and everyone followed."
"Then you should have made him stay behind." A growled, glaring at them to get them to understand that they should just be quiet and accept the rebuke, unfair as it may have been. Bee's place was in Kumo and everyone should know that.
"Now." He took hold of a metal box on the side of his desk sliding it forward towards Naruto "By all accounts this is yours. The bounty on Kakuzu of Taki and Hidan of Yuki."
The blond blinked owlishly, leaning forward to open the box. He took a half glance inside before he slammed it shut, grinning like a loon!
Then A turned to Hana. "For your help." He shoved three scrolls forward. "Pick whichever suits you. It was meant to be used by our summons. But you can adapt it to those dogs of yours easy enough I think.
Hana opened each, finding them to be some B rank elemental techniques, nothing too fancy but something mainly Kumo-hawk summons used so she wouldn't find it in Konoha libraries most like. Still he was right it wouldn't take much to adapt given Inuzuka nin-ken intelligence was almost on par with summoned creatures.
She nodded, smiling in thanks as she pocketed the fire scroll "Thanks, though I wasn't really expecting' anything"
"That's why I gave it." A remarked before resting his elbows on his desk and glaring at Naruto. "Now, what can you tell me about the Uchiha's skill?"
The stupid smile on his face vanished, with the blond becoming serious in the next second. "He's strong as hell."
"I gathered that."
"No I mean really strong. He can do short, mid and long range, can do the strongest genjutsu I've ever seen, get rid of mine like he's ripping up cheap rice paper, fight in Kenjutsu. The guy's an all round powerhouse. And that's not even counting that bullshit eye of his. He's a fire element primarilly, but don't think he's limited to that. I saw him pulling off lightning jutsu, and a few other elements too!"
"Then how do you know he's fire?"
Naruto unhooked his weapon from his belt, showing off the wind blade. "This thing can channel people's natural affinity to make a weapon. Itachi's was fire."
"Hmm." The Raikage leaned back in his chair. "Any recommendations from your experience?"
"Other than not looking into his eyes I didn't see any weakness that can help. Not looking into his eyes makes the fight "survivable". Looking into them is an automatic dead ninja."
A's lips curled. "Just like most of the reports said. There are few ninja that can boast having no real weaknesses to exploit. Even other Akatsuki, like that Iwa nin, Deidara, have known fields where they're skills are sub par.
Naruto shrugged "Meh. I'll get him next time."
A raised an eyebrow, Hana was becoming more and more certain he'd taken a too solid blow to the head from the Uchiha.
"At any rate." The Raikage continued. We won't be able to keep your presence a secret for much longer. You'll have to be updated in the Bingo book soon. I'll keep the update from happening in our offices until we release you into Konoha custody. But regardless I need you to head down to administration to get your picture taken."
Naruto nodded.
A raven peered in through the window, standing on an opposing ledge.
"You didn't capture him?"
"The Raikage intervened."
Kushina sighed. "Why didn't you just grab him?"
Itachi raised an eyebrow. "He's no longer a mere twelve year old gennin. I believed whomever you've had him training with would have extensively trained him in manipulating his Bijuu. You know that no capture mission can be conducted safely unless the Jinchuuriki's power has been fully unleashed and bested. The ghost of Iwa it seems, taught him more rudimentary skills than specialization as a Jinchuuriki."
Kushina sighed. Trust Itachi to make a point, and deduce who else she had under her pay roll.
"And now he's in Kumo."
The Uchiha nodded. "My thralls inform me he's treated well, though neither he nor the Inuzuka have joined Kumo by any stretch. If I were to hazard a guess, A is keeping them in the village."
It took her a second or two to piece it together. "The negotiations."
Itachi nodded. "He'll hand them to Konoha. It will make alliances easier should he need it."
"After that stint with the Hyuuga I suppose he needs a showing of good faith." Kushina confirmed. "What would you say his skill level is?"
"Jounin, easilly. His Genjutsu is where mine was when I was innitiated into the Anbu, his ninjutsu is limited, but well practiced. Close range skills are diverse and unpredictable. Its his greatest strength the others seem to be more supplementary for it."
"Hmm."
"Orders?"
The red-head thought for a good minute. "Here's what you're going to do..."
Hana had an eyebrow hiked up into her hairline as the door to the temporary apartment opened to reveal Naruto lumbering in with an armful of thick textbooks. "I never took you for the type." She drawled as her dogs barked in greeting.
The blond set the books down, forming a seal to make three clones as he grinned at her. "I'm not!" He chirped before setting himself down on the bed as his clones took to the books.
Hana paused. "Wait...are...you making your clones read?"
Naruto nodded. "Yup. When I dispel them anything they've learned I'll learn instantly."
Hana's eyes nearly popped out of her skull. Looking at the three clones it didn't take her long to realize the potential for rapid improvement here if he could make more of them.
"There are some limits though." The blond offered. "Nobody but me could really use it. Their brain would fry without a way to heal quick..." His face scrunched up in thought. "Then there's also the fact that I sometimes have to relearn things."
"What do you mean?"
"I have to relearn how to do some stuff." He shrugged. "If you have a undred clones working on something, then yeah, you'll learn it faster, but you'll also learn a hundred mistakes. So you gotta take the time to practice out the mistakes with the techniques. So unlike a ninja who learns it the old fashioned way, and knows the technique inside out by the time he can do it properly I've got to keep my eyes open for mistakes I'm making that can make the technique not work or are making it less effective."
She nodded "You miss out on time spent but also miss out on some of the benefits."
"Yeah." He answered with a smile. "Like hand seal speed. Most Jounin just get faster at hand seals because of how many they've done in their lives but also the muscle memory on the technique they're gonna pull off. They can just do them without really thinking. I've either got to practice that separately or think about it when I'm gonna pull it off in a fight."
Hana opened her mouth to ask when she remembered his words. Muscle memory she supposed clones couldn't help with that so she shut her mouth.
Resting on the beds, little more than the rifling of pages between them for a moment Hana couldn't help but break the silence again. "So what exactly are you working on?"
"Well I need a way to get faster and A gave me an idea!"
"You're gonna re-create the lightning armor?" She asked, watching as one of her dogs moved to jump on Naruto's bed, the blond absently scratching at its head as he responded.
"Pft." Naruto scoffed. "Hell no! I wouldn't have the control for that even if it killed me. Its why I need a medium to channel wind chakra around me. But where A's technique is all purpose, attack defense and speed, I wanna make something that's purely speed oriented, I can cover offense if I can get close enough."
Hana frowned. "That sound's like it'll take a while even with clones. The Raikage's lightning armor is a complex Kinjutsu of pure elemental manipulation. If anyone could just recreate it it wouldn't be as dangerous as it is."
Naruto blinked. "Yeah so?"
"You don't really have that kinda time." She said Itachi could show up for you at any minute. Don't you think you should get something else to at least get you some kind of an edge?"
The dog beside her barked its agreement.
"Like what?"
She threw her hands up in a wide shrug. "You fought him. You tell me!"
Naruto cupped his chin, eyes scrunching up in thought.
Another silence descended on the two with Naruto thinking, his clones reading and Hana waiting.
After a minute or so, the Inuzuka woman once more, broke the silence. "By the way..." She ventured.
"Hmmm?"
"You're gonna try to escape Konoha custody again aren't you."
"Yup!" He answered with a smile.
"That Kisame guy was a monster." She said. "I can imagine Itachi's on the same level right?"
Naruto nodded a little confused at the apparent change. "I guess. I've never fought Kisame but Itachi's earned his reputation I can say that. I think he was just toying with me while we were fighting."
"I got the same feeling from Kisame...and he was fighting four shinobi, two Nin-ken and one Jinchuuriki..." She leaned back, the nape of her neck resting against the wall. "I guess..." She sighed, an agravated sound escaping her throat. Naruto's sharp hearing picked up her muttering. "Never any good at this shit."
She looked at him, lips pursed in something akin to displeasure, or impatience as he and the dog beside him tilted their heads, curious. "You-You're very brave...for doing what you did."
"Eh?" He blinked owlishly.
"You threw yourself to a bunch of S class wolves to keep your friends out of the crossfire." She clarified. "And you're gonna keep doing it again and again until they're dead...or you are. So...if you never hear it from any other Konoha-nin. Hear it from me then. What you've done might be one of the bravest thing's I've ever seen."
By the end of her little speech, Naruto was blushing with a rosy hue across his cheeks, scratching the back of his head as his smile strained. Too unused to receiving words of gratitude. "It-I...uhh...Don't worry about it." The dog at his side craned its neck up to lick at his cheek. He laughed.
She smirked. "It was...but if you ever say I got into this sappy crap to anyone I'll deny it into the grave and hurt you. We clear?"
His smile said it all.
It was an event that was a bit more ritualized than Tsunade was comfortable with. Her only consolation was that there were two other countries that were likely going to be going through the same thing in a few days.
She was standing beside the Daimyo in her full Hokage regalia, at the other side was the head of the Daimyo's standing samurai army. And arrayed before them were the six shinobi chosen to guard the Daimyo.
One by one they stepped forward. Two Anbu captains and four Jounin of the highest standing. The Daimyo's safety meant nothing less.
Each repeated the words and Tsunade gave no second thought until the speaker came up to the last of them.
"Haruno Sakura. Jounin of Konohagakure no sato. Subject to the esteemed Godaime Hokage Senjuu Tsunade. Is this your name and ranking?"
"It is." The pink haired girl answered.
"Do you swear to obey your commands, whatever these might be, as they are given to you by your lord and liege, the Daimyo of Hi no Kuni?"
"I so swear."
"Do you swear to guard him and all he owns, even unto death?"
"I so swear"
"Do you swear to guard him and all he owns, even unto the detriment of your home and family?"
"I so swear."
"Do you swear to cast aside all personal ambition? To exist solely for the protection of this, your lord and liege until you are released from such service?"
"I so swear."
"Then as my authority as speaker for his eminence I name you all Protectors of the Fire. Rise."
And all six guards rose as one, standing at rest before the fire Daimyo.
Tsunade prayed that it would be unnecessary to test any of them on these promises.
Optimism was never her strong suit.
Whelp here we are. A little shorter than my previous chapters but I expect the next one to be a little longer to make up for it. Hope you enjoyed it regardless. The next chapter will probably be the final one for this installment. After I post that I'll start updating Heroes and Fate again. And once I'm done with those I'll right up the "sequel" to this.
R&R