Eroninja - Chapter 39

Chapter 39: Know Pain: Part II








Tsunade was walking through the Torture and Intelligence Department with Ibiki as she prepared her village for what she was sure would be a very rough patch. With Jiraiya’s passing, Konoha now found itself in a rather difficult position since in purely militaristic terms it had lost a considerable asset. She hated thinking of her friend’s death in such a way, but in the shinobi villages which prided themselves on the quality of the men and women they trained. The death of Jiraiya was the equivalent of losing a third of the village’s military might. One of the reasons for the Toad Sannin’s constantly being on the move, outside of his skills as a spy, was because it had kept the enemies of the village on edge. By allowing Jiraiya to travel about freely it forced the other villages to account for him should they want to move against the Leaf Village.

Tsunade was aware that one of the reasons Iwa had sent a battalion of Genin led by the Jounin, whose body Seven now occupied, was because Jiraiya had been in the Land of Birds at the time. Although at the time Bird Country hadn’t bordered the Land of Earth directly due to it having not absorbed the Land of Noodles at that point, having Jiraiya just a short distance away had forced Iwa to move several squads of Anbu and Jounin to the border it had shared Noodle Country in case he retaliated for the attack on his home.

With him gone though, she knew it was only a matter of time before not only Akatsuki moved against the village, but Iwa and possibly Kirigakure as well. She couldn’t rule out Kumogakure unfortunately, but hoped they had made enough positive inroads that the Raikage didn’t decide to test Konoha’s defenses.

Entering a corridor where most of the initial interrogations that the village performed were held, she allowed her thoughts to wander a more personal matter. Naruto had informed her that morning that he intended to go to Mount Myoboku to train with the toads in the sage arts. He had apparently been rather busy as she slept because upon entering the Den’s main hallway she had nearly bowled over Naruko. The Hokage was aware that the young woman knew that it had been her to send Jiraiya after her. Tsunade would admit that a part of her still resented the woman for how she had treated Naruto. But looking at her, she knew that at the very least she had come to care for Jiraiya like Naruto and she did. As a result, she had let go of that anger as she had offered her condolences, which were quickly returned. The small exchange nearly had both women prepared to shed tears again, but the moment was broken when Naruto had informed her he planned to go to the home of the Toads to learn from Fukasaku.

Despite the small measure of understanding that the two women had just achieved. Tsunade would admit that she had felt like disagreeing with her lover when he had informed her that he had also extended the offer to learn from the Toad Sage to Naruko. However, a quick glance to Naruto had been all she needed to know that he would not be willing to listen to her concerns on the matter. Plus, she would admit to understanding that Naruko, as a fellow student of Jiraiya, would have as much right in trying to avenge him as anyone. It also didn’t hurt that she believed that the more time the young woman spent around Naruto, the less likely it would be that she would become a threat to him.

Although she knew it would not have mattered in the end she had still given her blessing, something which had obviously surprised Naruko. But Tsunade would admit it would have been totally worth it, if only because of the pleased smile she had received from her lover.

She hadn’t exactly been prepared when after inquiring as to when he would be leaving, he had answered immediately. A part of her had wanted to remain wrapped up in his arms, but she knew it couldn’t be as they both had duties to perform. She had been surprised that at least as far as she knew she had been the only one of his lovers to spend any time with him as he grieved. But she quickly realized that due to their shared grief the other women were giving her and Naruto a chance to work through it together.

She imagined some of them may have regretted that as after telling her that he was leaving immediately, he then disappeared into smoke as did Naruko. Although having been reversed summoned herself before, what had shocked her was that as soon as he disappeared she had been unable to feel him via her foxmark. She felt the sudden disappearance of Naruto send a ripple concern through the network of women connected to him. To her surprise, she even felt Konan’s alarm. However, when she felt her immediately calm it confirmed for Tsunade that the blue-haired was of the opinion that Pain was coming to collect Naruto. Closing her eyes Tsunade had pinpointed Konan’s location and although the lone female member of Akatsuki was closer to the village then she normally came. The Hokage doubted that she had entered the Land of Fire as of yet. Aware that Naruto may not be Pain’s first target, she nevertheless believed that the reason Konan had calmed so quickly was because she was of the opinion that they had found a safe place to hide Naruto.

With the understanding that Pain was likely coming soon, Tsunade had made her way to the teleporting seal located in the Den. Standing on it; she sent a calming sensation through the network of women who bore the same mark as her alerting his other lovers that Naruto was okay. She then bottled up her own emotions of pain and grief as she would follow Naruto’s example. Disappearing from the Den, she appeared in her own bedroom where she quickly stripped in order to shower and make herself presentable to those she needed to lead. There would be time to grieve later, as for now she needed to direct her energies in protecting the living.

Tsunade’s recalling of the events of that morning ended as she stepped into a room where the members of the Torture and Interrogation Department generally started their questioning before they began to use their more draconian forms of interrogation. She stepped into the room and although she had known as much due to her foxmark, she was still surprised to find Yakumo Kurama there. Entering behind the Hokage was Ibiki who gave Yakumo a brief nod before directing his attention through the glass where Anko was questioning the shinobi that Jiraiya had stored away in a toad summons of his. Tsunade stared at the man who was sitting back with a smirk before asking, “I take it that Inoichi and the others had no luck reading his mind.”

“It was inconclusive at best,” Ibiki answered crossing his arms in annoyance at his lack of progress. “Despite being a genin his mental defenses are quite high. However, I believe this is a result of some sealing method that Ame shinobi are put through. It would explain why we were caught so I’ll prepared by the news that Hanzo of the Salamander was no longer in charge there.”

Tsunade kept the frown she felt from reaching her face as she had known the truth of the matter ever since Konan had become a member of the Harem. It bothered her that if was information she hadn’t been able to share, but when measured against the safety of one of Naruto’s lovers, of her family, she would continue to do so. “Well the secret is out now,” she said as she watched the Rain Shinobi Ryusui smart off to Anko. Unable to hear what he said, she nodded to one of the Chunin operating the recording devices.

Understanding the silent command he pressed a button and suddenly the observation room was filled with the genin’s voice as he said, “Give it up bitch. Eventually Lord Pain is going to flatten this pathetic village and when he does, I’m going to enjoy being the one that makes you talk.”

“That’s big talk coming from a lowly genin like you,” Anko said amused. Her voice took on a throaty whisper as she added, “Although, it’s making me kind of hot. Why don’t you tell me what you’d do to get me to talk?”

Ryusui smirked as Anko stood while he said, “Oh, I think you know exactly what I'd do…”

Anko came around the table showing Tsunade that she was wearing a predatory smile as she said, “I think I do.” She then surprised Tsunade by reaching for the hem of her skirt and slowly began to pull it up. As she did so she said, “I’m thinking that if our roles were reversed, you’d have your way with me until I told you every little secret I knew.”

“You have no id…” Ryusui began to say but trailed off as a look of horror appeared on his face as Anko’s finished hiking her skirt up.

Tsunade was slightly confused as a glossy black dildo sprang up between her legs after she undid a strap that had tied it to her thigh. Although far from naked as she was wearing a pair of tight shorts beneath the harness the dildo was attached to, Ryusui's reaction seemed to convey quite the opposite. He tried to spring away from the kunoichi, but the heavy metal chair he was strapped to did not allow him to budge. “What the fuck are you?” Ryusui asked as Anko began stroking the plastic sex toy as if it was flesh and blood while she moaned accordingly.

Tsunade began to understand Ryusui’s reaction as she directed her gaze to Yakumo who gave her an amused smile. One Tsunade couldn’t help mirroring as Anko began to drool coating her toy in her saliva before rubbing it against Ryusui’s face. The Ame genin tried to recoil in horror since the genjutsu he was under had him believing that there was a giant cock between Anko’s legs which was coated in precum. “S-stop…please…” he said prompting Anko to pull back for a moment.

“Only if you start spilling your guts about Pain.”

“I’ll never betray Lord Pain.”

“That’s what I wanted to hear,” Anko said summoning a pair of snakes on top of the table. The snakes wrapped their tails around Ryusui’s wrists before slithering to the opposite side of the table where they wrapped themselves around the legs of it. Anko undid the bindings holding Ryusui to the chair as the snakes began to coil themselves around the table’s legs pulling him to his feet until he was bent over the top of it. Anko came up behind him and leaned over Ryusui making sure to press her package up against his ass as she whispered, “It’s always pleasurable for me when they talk after I have my way with them. It’s a good thing you worship Pain, because I don’t have any lube.”

He felt Anko reaching around for the clasp of his pants and not prepared to lose his anal cherry to a kunoichi shouted, “I’ll talk…I’ll talk…just put that thing away.”

Anko pouted. But instead of doing as he asked moved to the chair she had been sitting in earlier. Playing with the plastic toy like it was the real thing Anko said, “That will depend on what you have to say. Now talk!”

Ryusui nodded quickly as he said, “I don’t know much about Pain. But recently he’s had us searching everywhere for corpses.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know,” Ryusui said a little too quickly for Anko’s liking.

“I think you do,” Anko said preparing to stand from the chair. “Looks like I’m going to have to take a hands on approach after all.”

Ryusui whimpered pathetically but broke causing Anko to retake her seat as he said, “Alright, I can’t be sure what he needs them for. But a friend of mine says they are to house his Divineness.”

“What are you blathering about?”

“Lord Pain is a god,” Ryusui said his tone leaving little doubt that he believed as much. “My partner says that the corpses we deliver are how he is able to manifest himself. He one time witnessed Lord Pain as he was leaving the village with Lady Angel. He said that one of the men that were with Lady Angel was a corpse that he delivered to God’s Tower. He was sure of it even though the man’s hair was orange and he had these weird piercings in his face.” Ryusui lowered his head as he tried to tear his gaze from the angrily throbbing cock between the women’s legs

“Keep talking,” Anko said nudging his face up with her foot.

Tsunade turned away as the Ame genin began spilling his guts in order to pacify Anko. Most of it was of little use, but Tsunade hoped there would be a few nuggets of worthy intel trapped in the genin. Sure that Anko would find it if it existed she headed out of the room followed by Ibiki. “What do you think the significance of the corpses are?”

“I’m not sure,” The Hokage answered feeling a great deal of concern about it. “It could just be that Pain was aware that he would be entering into some major conflicts soon and would need replacements. But…”

“But?” Ibiki repeated wondering what the Hokage was thinking.

“But according to Fukasaku, Pain appears to have the ability to heal these paths somehow.” Tsunade frowned but added, “Still there may be a limit to how much damage he can heal or how many times he can do it.”

“It could also be that he would need a replacement if the path capable of healing was destroyed somehow,” Ibiki suggested.

“True,” Tsunade said but was positive there was something more to the matter. She let it drop for the moment as she said, “Ibiki, I want you to put together an intelligence packet on all we know of Pain thus far. Distribute it to every active shinobi with the orders they are to study it and prepare.”

Ibiki nodded as he didn’t need to ask for what they were to prepare. Turning to follow his orders, he knew exactly what she was telling them to prepare for.

Tsunade headed outside and delighted in the fresh air as she had always found the Interrogation Department’s headquarters to be quite oppressive. Following her own orders, she headed to a Training Field to find Yuugao and fifty of her Anbu waiting. Having directed the Anbu captain to gather her best shinobi she smiled as she removed her green jacket. Tossing it aside she said, “I have a meeting at eleven-thirty, please try your best to make it till then.”

Yuugao understood immediately as she pulled her blade to charge Tsunade. The other Anbu hesitated which prompted Tsunade to smash the ground sending the least prepared flying as the earth cracked and splintered. Yuugao managed to land in front of the Sannin and swiped at the blonde with her blade. Tsunade bent backwards to avoid the attack, and then retaliated with a kick that caught her opponent in the side of the head. However, instead of flying away the log she used as a substitution exploded into splinters. By then the rest of the Anbu had recovered and converged on the Hokage. By the time Tsunade needed to leave the many combatants had been reduced down to two. The two women left standing were still going at it as they felt the threat to their happiness that Pain represented greater than most.

******

Ino prepared to open her family’s flower shop. Luckily it was something she could do on autopilot at this point as her mind was stuck in the past. Thinking about the night before she unlike Naruto’s other lovers had decided to see how he was doing. However, upon approaching the abandoned building that the Den sat below she had begun to lose her nerve. Also, she realized it wasn’t because the others didn’t want to help him deal with his grief, but they were keeping their distance for Tsunade’s sake. Upon coming to that conclusion she understood that Tsunade may actually be taking the death harder than Naruto considering it had been another of her important people taken from her.

She was about to return home when she felt Naruto stirring as he began coming to the surface. When he appeared from the building she noticed a toad standing on his shoulder. The toad then dispelled itself leaving Naruto alone who then began heading to his apartment. Ino had doubted he was aware of her presence due to his looking lost in thought. He passed by the alley she had been in and despite consciously having decided to let him by without talking to him, was nevertheless surprised when her voice calling, “Naruto,” brought him to a stop.

When he turned to face her, she felt her heart go out to him as his eyes were still red and puffy from the tears he had shed. Yet, now that she was face to face with him, she couldn’t recall why she had decided to head out in the first place. Still, she knew there was one obvious place to start so quickly said, “Naruto, I’m so sorry for your loss.”

“Yeah,” Naruto said unemotionally, “me too.” Ino wanted to pull him into a hug, but considering what had passed between them recently held herself back. In truth, she knew that she loved him and was quite sure if she asked Hinata to verify it that her chakra would be a bright red. But, even though Naruto had told her that he still loved her, she felt that before she could return to their previous level of intimacy they needed to clear the air between them.

She guessed Naruto felt the same as he turned away and said, “Ino, I know I owe you a conversation. But I’m afraid it’s going to have to wait. I need to become stronger if I’m going to be ready to face Pain when the time comes. The Toad Sage that trained Jiraiya has offered to take me on as a student and I’ve agreed. I’ll be out of the village for a while.”

“H-how long?” Ino asked feeling a little relieved, but also disappointed. While she didn’t exactly relish admitting how much she had come to miss having him in her life. Or, how although she still didn’t like how reckless he was with his life, would admit she couldn’t imagine him being any other way. She would admit that learning it would be a while longer before she could take him into her arms was greatly disappointing.

To her surprise tears began to form in her eyes upon his answering, “I-I don’t know.” Her lover proved that he would probably always be capable of surprising her, as despite her belief that he was as hesitant to show his feelings through physical contact as she. He cupped her face and used his thumbs to wipe away her tears. He then stared into her eyes and genuinely said, “Ino, thank you,” before kissing her tenderly. While the kiss didn’t grow into a searing hot passionate one, it would remain one that Ino would remember forever as it confirmed to her that his feelings for her hadn’t faltered in the slightest. As well as it confirming to her that her heart belonged solely to him and the family she had made with him. Needless to say despite it appearing to be just a chaste kiss that lovers often shared in public, it stole Ino’s breath away.

Naruto pulled away first to stare at her face prompting her to open her eyes again. He smiled at her and although it still held quite a bit of pain in it. She took some solace in it appearing as if some of the pain had faded. He then stepped back as he sadly said, “Ino, I need to get going.”

She nodded in understanding so Naruto began to head towards his apartment where she then felt him Hiraishin to some location in Tea Country. He had returned briefly to the village, before disappearing once more. This time though his presence literally disappeared. Ino’s thoughts immediately began to believe the worse had happened, but she calmed as she felt Tsunade send a reassuring sensation through the network of women connected via the foxmarks which signified their commitment to Naruto.

The brief moment of fear she had felt when Naruto’s presence had disappeared did show Ino one important thing about herself. She truly didn’t care if the world became a better place or not. She cared because Naruto did. She was aware that Naruto stood at another crossroad in which he would choose just what kind of man he wanted to be. She felt this one was more crucial than the others as it would be the first time where Naruto would battle someone that had stolen a person he cared about from him. If Naruto decided to kill Pain in retaliation for what he did to Jiraiya, she felt it would be akin to his turning his back on Jiraiya’s dream which he had made his own. Of course, Ino couldn’t exactly see a way where a battle between the two didn’t end in one or the other’s death. However, she knew it would be what was in Naruto’s heart at the time he struck the final blow that would determine what path he would take afterwards. But truthfully to Ino it didn’t matter as long as he survived and if he did change after the fact by deciding the world needed to burn. Well so long as he wanted her by his side, she would be the first one to strike the match that did it.

The sound of a bell being hit by the door snapped Ino out of the dark place her thoughts had turned to. She threw on a happy smile as she greeted the early morning customer. Watching the woman as she looked through the newest arrivals, Ino shed her dark thoughts like a duck did water. The reason being that while Naruto was currently striving to come to terms with his own anger and rage at Jiraiya’s death. She had no doubt that he would find a way to still remain the man that could look at the world and believe he could make it a place where the Shinobi Villages saw each other as allies instead of enemies. It was her faith in him that made her believe that, as he wouldn’t be the man that she loved if he couldn’t.

******

Mikoto sighed as she sat in the warm water of the Hot Springs located on Kiyomi’s property. She wasn’t alone as she noticed Tsume Inuzuka and what she guessed was her daughter at the opposite end. She had been informed that all the women that would be at the bath were aware of her still being alive as well as her recent escape from Konoha Prison. However, she wasn’t surprised by Tsume’s lack of welcome as the two of them had never been close. Truthfully, she was of the opinion that Tsume more than likely hated her guts. Not that Mikoto could blame the woman for her opinion. The girl that Mikoto had been during the early days of her time in the Academy had not exactly been a pleasant one.

The reason being was that she had been afflicted with what her friend Kushina had described as Snooty Uchiha Syndrome. Mikoto hated to admit it, but she had been, especially before her having met the fiery red-head. Tsume as a member of what many in the Uchiha considered an inferior clan had often been a target of Mikoto's, and other aspiring Uchiha kunoichi, to pick on. Not that the future Inuzuka head ever would take it lying down, but considering there were very few kids willing to stand up to the Uchiha it meant more often than not she would find herself being ganged up on.

Things had continued on in that vein for several years with Mikoto being what many considered the queen of the academy until a new transfer student arrived. Mikoto smiled in the hot spring as she let the warmth of the water mingle with the similar feelings she had upon remembering Kushina’s first day at the Academy. Granted they hadn’t been friends, if anything she had come to see Kushina as a threat to her reign over the kunoichi of the school. Especially when during her introduction to the class she had stated her intention of being the first female Hokage. It had been Fugaku, her future husband and the man she had been betrothed to who had led the charge of boys mocking Kushina for her dream. Mikoto had found it amusing that a kunoichi from an inferior clan believed she could become Hokage when even an Uchiha had yet to earn the honor.

That amusement had lasted until the first recess, where Kushina had approached Fugaku and after demanding an apology had proceeded to pound him into the ground when he scoffed at the idea. Mikoto still had a hard time believing how easily Kushina had handled the other boys that had leapt to their leader’s defense. Mikoto’s disbelief wouldn’t last long as she had decided to avenge her betrothed’s embarrassment by handling the girl herself. Mikoto had learned the hard way that Kushina was more than a match for her despite her being the top kunoichi in class. The confrontation had ended with Kushina pinning her to the ground, where she had the preceded to rearrange her facial features with her fists. This was despite her ambushing the girl with several of her friends as back-up. But once Mikoto had gone down, she learned how much her friends were willing to do for her as they had scattered with just a look from the Uzumaki.

When Mikoto had reached her home that night, her mother had naturally wanted to have Kushina expelled. But, Mikoto had known that would only further make her appear weak in front of the other future kunoichi. However, what Mikoto didn’t realize was that the damage had already been done. She hadn’t been surprised when the next day she found Kushina and Tsume sitting next to each other in class. But, what had, but she realized in hindsight shouldn’t have been all that surprising, was how soon her so called friends had begun to gravitate towards Kushina. The reason being was that unlike her, Kushina hadn’t been concerned about things such as clan status or the like. None of that mattered to the Uzumaki; instead the only thing that mattered was whether or not they were kind to her and her friends.

Mikoto learned that one didn’t necessarily need to be her friend to fall under the red-head’s protective influence either. By the end of Kushina’s first year at the academy it could easily be said that she had taken Mikoto’s place as the queen of the Academy in a manner of speaking. Not that she cared about such things as she felt that it had no bearing on her becoming Hokage. However, there were plenty of people who did, especially since as former targets of the previous queen felt they could get a little payback now that she was not the most feared girl in the school. Being on the receiving end of an ambush, Mikoto found herself backed into a corner until Kushina had charged in hitting the ring leader in the jaw.

Mikoto still remembered the scene of being on her knees due to a sprained ankle while behind a defiant Kushina as her attackers tried to reason with the red-head. But, the other girls realizing their words wouldn’t sway Kushina to stand aside decided to take her out as well feeling it would raise their own popularity in a similar matter as it had the Uzumaki. But Mikoto understood while watching Kushina fight that even if the other girls had managed to win. The people that had befriended Kushina wouldn’t abandon her as they had Mikoto. She realized that the people that had become Kushina’s friends had done so based on the strength of her personality, not because of the clan she belonged to or her having bested Mikoto previously.

Still despite that as Kushina, after handling the would-be bullies, carried Mikoto home on her back the Uchiha had asked, “Why?”

“Why what?” Kushina had replied confused. Yet, having some idea as to what Mikoto was inquiring about she answered, “They were picking on you.”

“B-but still there are plenty of people who think I deserve it,” Mikoto had countered.

“Well, I don’t,” Kushina said blowing out an annoyed breath, “Besides, if I had just walked away and let those girls have their way then I wouldn’t have been able to ask if you would be my friend.”

“Y-you want me to be your friend?” Mikoto asked not quite sure if she was hearing the girl correctly.

Kushina nodded her head quickly and looking over her shoulder gave the Uchiha a wide smile as she answered, “Absolutely! You’re really strong and you’re kind of like I was when I first arrived.”

“W-what do you mean?”

“Well,” Kushina said pausing as she thought a moment, “You might have been surrounded by a bunch of people. But deep down, I just felt you were lonely just like I was.”

“B-but I attacked you,” Mikoto said still surprised that the red-head would want her as a friend.

Blowing out a breath nosily indicating her disregarding Mikoto’s point Kushina countered, “Who cares about that? What kind of place would if it be if people can’t let the past go in order to build better relationships in the future?”

Despite her upbringing telling her it was a weakness to show emotions to outsiders, Mikoto found herself tearing up as she began to tell Kushina she accepted. However, before she could a screech of, “Mikoto,” filled the air. Mikoto looked up to see her mother bearing down on them as she added, “You little demon what have you done to my daughter?”

Mikoto felt Kushina stiffen at being called a demon. Kushina quickly set her down before taking off running but not before shouting, “Let me know what you think tomorrow at school okay?”

Mikoto’s mom had let Kushina go to tend to her daughter but promised the little hellion wouldn’t get away with it. That was until Mikoto had told her to drop it. When her mother had asked her why, the future Uchiha matriarch had given a genuine smile as she answered, “Because she’s my friend.”

True to form when Mikoto had approached Kushina the next day the Uzumaki had welcomed her into her circle of friends warmly. That wasn’t to say that all of them had welcomed her though as Tsume had never truly forgiven her. That didn’t mean they didn’t put their differences aside when around Kushina, but after her death neither woman had seen the point in continuing to try to get along.

Mikoto ended her recollection of the past in order to concentrate on her current situation. Watching Tsume with her daughter caused her own heart to grow pained as she thought of her children, but pushing past the pain she tried to spend some time trying to understand what her role in bringing Sasuke back to his senses was going to be. It proved difficult due in part to her watching Tsume and her daughter. But it also stemmed from her being incarcerated for close to a decade. There was a list of things she wanted to indulge in now that she was free and the dip in the hot-springs was just the first. She smirked as she thought of how her ability to leave the mansion was a rather recent change of events as she had asked Naruto shortly after he had brought Seven to the mansion from the prison.

Naruto had quickly agreed, provided that she promised him not to try to escape. Mikoto had, but nevertheless hadn’t been surprised when Kiyomi quickly interjected that she refused to modify the seal binding Mikoto to the mansion’s interior. This had sparked a rather heated argument between Naruto and the Fox Bijuu, who had been in the midst of training the Taki-nin to be more self-sufficient. During the argument, Naruto still upset about what had been done to the three kunoichi had jerked his thumb towards a quiet Miya Asama that had been sipping tea and asked, “Just who the hell is this? Don’t tell me you went out and find yourself another guinea pig?”

Naruto went stock still as an evil aura seemed to fill the room. Turning, he saw what appeared to be a purple demon head floating in the air. Startled, he had fallen backwards and watched it seemingly fade into Miya, whose face never lost its cheerful demeanor. After taking another sip of her tea she said, “If you were curious as to who I am, all you needed to do was ask? It’s quite rude to just point and yell.”

Mikoto had smirked due to her long practice of picking up what a willful child would mumble under his breath so heard Naruto mutter, “And just how rude is it to try and give a person a heart attack to make a point.”

“What was that,” Miya replied the demon head appearing again as if to eat the blond man.

Naruto reacted accordingly covering his face as if to ward off the demon, but then peeking out between his fingers asked, “Um…where did you learn that jutsu?”

Miya appeared surprised by the question but indulging Naruto’s curiosity answered, “From my sensei, why do you ask?”

Growing a little nervous Naruto answered, “Well it just kind of reminds me of something I saw when Zabuza killed Gato.”

“Zabuza,” Miya said thoughtfully before saying, “Oh yes, he was the monstrous child Takehito-sensei took on as a student after my squad.” Naruto frowned at her description and was glad Haku was out of the village as he could only imagine how she would react to it. Miya was able to pick up on Naruto’s seeming displeasure at her description of Zabuza so informed him, “Trust me, it is a fair explanation for what that boy was. He, without any warning, leapt the fence where the graduating class of the academy was slaughtering each other and proceeded to kill everyone. Yet despite this, no one wanted to train him. Takehito-sensei was in between students at the time and decided to make him his apprentice. But, how do you know him?”

“He was the first real ninja that I faced as a shinobi,” Naruto said standing, “I was also there when he fell in battle to protect the dignity of someone special to both of us.”

“Zabuza’s dead,” Miya said surprised. Naruto nodded prompting her to ask, “What about Kisame?”

“No, he’s still kicking and a member of Akatsuki,” Naruto answered, but Mikoto had been able to tell that he didn’t like the look that had appeared on Miya’s face.

Especially as she had, “Good,” darkly with a look that she would picture a wolf wearing as it licked its chops.

Mikoto was about to recall her reunion with Seven, but let it drop as she noticed a nude blonde woman approaching the hot spring. Although kept in the dark about a lot of recent events while in the prison, she had heard a few of the major ones like the death of the Third and how Tsunade had taken his place. She recognized the approaching woman from when she had lived in the village, and although she had heard rumors of how she had begun to change her appearance to hide her age, would admit that she was surprised the woman would choose such a young age to henge herself to. But as Mikoto watched her, she began to believe that as incredible as it was the Hokage wasn’t wearing one at the moment. She also noticed the small fox mark on her inner right thigh. Having noticed the ones on Tsume and her daughter she began to wonder as to the significance of the mark.

She wasn’t surprised Tsunade had decided to give her a wide berth as she slipped into the water. Besides the old rivalries that she was sure the Senju had experienced with members of her clan, Mikoto felt it was also due to her outsider status afforded to her by her not having the same mark as the other women that she had thus far encountered. Mikoto turned her head away as Tsunade began to study her discreetly, but returned the gesture by watching her and the other women via their reflections in a decorative waterfall that was feeding the spring.

Although she doubted the Sannin didn’t know she was still being observed it was apparent she had wanted to ask the Inuzuka clan head something and wasn’t going to let the Uchiha’s presence dissuade her. However, she was beat to the punch by Tsume, who asked, “What’s up with the seal? I thought you didn’t plan to use it again wanting to make your second chance last this time around.”

Mikoto hadn’t been able to “hear” what Tsume had asked since she had kept her voice down as she was aware Mikoto had yet to be made aware of all of their secrets. But the Uchiha had read the woman’s lips via her reflection in the various water sources, something that was extremely difficult to do normally, but made considerably easier via the Sharingan.

Tsunade made sure to keep her head directed away from Mikoto as she answered, but the Uchiha was able to read what she said due to her reflection on the water’s surface. To her surprise Tsunade had answered, “Well, considering what we may end up facing I figured it was prudent to begin storing a reserve of chakra again.”

“Aren’t you worried about the side-effects?” Hana asked worriedly.

“No,” Tsunade replied, “Actually it kind of ties into what I wanted to ask your mother about.”

“What’s that?” Tsume asked leaning forward in interest.

Tsunade appeared to grow a little nervous and sent a look towards Mikoto who aware the glance was coming had deactivated her Kekkei Genkai. She reactivated it again when Tsunade looked away and just picked up her saying, “…as one of the oldest currently among us. I was curious if you’ve been noticing any changes.”

“What sort of changes?” Tsume asked not sure what the Hokage was trying to ask her.

“I think she means changes similar to what she’s gone through mom,” Hana said carefully obviously not taking it for granted Mikoto wasn’t looking in their direction.

“Exactly,” Tsunade said sending a grateful nod towards the younger Inuzuka.

Tsume seemed to grow embarrassed as she answered, “No…not really.”

The two women frowned, but Hana said, “Well I have.” Tsunade obviously was surprised at the admission, but it disappeared as Hana explained, “Not in me, but in Mom.”

“Really, what sort of changes,” Tsunade said deciding to go with the secondary verification of her theory. “Well, she’s grown a little tighter if you know what I mean. Plus, she wouldn’t want to admit it but some bitch had been challenging her for her spot as the Inuzuka head. They fought a few months before…Mom’s new relationship…and she barely held on for the win. The woman challenged her again recently and Mom beat her hands down.”

“Really,” Tsunade said giving Tsume a telling look.

The Inuzuka huffed as she said, “Fine, I admit it. It feels like I’m getting the same stuff you did only spread out over a period of time. I first began to notice it when my times as I ran around the village started improving instead of getting worse. I just chalked it up to my…being involved. I’m guessing that your prying means that it isn’t just that.”

Tsunade nodded as she began to get out of the water while answering, “We can talk about it further later.”

Mikoto frowned as she deactivated her jutsu since Tsume and Hana had decided they wanted to hear what the Hokage was thinking now as they followed her out of the water. Mikoto began to try and piece together what she learned to see if it matched with the other tidbits she had been able to gleam. However, sensing she wasn’t alone she said, “Well if it isn’t my Bijuu buddy?”

Seven sighed at Mikoto’s annoyed tone as she slid into the water next to her. “Are you really going to keep calling me that? It’s beginning to grate on my nerves.”

“Really,” Mikoto said, “Imagine how I must have felt upon learning that the woman I was trusting my life too was actually a freaking Bijuu.”

“I don’t know, maybe relieved that you had such a powerful ally at your back,” Seven said. Her tone grew slightly dark as she asked, “Or, was it upon learning of my Bijuu nature that you suddenly found yourself less capable of trusting me.”

Mikoto met the other woman's stare, but ended up looking away first as she said, “Or maybe I was hurt that you apparently didn’t feel you could trust me.”

Seven stared at her for a moment before cracking up laughing as she said, “Really, I can imagine how much you would have trusted me after that conversation. Hey Mikoto, I’m actually not a disgraced Iwa kunoichi, but actually an ancient chakra beast sealed away in a disgraced Iwa-nin whose body is now mine to control. It was done to me by my sister, also an ancient Bijuu, all for the sake of getting eyes in the prison to put down a plot by one of Konoha’s elders. Oh, and less I forget my sister also happens to be the Kyuubi no Kitsune who despite trying to flatten Konoha before, is now actively trying to protect it.” Seven gave Mikoto a sarcastic look as she added, “Yeah, I’m sure if I told you that. You would have still decided to trust me.”

Mikoto stared at Seven blankly before giggling as she admitted, “I suppose you have a point. Still, I can’t say it doesn’t bother me that I’m apparently still being kept in the dark about quite a few things.”

Seven gave her an understanding look as she replied, “I know. But my hands are kind of tied. Kiyomi as I’m sure you can tell is not the most trusting, and can be pretty secretive. Plus she hates your clan with a passion.”

“Because of Madara?”

“And quite a few others,” Seven said, “He was just the first to actually succeed at controlling her. However, your clan has been chasing our power for quite a long time. They just most often focused on her.”

“I suppose I can understand why I would make her nervous,” Mikoto said, “But I’m not my clan.”

“True, but she hates your son something fierce as well. I know Naruto hopes you can talk him into abandoning his quest for revenge. Kiyomi doesn’t hold out much hope of you succeeding.”

Mikoto looked pained as she stared off into the distance before saying, “I see, it appears you’ve earned your sisters trust. I’m happy for you.”

“Thanks,” Seven said her tone obviously showing how pleased she was to be in Kiyomi’s good graces again.

Mikoto continued to look away as she said, “Naruto does strike me as a rather optimistic person, perhaps overly so. Kiyomi said she was a part of Naruto when Sasuke defected. So what does she believe my chances of convincing Sasuke to abandon this path of an avenger are?”

Seven sighed, before saying, “Look my sister could be said to be overly pessimistic…”

“Please,” Mikoto said to which Seven could tell the Uchiha expected Kiyomi’s read of the matter would be the more accurate.

Seven paused for several moments but finally answered, “Kiyomi says that no matter how she looks at it. Unless you are prepared to kill Sasuke, you’re the one that doesn’t walk away from the encounter.”

Despite having expected such an answer Mikoto angrily snapped, “Where does she get off saying that? She doesn’t know Sasuke.”

Seven looked down at the water before replying, “Maybe…but maybe she isn’t the only one.” Seven put her hands up defensively as she said, “Look, Kiyomi’s views of your son may be tainted…but the way she lays everything out is pretty damn persuasive. According to her, you’re the one that first clued the Hokage in on the pending rebellion. Kiyomi believes that if Sasuke is aware of that then he’s going to kill you before you can even talk to him. Even if he doesn’t, he may be convinced to abandon his path, but the second he does learn you become enemy number one again.”

Mikoto couldn’t deny that Kiyomi’s scenarios sounded plausible especially considering the Uchiha’s Curse of Hatred. She decided she didn’t want to think about it any further at the moment so turned her attention to Seven. She noticed that the woman seemed far more relaxed. Granted the last time they had been in a dangerous situation where the slightest misstep could had led to their doom so she figured Seven’s calm demeanor may just because of the change of venue. But if Mikoto had to really place her finger on it Seven’s demeanor was that of a woman that just did a stint in prison and had gotten out to enjoy a good fucking. Yet, Mikoto laughed the idea off as her being in need of a good lay herself.

Mikoto dropped the current train of thought before she could get herself too worked up over the idea. Sighing in contentment she said, “I’m glad Kiyomi relented enough to modify the seal so I could at least roam the grounds. These hot springs are incredible.”

Seven quickly agreed, but said, “They are. But to be honest considering how quickly she did, I admit to being surprised that she is being so steadfast in keeping those Taki kunoichi. It’s obvious Naruto is not going to just let the matter drop. But for whatever reason she seems determined to keep them around. Yoruichi is just as confused since she’s seen how much Naruto’s opinion matters to her. ”

Mikoto got that feeling as well, but said truthfully, “Honestly, I can’t say I pity them. If they had their way I’d be one of Akame’s mindless drones right now.”

Seven nodded, but said, “I can. Especially after hearing what happened to that new kunoichi.”

Mikoto’s curiosity was piqued as she sat up asking, “What new kunoichi?”

Seven shrugged before saying, “Yoruichi told me about her. Apparently, she was kidnapped some years ago and had a false personality implanted in her. The kicker is she was somehow aware of everything that happened over the years. Well at least until that Kushina lady wiped her memory of that time.”

Mikoto looked stunned as she said, “K-kushina…you mean Kushina Uzumaki.”

“Yeah,” Seven answered noticing the color draining from Mikoto’s face.

“I-it can’t be,” Mikoto said incredulously, “she’s dead.”

“I’m not sure of all the particulars,” Seven replied not sure why her friend looked so pale, “But she is apparently sealed in her son and is now connected to Kiyomi’s original chakra form.” Mikoto stood and moved to get out of the hotsprings, but was stopped as Seven grabbed her risk to ask, “Where are you going?”

“I…I need to speak with Naruto…if Kushina is a part of him…I need to tell her why I couldn’t look after him better.”

“You can’t,” Seven said matter of factly.

“Why?” Mikoto responded almost pleadingly.

A pained look crossed Seven face as she answered, “He’s out of the village at the moment.”

Mikoto sank back into the water fearing the reason that Kushina hadn’t made her presence known to her was because she was upset at her. But wanting the chance to explain her reasons asked, “F-for how long?”

“I don’t know,” the Bijuu replied, “He recently lost his teacher…a man named Jiraiya. He’s gone to the home of the toads to learn the Sage arts in order to grow strong enough to defeat his teacher’s killer.”

“I see,” Mikoto said sadly feeling horrible for the young man. Detecting a hint of fear in her friend she asked, “What’s wrong. You seem concerned about this training he undertaking.”

Seven Chomei looked up at the sky and although only exposed to his presence via the seal for a short time already missed the comforting warmth he admitted into the network of women she was connected to. Knowing the perils of the training he was undertaking she answered with a question, “Have you ever encountered a person who claimed to be a master of the sage arts before?” Mikoto shook her head prompting Seven to explain, “The reason for that is you could build a mountain with the number of people who’ve died trying to master Natural Energy for every one person that has ever achieved that title.”

Mikoto was surprised at the genuine concern Seven was displaying so placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder to say, “He’ll be fine. I know for a fact he comes from a family that refuses to be intimidated by the impossible.”

*****

Whack!

“Argh, Dammit this is fucking impossible,” Naruto groaned as he rolled on the ground to ease the pain in his back where Fukasaku had hit him with the staff that knocked the natural energy out of him.

Naruko sighed in annoyance before saying, “Just take it like a ma… (whack)…god dammit that hurts.”

“Honestly you two,” Fukasaku said shouldering his staff as he watched Naruto roll on the ground and Naruko rub her head, “It’s like you’re actually getting worse at gather and controlling natural energy.”

Naruto sat up as he replied, “I’m in so much pain here that it’s hard to concentrate. I beginning to think you’re mistakening the swelling for me turning into a toad.”

Fukasaku chuckled lightly as he smacking his hand with the staff gently as he responded, “Well I think you would agree it is better to be safe then the alternative.” Both Naruto and Naruko looked around the pool of toad oil where they were training to take in all the frog statues that stood in testament to all those that had tried to master the power of a sage and failed. They nodded their agreement to the Sage, who then said, “Good, let’s take a few more whacks at it and call it a night.”

“Did you have to say whacks?” Naruko said dryly as Naruto took a cross-legged seat next to her again. She closed her eyes as she sat in a similar position and felt the cool oil that Fukasaku began splashing on her and Naruto in order to aid in the ability to both feel and call on the natural energy that surrounded them.

Naruto took a few more moments to ready himself for his next attempt. Looking at Naruko out of the corner of his eye, he was somewhat regretting bringing her along. It had nothing to do with their history together, but because of the first step to becoming a sage. Namely, he found it quite hard to concentrate as a beautiful woman, dressed simply in a pair of tight black shorts and a white sports bra, was being coated in oil. He was just glad that the old toad had yet to catch on to how distracting he was finding his fellow student of Jiraiya as her skin glistened from the oil and the setting sun. Closing his eyes he tried to get his head straight and concentrate on the task before him. However, he let out a small self-deprecating chuckle as he thought, “This is most likely karma for all the times I used that jutsu in the past.”

Naruto though would be quite surprised to learn that he wasn’t the only one unable to fully concentrate on the first stage of Senjutsu training. “Why’d I have to spy on him when he was with his lovers?” Naruko questioned herself. While it was true that the event helped Naruko come to terms with her gender, she didn’t think it would have been much of a concern. However, that was until Fukasaku had explained what the first step of their training would entail. Naruto, who had shown up to the training in a loose fitting A-shirt and shorts, upon learning he’d be splashed with oil had quickly pulled his shirt off. Naruko upon seeing his shirtless frame had suddenly found herself propelled back to the day she had peeked on him as he had pleased several of his lovers. His soon being coated in oil hadn’t made it any easier for her to concentrate.

Yet, she did eventually manage to find her center so began to strive once more to balance both her physical and spiritual energy with the natural energy she was gathering. For a moment, she began to feel her senses expand as she became more in tune with the world around her. She attributed this to the fact that she was taking in the energy given off by all living things. Fukasaku had told them that one of the internal signs that pointed to a true sage was their being hyperaware of the people and environment they found themselves in.

However, it all slipped away as pain became her world when Fukasaku took his staff to the back of her head. “Ow…shit!” she cursed rubbing the spot he hit with both her hands.

Fukasaku didn’t say anything as he warily watched Naruto having grown accustomed to their failing to adequately balance their chakra in close proximity to each other. Naruko also half expected for Naruto’s grunt of pain to shortly follow, however when the pain in her head faded and he hadn’t called out she focused on him to see him still sitting in the same pose as before.

Naruko watched as the seconds turned into minutes. Fukasaku also watched on and began scratching his chin as he said thoughtfully, “Hmm, very good. He’s gathering it pretty steadily now.” Naruko felt a spike of jealousy as it appeared Naruto was on the verge of proving she was nothing but a less talented copy. But it turned into amusement as his features began to morph and their toad sensei said, “There it is,” before whacking him on the head with his staff.

She giggled as Naruto rubbed the top of his head with his hands as if to ease the pain and asked, “Do you really need to hit us so hard with that thing?”

“No,” Fukasaku replied causing both blonds to look at him evilly until he added, “I could give you a half-hearted pat and not knock all the natural energy out of you causing you to turn into toad statues.”

“I was just asking,” Naruto said properly chastised as he didn’t want to become a garden decoration.

Fukasaku chuckled in amusement as he began to leap away towards his home as he said, “That’s enough training for one night youngsters. Let’s go get a good meal and call it day.”

Both Naruto and Naruko paled as they began to wonder where they could get such a meal since neither of them could call the bug heavy dishes Shima prepared good. Naruko was just resigning herself to the upcoming battle with her stomach, when she heard Naruto say, “Actually do you think it would be alright if I pass on dinner…I really want to check on how my clones are coming along with the shelter they are building.”

“I’ll let Ma know,” Fukasaku said, “I guess it’ll just be…”

“Actually, I should go as well,” Naruko said not wanting to face the possibility of an extra helping since Naruto wasn’t going to be there, “I’m not all that hungry and would like to settle in for the night.”

“Are you sure? I know it might be a little cramped, but you can both stay at my home.”

“That’s okay,” Naruto said quickly as Naruko nodded her head rapidly, “We wouldn’t want to impose and besides by now my clones probably built us a pretty cozy place to stay. No sense in letting their hard work go to waste.”

“Very well, have a good night youngsters.”

“You as well,” Naruto said. A moment later he stopped and asked, “Speaking of clones, do you think the training would go faster if I used some during training. That way I could get a lot of experience in a short amount of time.”

Fukasaku paused for a moment giving the matter some thought before answering, “I suppose that might be possible. However, we’ll start out with only two for each of you. We don’t want too many since if one turns all the way then you’d share its fate. Well, unlike you two, I’m famished so goodnight.”

Fukasaku disappeared down his path, and almost as soon as he was gone the silence that had descended on the area was ruined by the sound of twin grumbling stomachs. “I’m so hungry,” Naruko whined as she rubbed her stomach.

“Me too,” Naruto said trying to ignore the gurgling coming from his protesting gut. “But, eating Shima’s cooking would be just as bad since I’d be throwing up whatever I ate.”

Naruko followed as Naruto began heading to the area she figured his clones had decided to build a shelter. Naruto had decided to build it shortly after their breakfast with Shima and Fukasaku, and although the toad couple had offered to let them stay in their extra room. It would have been confining for one person, let alone two. Therefore, after making sure it was alright, Naruto had created several clones to build them a place to stay.

Naruko watched Naruto as he apparently knew exactly where he was going although neither of them had explored the area after arriving early that morning. She guessed that one of his clones must have dispelled itself to let the young man know where they had built the place they would be calling home during their training. Naruko was about to ask how much further when the delicious smell of something cooking reached her nose. Her stomach responded immediately, and before she knew it she was running to find out what it was. To her surprise waiting at the end of the path wasn’t the simple shelter she expected to find, but a small cottage. Still milling about were several clones putting on the finishing touches, but what captivated Naruko attention was the smoke coming from just behind the cabin. She looked behind her hearing Naruto approach as he either already knew about what was behind the great smell or had decided to conserve his energy. He smiled at her, making Naruko guess her face still contained some of the surprise she felt from just how busy his clones had been. “You do nice work,” she said complementing him.

“Thanks,” Naruto replied beginning to move pass her, “I guess all those lame D-ranked missions paid off.”

Naruko nodded in agreement although she didn’t share many of those memories with Naruto due to them being a happy period of his life. Still the results spoke from themselves. She watched as he approached a clone to ask, “I trust you weren’t detected?”

“Hey man, have a little faith,” the clone replied annoyed at being questioned, “We stuck to the plan. No one knows that we Hiraishined to Wave. We didn’t use the mark on Tsunami but the kunai you left buried on the Whirling Tide’s Manor property. We then henged ourselves in order to purchase the supplies.”

“Good,” Naruto said with a curt nod, “I wouldn’t want the others to worry if word reached them I appeared in Wave. Thanks for all your hard work.”

The clone nodded before whistling getting all the clones attention. It then burst into smoke which the other clones did following its example. Naruto began to move around back causing Naruko to follow. The kunoichi came to a screeching stop though as she found that on top of everything else the cabin was built next to a small pond being feed by a waterfall. Naruko already picturing herself bathing under it turned to Naruto saying impressed, “An outdoor bath, an inside and outside fire pit, and supplies, just how long were you planning this?”

Naruto shrugged, before replying, “It just came to me after breakfast. If we’re going to give our all during training then we can’t be half starving or tired from tripping over each other at night.” Naruto sat down next to the fire and pulling the lid off the pot began to spoon the food that one of his clones had been cooking into a bowl. Holding it out to Naruko he added, “If we’re going to stop Pain and avenge Pervy Sage then we are going to need to dedicate everything we have to this training. Isn’t that right boss?”

Naruko took the bowl which had been filled with a stew and sat across from her fellow blonde. Commenting on his calling her boss she asked, “You’re not mad that Gamabunta made me a lieutenant when he stills calls you a lackey?”

Naruto chuckled before giving her a smile that she knew had melted quite a few women’s hearts already as he said, “I can’t say I’m all that surprised. Gamakichi explained it to me during one of our training breaks. He told me you’ve incorporated summoning into your fighting style and even managed to impress the Boss Toad. From what I can understand, Gamabunta is just glad that you don’t just summon him into the same messed up situations that I tend to.”

Naruko returned his smile as she replied, “He may have mentioned how nice it is to be summoned to deal with simple bandits from time to time. But are you really okay with me having the same summons as you?”

“Why wouldn’t I be,” Naruto asked in turn giving her a confused look as he paused in filling his own bowl. “I’ll be the first to admit I don’t use summoning as efficiently as I probably could. Not to mention the Boss Toad has a reason to be annoyed with how I summon him. It’s always either been to fight someone else’s giant summons or a Bijuu. To be honest I don’t think he’s ever really forgiven me for summoning him to fight that monster summons made of sea water. Besides, from what I’ve seen you’ve earned their respect and that in a nutshell is all that matters.”

Naruko couldn’t help feeling embarrassed as Naruto praised her. Hoping to change the subject she said, “It must be kind of a shock being cut off from the others.”

“A little,” Naruto conceded, “Fukasaku seems to think that it’s due to whatever it is in the atmosphere that keeps the Toad Oil from evaporating. But, it isn’t a true barrier since I can still Hiraishin.” Naruto looked up at the sky before turning his attention to Naruko as he added, “Not being able to feel the others may be a blessing in disguise.”

Surprised at the revelation Naruko asked, “Really? Is that why you didn’t want your clones making contact?”

Naruto inclined his head as he answered, “Yes. While on one hand being constantly connected to them and being able to sense their constant presence is a true gift. With everything that is going on I don’t know if I could truly concentrate if that was still the case. I’m so worried about Komachi that I keep trying to reach out to get a sense of how she is doing.”

“Can’t you “look in” on her using the Hiraishin portion of the foxmark?”

“Yeah, but I’m afraid if I do that without the emotional portion I’ll misconstrued the situation and make things worse.” Naruto tore his gaze from the heavens to look into the fire, the light of which highlighted how worried he was. “The same could be said for Konan as well. I know she wouldn’t just let Jiraiya face Pain. I keep wondering if she may have tipped her hand somehow and might be in danger.” Looking at Naruko, who could see his determination, he added, “But, I can’t be worrying about that now and need to trust in everyone to hold things together until I’m ready to face Pain.”

“You mean we are,” Naruko corrected.

He gave her another bright smile as he said, “Forgive me, I misspoke.”

Naruko nodded, before returning his smile with one of her own as she said, “Well don’t let it happen again. We’re in this together.”

*****

Komachi didn’t know where she was as she awoke to find herself bound and gagged in a tight box that appeared to be aboard a slow moving wagon. Although her chakra was sealed her foxmark still gave her a general idea of where she was in relation to Naruto’s other lovers. To say that she was surprised to find herself back in Konoha would be an understatement. In hindsight she supposed she shouldn’t have been since she knew that whoever it was who had alerted Danzou had been highly connected to the Clan Council since it had been only after Tsunade had informed them that the information had leaked. While the evidence didn’t mean the person was a counselor, Komachi couldn’t ignore the possibility either.

Taking further stock of her situation she realized that she had been stripped naked so realized the people that had ambushed her were not taking any chances that she was wearing some sort of tracking seal. She felt her face twist into a smirk, a still unusual gesture for her, as she realized that there taking her into the village meant they hadn’t found her foxmark. To her that confirmed her ambushers had been Root, since she figured normal bandits or thieves would have explored her nakedness in a manner that may have uncovered the location of her mark just pass her lower lips.

Closing her eyes she tried to recall details of the attack, but unfortunately due to their preparations and skill she hadn’t caught sight of them. She supposed that since she had been moving from Root safe house to safe house as she avoided the Anbu sent by Tsunade to capture her. She shouldn’t have been surprised that they had managed to get the drop on her. Naturally her plan had always been to link up with the remnants of Root, but she hadn’t necessarily wanted to be at such a disadvantage during that encounter.

Komachi let her mind drift to Naruto and she wondered how he was doing. During her travels from the village word had reached her of Jiraiya’s death. Now able to place why she had felt such pain coming from him, she felt her heart begin to hurt. Understanding that the pain was a result of her own strong feelings for Naruto, Komachi was shocked to learn emotions could connect her to people she had never even meant. It was also at that moment as her mind began to make plans to abandon her current mission to find Jiraiya’s killer and make him pay that Komachi realized at some point without her realizing it she had come to love Naruto. It also made her realize just how daunting her lover’s ambition was. She had never met Jiraiya, but due to her connection to Naruto and the pain she had felt him in had been prepared to strike out in order to avenge him. She realized that through that death which had hurt a person she cherished. She had come to hate someone that she had never met. She realized that stopping the spread of hate may very well be impossible. What that said about their chance of accomplishing the goal Naruto and the others had been working for Komachi couldn’t answer. Just like she couldn’t answer how Naruto would react when he came face to face with Pain, now that his heart may had had the seed called hate planted in it.

The wagon came to a stop and Komachi felt the box she was in begin to get pulled off. She listened for any hint that may have pinpointed her location inside the village. Yet, she could tell from the locations of Hinata, and Tsume that it was likely she wasn’t near either of their clans’ territories. Feeling like she was being moved underground she guessed that Remnants of Root still had a few tunnels for them to scurry about in. Her box was dropped on the ground unceremoniously, before the lid was pried off. She was then quickly pulled from it and then chained to a hook hanging in the middle of the room which lifted her off her feet. Suspended in the air, the two masked men that had brought her there left the room.

However, her senses told her she wasn’t alone. Remaining calm, she waited for the person behind her to make his presence known since she needed to give off the demeanor of someone being collected by overcautious allies. After almost an hour of silence the person behind her said, “You took a considerable number of risks in heading to safe houses that could have been compromised. You should of have had no way of knowing how much the Hokage has figured out about Roots operation. Yet, you still chose to take that risk.”

Sounding emotionally detached, Komachi answered, “I also had no way of knowing how to deliver my report on Danzou’s demise. I surmised that heading to them would either put me under Root’s observation or Konoha’s. In either case my directive was clear.”

“Really,” the man said coming away from the wall he had been resting against to come before her revealing that he wore a hood which concealed his hair and a mask in the visage of a monkey to hid his face. Komachi wasn’t surprised that he paid no attention to her lack of clothing. “What would your directive have been if Konoha had found you?”

“To kill as many of the Hokage’s forces as possible before meeting my end.”

“And since we of the Root have found you, what is your directive now?”

“To inform you of Danzou's passing,” Komachi said unemotionally.

“A wasted effort my dear,” the man said turning to walk away, “You would have better served your master by joining him in death.”

As the masked man made his way to the door, the two masked men from before stepped in as well one of them brandishing a sword that was no doubt soon to be sheathed in her. Komachi though kept calm as she said, “Under normal circumstances that would be true. I failed in my duty to protect Lord Danzou. If my death appeases that failure then I accept your punishment. But, you should know that it appears Tsunade may have been able to keep a few more secrets from you.”

She watched the man she was calling Monkey for the moment stop as he turned slowly to watch her over his shoulder. Knowing that a proper member of Root wouldn’t negotiate for their life she said, “Lord Danzou had escaped through a secret passage that I had no idea existed. Yet, Naruto Uzumaki still managed to locate us.”

“The official report stated that he accidently blew a hole through the passage as he fought his way through the forces defending the base.”

“Those reports are fabrications,” Komachi said, “I believe though Kakashi was the one to do that. He was also the one to strike the fatal blow to Lord Danzou.”

“It appears you managed to avenge him then,” Monkey said causing Komachi to fear her blade had struck too deep.

However, she didn’t let it show on her face aware that Monkey was likely testing her loyalty since at the moment he only had her word. Komachi had little doubt that Root had spotted her at the first safe house she had visited. They had only let her go to the others in order to ascertain whether she was being followed. But she knew she couldn’t play the part of taking satisfaction in Kakashi’s death either, her emotional detachment needed to go both ways. Therefore she simply gave a curt nod of her head to recognize his point before saying, “Yet, what Root needs to know is that as dangerous as Kakashi was. Naruto has unlocked a jutsu far more dangerous. He managed to catch up and delay us because he had mastered the Hiraishin.”

“What?!” Monkey said his voice filled with concern. Turning to the two masked shinobi he asked, “Are you sure she is clean?”

“Yes sir,” one of the men replied, “She has no seals on her person.”

Monkey turned to her and studying her body closed the distance before placing a hand on her stomach. Channeling chakra into her, he began to inspect her very carefully. However, when he reached her pussy he simply pulled her legs apart to make sure nothing was marked on her inner thighs. Stepping away he said, “Tsunade was wise to keep that hidden. She would have had a rather distinct advantage if we didn’t know the Hiraishin had been mastered by the jinchuriki. You did well in informing me of this. I trust though you understand why this changes nothing.”

“I do,” Komachi said as the man with the sword began to approach. Komachi although not wishing to die didn’t call out for help as she felt she had fulfilled her duty to her lover. When her life blinked out it would inform the others where Root was based and likely confirm the man that had warned Danzou was at the location. She was just glad Naruto wouldn’t feel it as she didn’t want to distract him from whatever training she was sure he was undertaking. She felt quite content that a minor cog such as her would be instrumental in the removal of the obstacle to Naruto’s ambition that Root represented.

It would be that sense of contentment that her duty had been fulfilled that ultimately spared her life as Monkey said, “Hold…” The man in the midst of pulling his sword back to thrust it into Komachi’s chest did as instructed. Monkey watched her for several more moments before turning away as he said, “On second thought I may find a use for this piece yet. Tsunade thinks she has weeded us out, what better way to rub her nose in her failure then for a known Root member to kill her precious jinchuriki. At the very least it will highlight her failure as a leader and perhaps make the Fire Daimyo willing to make her step down.”

Monkey waved his two men follow him as they left Komachi strung up in the air. Once the door closed she allowed her face to show what she truly thought of Monkey’s plot before thinking, “Checkmate.”

*****

Konan stopped as she reached a crossroad in the Land of Waterfalls. Having led the procession of Paths to this point she paused not sure which way to go. Looking over her shoulder she hid the frown that she felt as she couldn’t see either Nagato or Tobi. “What is it,” the Deva path that had once been Yahiko asked upon her stopping.

Konan stared for several moments before turning away as she said diplomatically, “You haven’t seen fit to tell me where we are going.”

Konan could feel Nagato’s Rinnegan boring into her back. Ever since their leaving Ame she had felt that the Six Paths were studying her. She looked up at the sign marked on the crossroad again and supposed it was a fitting place to be since she felt her life was likely at one as well. All the while she knew she was growing tenser as the lack of knowing where they were heading played havoc with her emotions. The feeling of dread she had been feeling only lessened slightly upon Naruto’s presence disappearing, because although she believed he was likely somewhere safe. She knew that Pain had plenty of ways of learning even the most secret of information.

The other thing playing into her growing fear that Konoha was the target was that Nagato wasn’t traveling with her, but with Tobi and his Animal Path. She knew that with Tobi’s ability to appear anywhere he wanted Konoha was never outside of Pain’s striking distance. She knew that at the moment Nagato had to at least be close enough to manipulate his Path, but since she knew he had been having the technicians working on making improvements to his chakra transmitter had no idea how close he was. It bothered her that she wasn’t being let in on the plan, but she suspected the march was as much to test her loyalty as if could have been to pull Konoha’s forces away from the village by bringing the supposed leader of Akatsuki out into the open. She figured if that was the case then once Konoha took the bait, Tobi would teleport into the village with the Animal Path. Once inside it would summon the others, thereby throwing Konoha into chaos as they wreaked havoc due to their bypassing the barrier and thus denying the Leaf Village an idea of how many opponents it faced.

Finally after what seemed like forever, the Deva Path said, “Take the path leading north.”

Konan was surprised by the order since it would be leading them away from the Leaf Village. Not sure what their destination was she did as instructed stepping onto the path heading away from Konoha. As soon as she did she felt most of the tension bleed from her body.

However, her moment of peace didn’t last as the slight shift of her shoulders as she relaxed was the final validation Nagato needed that Konan no longer counted herself among Akatsuki. Raising the Deva Path’s hand and bringing it in line with the back of Konan’s skull, he said, “I thought so.” Releasing a concentrated blast of his jutsu, he watched dispassionately as Konan’s head vanished from her shoulders.

****

Kiyomi didn’t let her concerns about the rift that had appeared between Naruto and her show on her face as she worked on making the Taki-nin more self-sufficient. She was hoping that if they didn’t need instruction to perform the most simple of tasks that Naruto would at least concede her method of handling them was more humane than death. Still she knew on some level that chances of that were relatively small.

In the wake of Jiraiya’s death she had come up with another reason to further hone her skill, and believed that it may even convince Naruto that she was right to practice creating a new persona in a person. But knew her argument wouldn’t stand up to much scrutiny since it hadn’t been a factor when she had taken over the Taki kunoichi’s wills with the one she had implanted. Removing her hand from the one that had been Yuffie she asked, “Do you feel any urges?”

“I have to go pee,” Yuffie replied sounding less robotic than before, but still not right.

“Then go,” Kiyomi said annoyed. Which turned to anger as Yuffie began to follow the directions literally causing the Bijuu to shout, “Not here, in the bathroom.”

Yuffie again did as she was told making her way to the bathroom. Kiyomi was about to follow since she knew that unless she told the woman what to do she would likely simply stand in the bathroom and relieve herself. However, she stopped upon noticing another presence watching her in amusement and having a good idea of who it was and not in the mood for her company asked, “What do you want Uchiha?”

“Why do I need to want something?” Mikoto replied stepping into the room. Walking up to Aeris and Tifa, who remained sitting at the table, she waved her hand in front of their faces before asking, “Not that I care what happens to them, but why not just undo what you’ve done?”

Although still not in the mood for Mikoto’s company, the Bijuu did wish to discuss the matter with someone that wouldn’t be so quick to agree with Naruto. Yoruichi had already made it clear that she shared their lover’s opinion, and Seven simply didn’t care about any of it as she tended to rather smash her way to solutions. Finding the old adage that beggars couldn’t be choosers to once more be true, she said, “I’m not sure that I can at this point. In order to supplant their personalities I created new pathways in their minds. At this point removing them could do more harm than good.”

“Interesting,” Mikoto said sounding just short of being mocking, “So your solution is to make those pathways more complex and even more difficult to remove.”

Kiyomi scowled at the woman, but quickly replied, “It beats the alternative.”

“Meaning that if you screw up and they die you don’t want Naruto to find out it was a result of your tampering.”

Kiyomi looked away her fear that should such a thing could happen being easy to see for the Uchiha. Mikoto still found it surprising that a Bijuu seemed to care so much about what a single person, let alone that she was suspecting the Kyuubi wasn’t alone in caring a great deal about what Naruto thought. Giving voice to the theory she had put together she said, “It’s hard to believe so many women would give themselves to some brat. Let alone allow him to mark them like pieces of property.”

Kiyomi glared at Mikoto before a pleased smile broke out on her face as she said, “Ah, there it is. That famed Uchiha pride. Do you truly believe yourself to be so different?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Mikoto said challengingly.

“Why it’s simple really,” Kiyomi said before reaching into the sleeves of her kimono. “You afford yourself some sense of pride because why... because you were unwilling to share your own lover. You believe this somehow makes you superior.”

“No, I didn’t say that…”

“But you did,” Kiyomi said pressing her verbal attack, “Why else would you mention us giving ourselves to him with such disdain?”

“I-it just isn’t normal,” Mikoto tried to counter her own argument sounding weak especially with how unconcerned Kiyomi appeared to be with what others considered the norm.

“Why should I care about that? Tell me, did you love your husband?”

“W-what does that have to do with anything?”

Kiyomi’s eyes grew wide as she said amused, “Ah, I think that answers that question. Well as a woman that can tell you I love the man who shares my bed let me explain to you why I can share him with others. It’s because I do not take any pride in calling him mine.”

“I don’t understand…you say you love him, but take no pride in it.”

“You’re right, you don’t understand,” Kiyomi replied. “You see love as something you can fit into your confined set of rules. For example, you can love countless people unless you have sex with one of them at which case you can only love that person in the physical sense.”

“T-that’s just how it is,” Mikoto responded finding her cheeks were growing red and that she was at a total disadvantage due to Kiyomi’s lack of discomfiture in discussing the subject.

“Says who?” Kiyomi countered. When Mikoto didn’t respond she said simply, “The answer of course is other people's pride. You and others I'm sure, seem to believe that if Naruto takes another lover then it in some way cheapens what he feels for those of us he’s already been with.”

“Are you saying that it doesn’t? Then why mark you as pieces of property.”

Kiyomi surprised Mikoto by pulling open her kimono exposing her breasts to the woman. Pulling her robe from her shoulders she presented her back to the Uchiha and showing off her own mark on her back right shoulder said, “Your pride sees these as markings he has put on us to mark his conquests because you can’t believe he would can take another woman as a lover and still cherish those he already has. You see, I may take no pride in calling him mine, but this mark displays my pride in being his. My lover is special. Rather than trying to hide that fact away though it pleases me when a new woman understands this by taking on his mark as well.”

“W-why?”

“Pride of course,” Kiyomi said pulling her kimono back over her shoulders, “Did you not ever sit around comparing your man with those of your friends? Wouldn’t it please you when one of them would grumble about something their man would do that pisses them off and you could offer something yours would do that would make them wish they could call him theirs.”

Mikoto had naturally since most housewives could easily find stuff to complain about in regards to their husbands. As she thought about it though, compared to Tsume and her, Kushina never would join in. Instead the Uzumaki almost always would just nod and smile as she listened to her friends gripe about their husbands. At the time Mikoto had just assumed it was because she didn’t want to present a less then flattering image of the man that was the Fourth Hokage. But with Kiyomi’s words playing through her head, she began to wonder if it was simply because the kunoichi didn’t want to paint a picture of how much of a loving partner her husband was, less other women might set their sights on him.

“You seem pretty free with your information considering you’ve been dancing around the subject of just how involved you and the other woman have been with Naruto until now,” Mikoto said wanting to take some pride in her theory being correct.

Kiyomi shrugged as she turned to face the Uchiha, her kimono still hanging loosely over her shoulders. “I figured you were fishing for the meaning behind the marks you no doubt spotted on the women using the hot springs. I saw no harm in giving you the confirmation you sought. If you prove to be a threat to my family I’ll erase you from history. If not, well I doubt I’ll have to suffer your presence once you run afoul of your son.”

Mikoto wanted to fire back a retort, but before she could come up with something a look of worry passed over the red-head woman’s face. Mikoto was about to ask what had spooked the Bijuu, but she disappeared in a flash of flames leaving the Uchiha to wonder what was happening outside the mansion.

*****

Konan looked back as the area she had just been standing erupt into a fireball as the paper bombs hidden among the sheets that had made up the paper clone the Deva Path had eliminated exploded. However, although she knew she had only managed to slip away due to her years of working with Nagato and therefore being aware of the few blind spots that appeared in his formations, she didn’t believe for a second the Paths had been caught up in it. Tossing away her Akatsuki cloak she began fleeing, while heading away from Konoha. Although she knew that Nagato already was of the opinion that was who she was working for, she didn’t want to give him any further confirmation. To that end she also refused to call on her foxmark. Although, she knew Naruto was no longer in the village she didn’t want to take the chance that the lack of ability to feel his presence was one way. The last thing she wanted was to be the cause of Naruto ending up in Nagato and Tobi’s grasp.

Taking off running, she knew that a key reason that Nagato had chosen the area as the spot for her execution was that it was a hilly grass covered area devoid of trees for her to use for cover or escape. Still, she had made it a couple of hundred yards when she had needed to leap about as several missiles began to impact around her. She had believed herself clear when suddenly she was blown off her feet from an Almighty Push from the Deva Path.

Konan slid along the ground for several meters before coming to a stop. Picking herself up slowly, she looked behind her to see the Path’s closing in on her slowly. Having come to a stop at the top of a hill, Konan pushed herself to her feet and quickly slid down the slope on the other side. Reaching the bottom she found a spot that ended in a dead end, but would allow her to keep her back to a wall. While she knew that either the Asura or Deva path could easily bring the area down on her. She figured that Nagato wanted to use the Human or Naraka Path to find out who she was working with. If that was the case and she could destroy the Naraka Path then she felt it would be a worthy trade for her life since it would mean Nagato would likely have to postpone an attack in order to return to Rain. Although, Nagato had kept her at arm’s length in what he had been doing with his other Paths, she believed that by destroying God’s Tower Jiraiya had managed to destroy where his replacements had been stored.

A frown appeared on her face though when only the Deva Path stepped into the area with her. “To think the traitor in my midst was the one person I would never have suspected on my own.”

Konan winced as she could hear the anger and perhaps hate that Nagato was directing towards her. It hurt twice as much as it was Yahiko’s face that was conveying the emotion. “Nagato, please it’s not too late to stop this. There is a better way for us to honor Yahiko’s memory. There’s someone who has inherited his will.”

“Is that who you’ve betrayed me for? I would have thought you of all people would understand that without Pain people refuse to change. Those in power will always continue to scramble about inflicting pain in order to hold onto their pathetic thrones. Only by leveling everything can we inflict the world with the fear that pain teaches us to be wary off. A child that burns itself on a stove will be twice as wary the next time he’s around it.”

“I know that was what we came to believe…” Konan tried to reason but let out a scream as the Deva Path unleashed his jutsu to smash her up against the rock face behind her.

Although he didn’t unleash his full power, she hit hard enough to leave an impression. She had just pushed off the wall when a second wave slammed her back against it. This was quickly followed by a third and a fourth. Konan felt it as bones gave way and organs began to reach the point of rupturing as more waves kept forcing her to hit the wall at her back. The assault ended and Konan sank to the ground her vision growing blurry as a result of the swelling taking part in her brain. She tried to once more convince Nagato to abandon his plan to force the world into accepting his peace.

Yet, she could only find the strength to gurgle out, “N-nagato…p-please…”

“Don’t worry Konan, you’ll see the world we strived to make as a true angel resurrected in my image,” The Deva Path said as Nagato mistook her words as her begging for her life.

He raised his hand intending to finish her off, since in truth he had no intention of questioning her since his goal was to level Konoha to the last man, woman, and child. Sending out a powerful but focused blast of his jutsu he watched in stunned amazement as a woman appeared between him and Konan in a burst of flame. But, what truly shocked him was as the jutsu hit the woman whose back was facing the Deva Path, it slammed into some sort of red barrier that diverted it so that the wall surrounding Konan and her was smashed to pieces.

The red-head stared down at Konan for a moment, before gingerly picking her up. Cradling the blue-haired woman in her arms, she looked over her right shoulder just enough so that Nagato could see that the woman’s green eye was slitted like some beast. With a cold fury the woman said, “I don’t know how it is you have those eyes. But you’re unworthy of them. I would take great pleasure out of ripping them from your head. But, luckily for you I won’t be the one to determine your fate.”

Before Nagato could question who that person would be, the woman disappeared in the same manner as she had appeared. It left the man that stylized himself as a god wondering just what it was he would encounter when he destroyed Konoha.

****

Kiyomi appeared in the Den’s teleportation room, which she quickly left as she carried Konan to the Medical Bay. “Yoruichi,” Kiyomi said via the telepathy she shared with her fellow Bijuu. She could feel her sister get startled from her afternoon nap as she rolled off the table she had been using as a bed.

“W-what is it?” the two-tailed cat replied as she gathered her bearings.

“Find Tsunade,” Kiyomi said urgently, “she’s in…never mind.” She cut the mental link as she could feel Tsunade making her way to the Den. Guessing the Hokage knew something important had happened from Konan’s appearance in the village, the Bijuu set the former member of Akatsuki down on one of the medical tables.

Although Kiyomi had already used her chakra to heal most of the damage to Konan’s body. She couldn’t be sure it would be enough to save the woman since her ability to heal Naruto had stemmed from being connected to him and thus able to send her chakra to the damaged portions of his body to heal specific things. The healing nature of her chakra worked great on physical wounds but wasn’t target specific, which was why some people had relapsed when she had used her chakra wave, although it had given doctors a chance to get in front of the diseases.

Tsunade barged into her medical bay, but her questions died on her tongue as she saw Konan’s condition. Quickly moving to the table she scanned the woman and said, “You’ve succeeded in healing a good portion of her injuries. But her brain is swelling, unless we can relieve the pressure she’s going to die.”

“I…I wouldn’t even know where to begin.” Kiyomi said.

“Then step back and get me Shizune and Sakura,” Tsunade said moving the table to the operating room that she had converted the room they had once interrogated Komachi in.

Kiyomi was about to do as instructed, but the door to the medical bay slid open as the two women Tsunade had asked for appeared. She was surprised at their appearance until Yoruichi stepped in after them, having summoned them figuring gathering the medics would be the next step. She took in her sister’s state as she was covered in blood that had transferred from Konan’s wounds before they had healed. Watching as the medics began to work on the blue-haired woman, Yoruichi said, “So that’s Konan.”

“Yes.”

“I…I never got the chance to meet her,” Yoruichi said sadly.

Although far from certain, Kiyomi said, “You will,” she then disappeared in flames as she used her version of the Hiraishin to reappear in her home as she mentally added, “I hope.”

*****

Naruko sat atop a stone square that was being balanced on the end of a giant stalagmite. Approaching the end of their third week of training, they had progressed to the next stage which was overcoming their animal natures in order to remain still. With the shadow clones aid, both she and Naruto had quickly overcome their dependence of the toad oil to gather natural energy. However, the current stage had proven to be twice as difficult and was where they had spent the past two weeks.

Part of the reason was that Fukasaku had refused to let them use clones to speed up the process. His reasoning was that although they seemed able to properly balance the natural energy they gathered. They could still begin the transformation from human to toad if they weren’t careful and the last thing he wanted to do was give one of them a whack from such heights. They would easily survive it if filled with natural energy, but depleted of that due to a whack from his stick and the end results could be messy.

Naruko believed they were nearing the end of their training as currently both of them were easily remaining balanced. To add a level of complexity Fukasaku was leaping from each of the stones his students were resting on trying to upset the balance. Yet no matter where he landed the stones remained perfectly still. Leaping up and down on the one Naruto was using several times he finally said, “Good, very good. You two are finally ready for the final part of your training.”

Naruko opened her eyes to see Naruto do the same his eyes being the only thing showing his success at harnessing Natural Energy. She knew it was a feature that she shared at the moment as well. Rolling backwards off her stone, she landed gracefully and easily caught the falling square before returning it to the pile of intact ones. Naruto landed a moment later as he followed suit with Fukasaku perched on his shoulder. The three of them then began heading towards where most of the toad’s resided in order to drop their teacher off.

Dressed rather skimpily in her sports bra and shorts, Naruko turned to face the others as she folded her arms behind her back to push her chest out as she asked, “What is the finally stage Fukasaku-sensei?”

She felt a measure of pride as Naruto’s eyes momentarily drifted from her face to her chest as he responded, “Yeah, gramps what else is there for you to teach us.”

Fukasaku wacked Naruto with his staff knocking the remaining natural energy out of him as he said in a huff, “Naruto-boy, you for instance could stand to learn how to address people with respect.”

“Ow, ow, ow, ow,” Naruto said rubbing the delicate knot appearing on his head. He frowned when Naruko stuck her tongue out at him, but then chuckled since he knew she was just being playful.

Fukasaku didn’t miss the gesture either as he smiled in amusement at his two students pleased with how close they had grown. Answering the question posed to him, he said, “Now that you can enter into Sage mode it is only right that I teach you how to fight like Sages. Starting tomorrow I’ll be teaching you Frog Kata.” Leaping from Naruto’s shoulder to the groud he added, “I would invite you to dinner, but I believe I already know the answer.”

“Yeah, well about that,” Naruto began to say since Fukasaku had one morning come to get them early for breakfast only to see his students eating already.

Fukasaku held up his hand as he said, “Naruto it’s quite alright. After witnessing the disgusting things you two eat, I can only imagine that our cuisine looks just as unappealing. With that in mind, it does make the few times you have joined us for dinner all the more special.” The Toad gave them a final wave goodbye before taking off down the path towards his home.

Naruko and Naruto returned to their small cabin where they quickly fell into their comfortable rhythm. This usually consisted of Naruto preparing the ingredients for the night’s meal as Naruko bathed in the pond out back. Then after she was finished she would cook them as he similarly cleaned himself up. Then both of them would clean and wash the dishes. They would then spend the night talking about various topics relating to the mundane or profound.

It was during one such night that it occurred to Naruko that she was probably the only kunoichi to have enjoyed what could be considered a normal home life with Naruto. Although she hadn’t really meant anything by her observation, once the idea had been planted she began to imagine herself in the role of his wife from time to time. Her little fantasies would take less innocent turns sometimes when she’d be in the midst of cooking their dinner in the fire pit inside the cabin for when it rained and Naruto would enter dripping wet with just a towel around his waist. He’d quickly mutter an apology as he’d grab his clothes to get dressed outside as he took her keeping her back towards him as a sign of her disapproval. Instead of it being due to her peeking at him through the small window opening that faced out back.

Naruko had tried not to peek since she was rather positive Naruto had yet to, but if there was one trait she had picked up from Jiraiya. It had been her enjoyment of the art of peeking. Ever since her time of spying on Naruto with several of his lovers, Naruko had become something of a thorn in many hot spring establishments’ sides. She was an equal opportunity peeker, since she enjoyed the female form as much as the male one. And although she had seen quite a few naked bodies since then, including catching a few couples getting it on, she still would give Naruto, her number one spot.

Seeing the cabin approaching Naruko ran to it, where upon stepping into the cabin she quickly stripped from her clothes. Throwing a towel around her body she grabbed her cleaning products and an oversized shirt for after before stepping outside. Naruto waited against the side of the cabin and once she appeared asked, “What do you feel like?”

“Anything but ramen,” Naruko answered smirking at the way his face grimaced since she had only agreed to his favorite food once so far.

“Fine,” Naruto said vowing he wouldn’t ask the next day, although he knew he would.

Naruko smiled at him as he headed inside and decided that since he didn’t whine about her choice would choose his favorite food when he asked tomorrow. Heading around back, she pulled the towel away from her body in order to slowly enter the water in order to allow her body the chance to grow accustomed to the cool temperature. Making her way under the waterfall, she kept her back to the cabin as she ran her hands over her body occasionally stopping to play with her hardened nipples. Letting a small moan escape from her lips she began to rub her pussy as she tried to attain some release while briefly wondering just when Naruto handled his own self pleasure since in all her peeking she had yet to see him indulge once.

****

Naruto sent a look at the ingredients he had chopped and prepared for Naruko to cook. Trying to resist the urge to peek on the girl, both to see what took her so long to clean-up, but also for the more primal reasons. He instead turned the page in the Jiraiya’s first book, “The Legend of the Gutsy Ninja.”

Grateful that Jiraiya’s first book didn’t include any of the sexy actions his subsequent ones would be famous for. Naruto began to read the scene where his name sake in the book battled against the evil ninja that vowed to destroy his home. “I love this part,” a woman whispered causing Naruto to smile.

“Me too mom,” Naruto said as his world shifted causing him to appear in the seal sitting cross-legged on the floor facing the coach she was resting on.

His mother smiled at him as she closed her copy of the book. She then stood from the couch before moving behind Naruto to begin massaging his shoulders since she knew despite appearances he was growing rather nervous. Hoping to get him to open up to her she asked, “You need to relax Naruto.

You’ve completed your training to a greater degree than Jiraiya could after years of training in just three weeks. When the time comes you’ll be able to face Pain.”

“I hope so,” Naruto said. Kushina frowned though as she felt her son’s shoulders grow tenser despite her massaging them.

“It’s about what happened to Konan,” Kushina asked but she had phrased it as a statement. Tsunade had sent the messenger toad Fukasaku had left to inform him of his lover’s condition. Naruto upon finding out that she had been put into a coma had nearly taken off to find and confront, Pain. It had been a slap to the face from Naruko that had brought the blond back to his senses as she berated him for acting like an idiot. She had correctly pointed out that from the very beginning Konan had done everything in her power to prevent Naruto and Pain from coming face to face. The last thing she would want was to be the catalyst that hastened that meeting.

Naruto had startled the kunoichi by still Hiraishining away, but instead of going in search of Konan’s attacker had instead teleported to her bedside. He had felt his sudden appearance send warning bells off in his lovers who feared he was going to track down Pain. However, he put them at ease before vowing to Konan, he would put a stop to Pain’s ambition. He had remained with her for several hours before returning to Mount Myoboku, where he had encountered a very pissed off Naruko who had been under the impression he had abandoned his training to go on a hunter-killer mission.

Despite it having been several weeks ago the pain of seeing Konan looking so battered was still fresh in Naruto’s mind. Looking down at his teacher’s first book, where Jiraiya had transcribed his hopes of a better world Naruto said, “I’m a fraud.”

“Honey, no you’re not. Already as a result of your actions Suna and Konoha have a closer alliance than ever before. Also, the village has taken the first tentative steps to coming to an understanding with Kumo. Something even the Second Hokage couldn’t make happen.”

Naruto tried to take some solace from his mother’s words, but couldn’t as he said, “Yet, that’s only because I’ve had no reason to hate Kumo or Suna. B-but despite me knowing its wrong…all I think about is how badly I want to kill Pain right now.”

Kushina hugged her son from behind as she said, “I know Honey. But it’s only natural to feel that way. He’s killed your teacher…and hurt one of your lovers. He also stands as the greatest threat to you and your loved ones.”

Naruto sighed as he placed his hand over where his mom had locked hers around his chest. Taking comfort in her warmth he said, “The problem is that it’s too natural. How can I be someone that speaks of peace and understanding when my own true nature wants to do the opposite?”

“I don’t know Honey,” his mom said kissing his cheek, “but I believe you’ll find a way.”

Before he could reply though, he was pulled from the seal by the sound of Naruko’s voice shouting, “Hey, wake up.”

Naruto’s world shifted granting him a close up view of Naruko’s face as she stood bent over in front of him as well as a grand view of the kunoichi’s cleavage since she was still only wearing a towel. Naruto felt his dick lurch at the sight, and hoped he mastered the Frog Kata quicker than he had the other two stages since after three weeks without relief he desperately wanted to return to his home. Standing, he thanked Naruko for waking him and while he figured he could quickly rub one out as he bathed. Refused to since he believed that a man in his position should conserve all his energy to pleasing his lovers.

*****

Kiyomi was once more training her Taki-nin. She watched rather satisfied as they ate since she had placed several food dishes in front of them after further modifying the women’s psyches. Although she had needed to wait for nearly an hour, shortly after she heard one of their stomachs growl all three women began to eat without being instructed too.

Her minor success pleased her so much her voice barely contained any of its normal distaste as she said, “Can I help you Uchiha?”

Although it had been several weeks since their last conversation and she doubted any of Naruto’s other lovers had spoken to her about matters concerning the Harem, Mikoto asked, “How’s the woman you saved?”

“She’s woken from her coma,” Kiyomi replied, not wanting to give the Uchiha the satisfaction of seeing her surprise that she had obtained some knowledge of what was happening in the harem.

“That’s good,” Mikoto said taking a seat next to Kiyomi.

“Can you please get to the point of your visit?” the Bijuu asked annoyed.

“I merely wished to continue our previous conversation,” Mikoto said.

She scowled though as Kiyomi muttered, “That makes one of us.” However, despite herself she said, “What aspect of it do you want to talk about?”

“You mocked me for my Uchiha pride as you put it. However, I’ve watched you and the others tied to Naruto. I can see you all wear a similar type of pride, so I want to know what makes your pride so much better than my own.”

Kiyomi shrugged as she answered, “Who can say that it is? But ultimately I believe it all boils down to what you place your pride in. Your pride is born of the arrogance that you were somehow born special. Your whole rebellion was born of that belief.”

“My hus…Our rebellion,” Mikoto said pausing to include amend her words to include herself, “was born from the fact that we were treated as second-class citizens in a village we helped to fond.”

Kiyomi laughed musically which under the circumstances annoyed Mikoto greatly. The Bijuu smiled as she said, “Your own argument highlights my point.”

“So you’re saying, what exactly? We should have just continued to be treated as enemies within our own village.”

“Not at all,” Kiyomi said, “But your arrogance is what eventually made you into the enemies they feared you’d become. Your belief was not that it was as fellow villagers or fellow shinobi did you deserve to be treated equals, but as Uchiha. Deep down you understand this to be true, which is why you tipped the Third Hokage off?”

“How…Koharu,” Mikoto said her voice dropping to a dangerous growl upon coming to the understanding of who had informed the Bijuu about her involvement in Konoha's learning of the rebellion.

To the Uchiha’s surprise Kiyomi’s chakra flared as her eyes grew slitted. Turning her full gaze upon Mikoto, the Bijuu warned, “Be careful Uchiha. If you present a threat to any of the women of this household I will end you.”

It was one of the few times, Mikoto would admit to being intimidated so let the matter drop. Looking away she asked, “Are you saying I betrayed my clan because I threw away my pride as an Uchiha?”

“In a manner of speaking,” Kiyomi said as her chakra dissipated. “But it would perhaps be better to say you placed it in something larger than the Uchiha. Much like Itachi did.”

Mikoto wanted to tell the woman that she didn’t know her son so had no right speaking about him. However, she recalled the confrontation Itachi had with the other Uchiha in the wake of Shisui’s death. Remembering the contempt that Itachi had spoken with as he talked about the vessel to which they had pledged their loyalty. She understood that he had been talking about their pride as Uchiha over their pride at being shinobi of the Leaf.

Kiyomi sensed Mikoto’s coming to an understanding of what she was talking about, so said, “Did you ever consider the reason people continued to distrust you was because they knew your actions were not for their sake, but your own. Your clan and Naruto share that in common I suppose. You both began from a place of distrust, and both strived to change the people’s minds. The reason he is succeeding is because he has come to the belief that so long as he makes tomorrow a little better than today than it doesn’t matter if the people recognize him for it. The people see this and therefore grant him the recognition he originally craved.”

Mikoto stared at the Bijuu who began to get up to leave, but stopped as Mikoto whispered, “It’s never the one who becomes Hokage who will be acknowledged by everyone. It’s the one who is acknowledged by everyone that becomes Hokage.”

Kiyomi turned to face the Uchiha to asked, “Who said that?”

“Itachi,” Mikoto said sadly, “When he was arguing with Fugaku and the others when they first approached him with the request of being their spy in the Anbu.”

“Your son was very wise,” Kiyomi said feeling a small pang of sadness for the woman. Figuring that she had made her point she turned to leave the woman alone with her thoughts.

****

Naruto avoided Naruko’s punch and quickly retreated less he get caught up in the aura of natural energy surrounding her. Naruko charged in throwing several kicks, which he also avoided but was forced to block the last one’s aura. Crossing his arms, to block the blow coming towards his chest, he grunted as it impacted and sent him skidding several feet. He was about to go on the offensive when he saw the aura around her disappear and her yellow eyes return to normal.

Dropping to the ground to gather more energy she huffed annoyed, “Why haven’t you run out of juice yet?”

Naruto shrugged, as Fukasaku said, “It’s because he’s still gathering natural energy somehow.”

“You said that it was impossible for someone to do that while moving,” Naruko said abandoning her attempt to gather more. “I mean I can understand why we don’t run out when you merge with me. But why…”

“I know why,” Naruto said suddenly, but instead of supplying the answer he dove into his seal. Much as he expected he came across his mother sitting in the center of the recreation of her old apartment in a cross-legged position similar to the stance he and Naruko took. What he wasn’t prepared for was for her to be dressed in similar attire to what Naruko wore during their training sessions. Despite himself, seeing his mom minus her normal, less form flattering, clothing caused a familiar stirring in him. Realizing he was ogling his mom, he shook his head to clear out the thoughts threatening to take root and cleared his throat.

Kushina’s eyes snapped open causing her to say, “Naruto…Honey…um surprise.”

Naruto chuckled as he could think of a few surprises to which she was referring. Finding his attention was threating to once more drift to her skimpy attire he said, “I guess I should let Fukasaku know I’m not going to need to practice that merging jutsu anytime soon. Thanks mom. If I don’t need to worry about my natural energy running out Pain isn’t going to stand a chance.”

Kushina beamed as her son faded out of the seal, and although she had started the training to help her son. Found that it helped combat the growing urges she was feeling due to her son not having slept with anyone in close to a month. Finding the reminder rather frustrating, she was tempted to give her pussy a quick rub through the thin shorts she was wearing, but as her son sudden appearance in the seal proved. There was a good reason she hadn’t given into her own urges. Therefore she closed her eyes again to once more enter the meditative trance that pulled natural energy into Naruto and let her escape the desires she felt for him if only for a short time.

****

Naruko entered the cabin dressed only in a towel. She found Naruto already in his own sleeping clothes, which consisted of a loose shirt and boxers, since both of them had been rather worn out after training in Frog Kata all day so had opted to eat instant ramen instead of cooking a big meal. Naturally Naruto had finished his first so had then quickly headed outside to bath. Naruko had almost enjoyed her meal as she ate it while watching Naruto scrub his body clean. Sitting on the wooden platform that housed their sleeping rolls and separated the rest of the cabin from the dirt floor she began to comb her hair while he read Jiraiya’s book again.

Holding her hand behind her, she said, “It’s my turn to read it.”

“Hold on, I’m at my favorite part,” Naruto replied.

“I don’t care,” Naruko said turning to face him, “It’s my turn. I like reading it while I comb my hair.”

“Read the back of the ramen container,” Naruto said turning the page.

“You’re the only one that finds that interesting,” Naruko said lunging for the book.

“Hey,” Naruto said managing to pull it away from her grasp.

The two blonds each struggled to either gain possession of the book or maintain it. Due to their prone positions this led to a lot of rolling around. Naruko managed to get ahold of the book by rolling on top of Naruto and as she sat back to pull the book away from his own grasping hands suddenly found something hard and warm pressed firmly against her pussy.

Naruko suddenly lost all interest in the book as she realized that Naruto’s cock had slipped out of his boxers and that at some point it had turned into an erection. She looked down at Naruto, who went completely still since he was obviously of the opinion that at any moment she was going to punch him and call him a pervert. However, he let out a groan when instead of reacting as expected, Naruko instead slid her pussy against it.

He was about to suggest they stop, less they get carried away, since he thought it might just be a result of their horseplay getting out of hand. But the words never crossed his lips as Naruko leaned back placing even more pressure against his cock and let out a deep moan as she again rubbed her noticeably wetter pussy over his boner.

“It’s so warm and hard,” Naruko moaned as she continued gyrating her hips. Opening her eyes, she stared down at him asking nervously, “Y-you think I’m…I’m attractive right…you’re not just this hard because you haven’t done it in a while.”

Naruto reached up and ran his hand against her neck before grabbing along the back of her head. Pulling his face close to hers, he said, “Judge for yourself.” He then pressed his lips to hers which quickly deepened until both blonds' tongues were rolling around each other. As the kiss continued on, Naruto pulled the towel away from Naruko’s body before he began to squeeze and fondle her breast. The new contact caused Naruko to moan into Naruto’s mouth and to increase the movements of her hips.

Naruto groaned as he broke the kiss to say, “N-naruko…it you don’t stop I’m going to...ahh shit!”

Naruko loved the way he said her name while fighting back his need to cum. Aware of just how long it had been she instead increased her hip's speed and pressed even firmer on his cock which had grown slick from a combination of his and her fluids. Pressing her lips against his neck, she then kissed down his body before sucking on his nipple. Naruto groaned in pleasure once more, before he erupted coating both their bellies in his thick white cream.

Naruto fell back in satisfaction as Naruko stared down at the proof she had brought a small measure of relief to the jinchuriki. She rubbed her hands in his cum and growing curious brought some up to her mouth where she tasted it experimentally. She moaned at the taste although she did find it a little bitter and slid down his body until she could lick up the rest. He giggled appreciatively as her tongue scooped some free of his belly button and then once his stomach was clean she began to proceed lower.

Naruto though had other ideas as he pulled her up towards him, where he kissed her deeply. He then rolled her onto her back, and then climbing atop of her moved to place his head between her legs. Naruko moaned as she felt Naruto’s tongue first begin to trace her folds, but not willing to be outdone raised her head to begin sucking on his dick which due to her previous actions had quickly returned to its previous hardness. The two blonds stimulated each other orally until Naruko couldn't hold back anymore as she experienced the first orgasm brought about by someone other than herself. “Oh gods,” she screamed as Naruto’s tasty lollipop slipped from her mouth so she could give voice to her pleasure.

Naruto stared down at her warmly as she basked in her post-orgasmic bliss. Naruko’s eyes met his and seeing the look that she so craved would one day be directed towards her sat up. Spinning to face him, she spread her legs before reaching down to spread her pussy for him. Naruto recognizing her invitation was still a little surprised so asked, “Are you sure?”

Naruko nodded as she said, “Just promise me that you’ll always look at me with such warm looking eyes.”

Naruto closed the short distance between them and climbed between her legs. Following her down as she fell back onto the sleeping bag he cupped her face as he said, “I don’t know if I can promise that. I imagine that as we grow even closer, they’ll begin to show all sorts of other emotions for you warmth, desire, and love.” He then kissed Naruko as he pushed his cock inside of her causing the woman to cum once more.

Naruto remained still as he rode out the feeling of her cunt as it tried to milk his seed from him. Once, it subsided he began to move causing the woman to moan as she said, “I-it’s too much…p-please stop…you’re killing me…” Naruto did as she asked, causing the woman’s eyes to shoot open as she asked, “What are you doing?”

“Um…I’m just…”

“Don’t listen to me; I’m half backed out of my mind with pleasure right now. Now you start fucking me and don’t stop until I’m either unconscious or dead. And I might not want you to stop even then.” Naruto grinned at her in a way that made Naruko feel a little nervous as he grabbed the back of her knees and pushed them up against her shoulders. Crouched over her he pulled his hips back until he almost slipped from her griping passage and then slammed them forward smashing the head of his cock into her womb.

Naruko’s eyes nearly bulged out of her head from the deeper penetration causing her yells of pleasure to increase in volume. Naruto hands worked their way to beneath his new lover’s thighs so he could hold her in position as he got to his feet to drive his dick into her with even greater thrusts. Naruko aided him by pulling her knees into her shoulders and responded to the more powerful blows to her deepest parts by saying, “Oh…yes…you’re stabbing me so deep…you’re killing me…absolutely killing me. I’m seeing heaven…”

Naruko wasn’t the only one approaching paradise as Naruto grunted, “Fuck, you’re gripping me so fucking tight. I…I can’t hold back anymore…Naruko!”

“Naruto!” his lover screamed as everything went white while her womb was flooded with Naruto’s seed. Due to his prolonged abstinence Naruto couldn’t believe just how long his cock continued to spurt into Naruko. When he finally ran dry, he pulled out and watched as his cum almost immediately began to leak out. Naruko whimpered at the loss, pulling his attention to her face and he did a double take as for a moment as a vision of his mom looking immensely satisfied seemed to superimpose itself over her. But when he looked back it was gone so just assumed he had been a little more turned on by his mother’s choice of meditation clothes then he should have allowed himself to be.

Naruko whimpered again, as she began to snore contently making him guess he had succeeded in the task she had given him. Although his dick was still raring to go, he thought it best not to follow through with the idea of not stopping even though she was unconscious. Picking her up he carried her to his sleeping roll where he snuggled up next to her after covering them both in the covers.

****

Outside the cabin, a voice said in its slow drawl, “Gamakichi, are you sure we shouldn’t have interfered. It’s gotten pretty quiet; he may have killed her after all.”

Gamakichi stared at his brother for a moment before a wide smile appeared on his face as he responded, “Oh he killed her alright, Gamatatsu. But trust me, if we had tried to stop him, she would have killed us and not in the good way. You understand.” His brother shook his head prompting Gamakichi to say, “You will… In any case it’s probably going to get a lot nosier at night around here.”

“Why?”

“Well…um… maybe you should go ask dad,” the red toad said beginning to leap away.

“Okay,” a confused Gamatatsu said following in his brother’s wake.

Next Chapter: Know Pain: Part III

Author’s note: As usual let me start off by thanking all those that take the time to review. Furthermore, I apologize for needing to break this chapter up again, but at already twenty thousand words, I felt it best to end it here before diving into the action and making the chapter too long. Also, for those that asked questions about Tetsuya roll in the story, I plan to if not answer it directly address it somewhat on my Devaintart account during the next Sage’s Corner. Also, for the people waiting for the Ino chapter of Limelight, I’ll probably start working on it after the final part of Know Pain and the chapter to follow.

Well that’s all for now, I hope you enjoyed the chapter and until next time take care. Sincerely, The Lemon Sage