Last Week in Konoha: Night Three, Part Two
“Ah man, that hit the spot!” Naruto shouted, and patted his stomach. He’d downed both bowls of ramen, and was waiting with the rest for the meat to finish grilling. After careful consideration, Naruto had decided that the ramen was good, but not up to the level of Ichiraku. Ino was still slowly picking at her salad. She hated throwing up, and usually wouldn’t eat much for a day or two after, for fear of throwing up again. Shikamaru, Choji and Sakura sat and watched the meet grilling, the smells driving them wild with hunger. After a few minutes, they all removed the meat slices from the grill and replaced them with new ones to cook while they ate. Naruto took a couple pieces of chicken and mackerel (Choji staunchly refused to share the first serving of beef). They sat there in silence, enjoying the meal. Hakkai approached, and bowed, causing his short dark hair to sway a little.
“Is there anything I can get you? Drinks need refilling?” He smiled, and looked at each of them in turn. Ino held up her cup.
“Can I get a glass of tea. This coffee stuff is okay, but I’d prefer tea.”
“Of course.” He moved around the table and took Ino’s cup. “Anything else?”
“What happened to Gojyo?” Shikamaru asked and handed his empty tea cup to Hakkai.
“Since we’re so slow tonight, I told him I’d cover for him so he could go on his date. Anyone else need anything?” Hakkai smiled.
“More water, please, and can I get two more bowls of the Tantan Ramen?” Naruto held up his empty water glass.
“Of course, I’ll go refill the drinks, then get started on the ramen.” Hakkai rushed off to get their drinks.
“Hey, guys, what happened to his eye?” Naruto whispered. Shikamaru began to answer when he was interrupted.
“You know, it’s impolite to speak about someone behind their back.” He sat the glass of water next to Naruto, who’d gone red in the face. “If you want to know what happened, all you have to do is ask.”
“Um…ok. What happened to your eye, Hakkai.” Hakkai reached up and gingerly touched the bandages that covered his right eye.
“Several years ago I…..did something terrible. My right eye was the price I paid.” Hakkai gave Ino and Shikamaru their tea. “Now, before I bring down the mood, I’ll go start on the ramen.” He bowed once more and returned to the kitchen.
“Should I not have asked?” Naruto asked Shikamaru.
“He’ll be fine. You’re not the first person to ask, and you won’t be the last. Like he said, let’s not bring down the mood with sad stories. Anything interesting happen on a mission recently?” Shikamaru looked around the table.
“I haven’t gone on any missions in months, Lady Tsunade took me off the active list so I could train with her as much as possible.” Sakura said as she took another slice of chicken off the grill.
“I’ve been off active duty while waiting for Pervy Sage to show up, so no funny stories from me.” Naruto took a couple slices of beef from the grill by Choji, who was finally willing to share.
“Ok, I’ll tell you about my last mission.” Shikamaru said, “With most of the Jonin being sent off on solo missions, I’ve been working as a replacement squad leader. Lady Hokage’s had me working with Genin teams fresh from the academy recently. I was working with squad 13 on a couple of D rank assignments, it should have been so simple.” Shikamaru sighed at the memory.
“Were they that bad?” Sakura asked.
“I’ll tell you about each of them. First there’s Miroku, the oldest of the three. He’s got excellent chakra control and decent Taijutsu skills, but he’s more interested in girls than completing his assignments. Next there’s Misa, who’s usually too busy wondering if she’s looking great to worry about the others, but shows promise with Ninjutsu. Then there’s Bara, who reminds me an awful lot of you, Naruto.”
“Why, because he’s cool and powerful.” Naruto said around a mouthful of beef.
“No, ‘cause he’s an annoying, loudmouthed knucklehead….but he does show some potential. If it weren’t for him most of the missions wouldn’t have been completed. Somehow he manages to keep the other two in line. Our first assignment was to retrieve a missing dog, who’d been spotted in the western part of the village. We set out immediately, but constantly had to stop because Miroku would stop to flirt or Misa would stop to check her reflection in the window. Bara would always yell at them, and we’d get moving again. He just has this annoying habit….he doesn’t stop talking. The whole time we were searching he would follow me and talk about anything that entered his head. Their teamwork is excellent though, once we finally tracked the dog we caught it in a matter of minutes. Then we moved onto the next mission and had to deal with the same problems all over again. It was such a drag.” Shikamaru sighed and took another bite of mackerel.
“That sounds pretty bad, but I bet I can beat it.” Choji said, still chewing on some beef, “The last mission on I went on with my dad was awful. We thought it was going to be a simple escort mission.”
“Are they ever?” Ino asked.
“You’re right, there never is a simple escort mission. Okay, here’s how it went…” Choji began.
*************************Meanwhile at the Hokage’s Mansion*******************************
Tsunade sat at her desk, sipping her sake and going over the very last of her paper work for the day. She sat back in her chair and sighed. She looked at the ceiling panel to the left of the office’s main entrance.
“You’ve been there for two minutes, I assume if you’re not trying to kill me then you have something to report.” she growled.
“Sorry mam, I wanted to see if I’d improved at infiltration.” A member of the Anbu Black Ops slowly became visible on the ceiling.
“You did much better this time, I barely detected the Infiltration Jutsu. Now, what do you have for me?” Tsunade took another sip of sake.
“I came to inform you that the recruitment team has returned.”
“Excellent, send them in, and summon Inoichi Yamanaka and Ibiki Morino at once.”
“Mam!” He saluted and disappeared in a puff of smoke. Before the smoke had cleared, the door to her office opened and three people walked in. All three looked young, only 16 or younger. There were two boys and a girl. They came in, walked to the Hokage’s desk, and bowed.
“Welcome back. Please forgive me, but what are your names?” Tsunade asked.
“Kurama Shuichi.” Kurama said. He was the tallest of the three, with long crimson hair and piercing green eyes.
“Kazuma Kuwahara, mam.” Kazuma said. Kazuma had orange hair and small black eyes, and wore a dopey expression.
“Botan, my lady.” Botan wore a pink kimono, which accented her light blue hair and soft brown eyes.
“Amazing. Inoichi and Kurenai do fantastic work.” Tsunade said, her eyes narrowing. She cleared her throat. “What are your true names?” She snapped her fingers as she said this. The three of them looked at her, their eyes glazing over.
“Our true names?” they asked, as if in a daze.
“Yes.” Tsunade said simply. Poof! Were once those three stood now three completely different people stood.
“Now how do you feel, Yoko?” Tsunade asked, a grin on her face.
“Much better, my lady.” Yoko took a hand and slipped it through his long silver hair. He raised his arms and stretched, groaning. Yoko had was easily a foot taller than Kurama, and looked to be in his mid twenties. Yoko wore all white clothing with his jonin vest.
“Glad to hear it. Yukina?” Tsunade looked at the young woman who stood where Botan had only a moment ago.
“Very good my lady.” Yukina was nineteen, and she wore a blue shirt under her jonin vest and had short aqua colored hair.
“Of course you two are fine, you didn’t spend the two and a half months wandering around the continent as a buffoon.” Hiei, the final member growled. He’d lost several inches in the transformation but was also nineteen, his hair was black and spiky, and he wore a sword at his side. He wore a black shirt and black pants and his right arm was bandaged from the elbow down.
“Don’t talk about Kazuma that way!” Yukina cried.
“Yukina, your husband is a buffoon, except it.” Hiei replied sarcastically, and turned on Tsunade. “Why was I walking around as that idiot anyway?” Yukina fumed at this and would have struck Hiei, had Yoko not held her back. Yukina simply gave a ‘hmph’ and turned her back on Hiei.
“Since all three of you have your faces in various bingo books, we had to disguise you. Doing so insured that you wouldn’t run into any trouble on your mission. Speaking of which, was it successful?” Tsunade rested her chin on the back oh her hands.
“A complete success, my lady. We found several promising ninja who are willing to become leaf village shinobi.” Yoko said.
“Excellent, our forces are so depleted at the moment I’ll take anyone who’s willing to work. How many?”
“A few orphaned children who show promise, and some adults with exceptional skills. I have a dossier on each of them for you.” Yoko removed a large envelope from his jonin vest and handed it to her. She opened it and began looking over each file. Her eyes widened suddenly on the last two.
“Has this been confirmed?” She asked, her eyes narrowing.
“Yes, they’ve displayed their skills for us, and I’ve determined that they have those abilities.”
“Genjutsu?” Tsunade asked, still not convinced.
“I’m insulted you would ask, my lady.” Yoko replied with a smirk.
“Of course, forgive me Yoko. Since your own genjutsu skills are almost on par with Kurenai, you would have detected it immediately. It’s just unexpected to find such rare abilities.” She continued reading for a few moments, when she looked up again, Yoko and Yukina had worn and tired looks on their faces, Hiei merely glared.
“Well, unless you have anything to add, you’re all dismissed.” Yukina bowed and left the office, and Yoko started after her. Hiei remained in the office, a look of annoyance on his face. Yoko turned back to Hiei.
“Hurry up, Hiei. I’m going to make your favorite meal to celebrate out triumphant return.” He smiled.
“I’ll be along in just a moment Yoko, go ahead without me.” Hiei said, his eyes locked on Tsunade.
“Don’t keep me waiting too long.” Yoko said, and closed the door with a parting wave.
“Yes Hiei?” Tsunade said, an eyebrow raised.
“Lady Tsunade, I must insist that Yukina no longer be sent on such dangerous missions.” He growled at her.
“Now why would you say that?” She hid a small smirk behind her hand.
“Even with the false memories and disguises we were still attacked, and Yukina has absolutely no skill in Taijutsu or genjutsu. If it weren‘t for Yoko and I protecting her, she‘d have died.”
“One moment please.” Tsunade stood and went to a large file cabinet and opened the bottom drawer. She began flipping through the files. “Yukina…Yukina…” she mumbled, “Ah, here we are, Yukina. Now let’s see what her official file says. Came to the Leaf Village three years ago from the Land of Snow, searching for some long lost twin. Since then she’s completed 25 B rank missions and 13 A rank missions, with only 3 failures, though those were due to circumstances beyond the team’s control. Says here ‘minimal Taijutsu skills, no ability with genjutsu, but exceptional chakra control and ninjutsu mastery.’ Excels mostly at medical ninjutsu, and has been responsible for success of many missions due to this factor. Now that doesn’t sound like the Yukina you’ve just described. In fact I believe you and Yoko have worked on a squad with her before, and it was thanks to her medical abilities that the two of you are still alive, isn’t that so.” Tsunade once again had her chin resting on the back of her hands, and was watching Hiei with a twinkle in her eyes.
“Well…yes, I suppose that’s true…” Hiei mumbled.
“Hiei, I know you want to protect your sister,” Hiei reared back, as if struck by her words, “but she’s far too valuable to keep here in the village. We need every skilled person out in the field, otherwise we’ll never be able to keep up with the demand for missions.”
“How could you possible know that, only Lord Third knew, and he swore to keep it a secret.” His eyes burned with rage, and his hand almost reached for his sword.
“Please, it was all to easy to figure out. You’re both from the Land of Snow, you’re both nineteen, and you’re both more alike than either of you realize. I have no intention of revealing your secret to Yukina, so don’t worry about that.” She took a sip of sake and looked contemplative for a moment, “Why don’t you tell her, it would make her so happy.”
“That’s my business.” he stated, and added a ‘hmph’ for emphasis, “Since I can’t convince you to stop sending Yukina, then I’ll be on my way. Good evening, Hokage.” Hiei spun on his heel and stormed from her office, clearly in a foul state. He only hoped Yoko could improve his mood. Tsunade leaned back in her chair and sighed, Hiei was always trouble. She stood up and looked out her window, and watched the village in the moonlight. She loved looking out over the village at night, it always calmed her. Just then there was a knock on the office door.
“Enter.” She said, still looking out over the village.
“My lady.” Inoichi said as he entered, walked to her desk, and bowed.
“Inoichi, how are you? Would you like some sake?” She turned back to her desk and held up the small bottle, shaking it invitingly.
“Yes, please.” Inoichi knew that Tsunade only drank the finest sake. She handed him a cup, and they both raised their cups in a toast.
“To absent friends.” Tsunade said, a sad smile on her face. Inoichi nodded, a similar look on his face, then they both downed the small cups. As Tsunade refilled them, there came another knock on the door.
“Enter.” She said simply.
“Lady Hokage.” Ibiki said, as he walked to the desk. Tsunade once again lifted the sake bottle and shook it. Ibiki shook his head, “No, but thank you.” He looked over at Inoichi and gave a nod, “Inoichi.”
“Ibiki.” Inoichi nodded back and took a sip of sake. He sat his cup on the desk and looked expectantly at the Hokage.
“Now that you’re both here, I’ll explain why you were summoned. The recruitment team has returned, and we need to make sure none of the potentials are a threat to the village. I think that you’ll only need to worry about two of them, the rest are all children or teenagers. Inoichi, I want you to scan there minds, make sure they haven’t been reprogrammed or put under some genjutsu. If Inoichi discovers any problems, I want you to take over Ibiki….but go easy on the kids, you scare them.” Tsunade said, a smirk on her face. Inoichi chuckled.
“Hmph…good.” he said simply, with a sly grin, “Come Inoichi, let’s get started.” Ibiki turned to Inoichi and motioned with his head for the two of them to leave.
“Thank you both, I want to get them all checked out and either in classes or in the field as soon as possible.” Tsunade stood, and walked them to the door of her office.
“Don’t worry, Lady Hokage, we’ll begin immediately, but with so many it might take a few days. We’ll want to be sure of each of them, so we’ll go slow.” Inoichi left the office, Ibiki following close behind.
“Hokage.” Ibiki mumbled as he left the office. Tsunade shut the door after them and resumed her spot in front of the window. The moon was full, and bathed the village in a beautiful silver light, it was a truly breath taking sight. She brought her sake cup up again.
“Absent friends….” she whispered, looked into the cup, and smiled, a single tear rolling down her cheek.
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“Wow, did that really happen?!?” Naruto asked between his giggles. Ino was blushing furiously, and she growled at Naruto. Seeing Ino’s expression only made Naruto laugh harder….at least until Ino’s fist landed on his left cheek, sending him flying to the floor.
“Choji! How could you tell that story, I swore you to secrecy!” Ino fumed. Sakura smartly said nothing, not wanting Ino’s wrath to be turned on her. Shikamaru just sighed, and gave Choji a look. Choji had a huge grin plastered across his face, he loved embarrassing Ino like this. Ino started to make a charge around the table for Choji, but Shikamaru just sighed and made a hand sign.
“Ino, I’m going to hold you there until you calm down, okay?” Shikamaru said calmly, “Choji, apologize to Ino, you know she hate’s it when you tell that story.” Shikamaru gave Choji another look, causing his smile to vanish and his face to fall.
“I’m sorry Ino…I just knew that Naruto would like that story…besides, isn’t tonight all about him, and saying goodbye?” Choji said, giving Ino his best puppy dog eyes. Ino’s face returned to a normal color, and she began breathing in and out slowly. After a few seconds she let out one large breath, and smiled at Choji.
“Ok, I’ll forgive you this time, but it’s the last time…I promise. Please release the jutsu, Shikamaru.” Shikamaru lowered his hands, and Ino regained the ability to move. She went and knelt by Naruto, and helped him back into his seat.
“Sorry Naruto, I shouldn’t have slugged you like that.” She gave a small bow, and retook her seat.
“That’s ok, I’ve been hit harder than that, especially by Sakura.” They all shared a laugh over that. They had finished dinner a while ago, and had sat around talking for almost two hours. Hakkai had returned time and again to refill glasses, and even shared a few stories from his travels. At the moment he was busy sweeping the opposite side of the dining area, getting ready to close the restaurant for the night. Shikamaru glanced at one of the clocks on the wall nearby. They only had about fifteen minutes before Hakkai would have to ask them to leave.
“Hey guys, we should get going. We’ve only got a few minutes before this place is supposed to close, and I know how much Hakkai hates asking people to leave.” Shikamaru stood up, and stretched. Everyone else followed his lead. They’d all started to make their way towards the door when Naruto realized he’d forgotten to pay. He quickly dashed back to the table and threw a handful of bills down.
“That should more than cover the bill and tips. Hakkai, split the tip with Gojyo, okay!” Naruto called, and waved goodbye.
“Okay Naruto, good night.” Hakkai said, and began to clean up the table. He picked up the large wad of bills. There were five bills altogether, and two of them were more than enough to cover the tab.
“So now what you guys, should we call it a night?” Naruto asked, as he rejoined the others.
“I think that would be best. Ino and I have to be at the Hokage Mansion bright and early.” Sakura said.
“I’m going to be spending most of my morning with squad 13, so I need to head in too.” Shikamaru said, yawning.
“Okay.” Naruto said.
“I’ll walk Ino home, then head in.” Choji said.
“That’s ok Choji. Sakura and I decided to have a sleep over tonight, so she’s gonna walk me home.” Ino gave Shikamaru, Choji and Naruto a hug. “Good night, you guys.” She turned and started walking home.
“Good night.” Sakura said, and bowed before running after Ino.
“Those two sure have gotten chummy lately.” Naruto said.
“I guess we’re gonna head in too.” Shikamaru said.
“I’ll walk with you guys for a little while.” Naruto said.
“Oh…that’s ok Naruto, we’ll be fine.” Choji said, with a sideways glance at Shikamaru.
“Just for a few minutes. I was hoping we could talk some more, now that Sakura and Ino aren’t here.” Naruto said. Shikamaru sighed.
“Fine, but only for a few minutes.” Shikamaru began walking, Choji and Naruto on either side of him.
“Tonight was fun, wasn’t it.” Naruto said.
“Yeah, it was nice to go there without Asuma Sensei or some other adult with us for once.” Shikamaru said.
“It’d be nice if just Shikamaru and I could go some time.” Choji said wistfully.
“Yeah, it would be nice to go out alone some time.” Shikamaru agreed.
“Wait…have the two of you never gone out on a date before?!?” Naruto asked.
“We’ve never had the chance. Either we’ve been on separate missions or with Ino and Asuma. The one time it was just the two of us, we were both too exhausted to do anything.” Shikamaru gave Choji a sad look. Choji pulled him into a quick half hug.
“Cheer up, we’ll have some couple time soon, I know it.” Choji grinned at
“Yeah, I know.” Shikamaru said back, still looking a little sullen. Naruto thought for a couple of seconds and made a decision.
“Okay then, tomorrow night I want you to come over to my place.” Naruto said, slapping his fist into his palm.
“Why?” Choji asked.
“It’ll give you two a chance to be….you know…coupley with each other. Not only that, but you,” and he pointed at Choji, “can show me how to cook some things out of that book, and you,” he pointed at Shikamaru, “can start teaching me to play Shogi. So what do you think?” Naruto asked, a huge grin on his face.
“Choji…” Shikamaru said, and rubbed the back of his neck.
“Hmmm….sounds like fun. What time?” Choji asked, grinning back at Naruto.
“How about seven?” Naruto asked.
“Seven sounds fine. What should we make to eat?” Choji asked.
“Hold on.” Naruto opened the small case which contained the books and shogi set. He took out the cook book and handed it to Choji. “Go ahead and pick yours and Shikamaru’s favorites, and something for me. I’ll pick up all the ingredients tomorrow.” Choji flipped through the book, and folded the corners of three pages, and made sure Naruto knew which recipes to shop for. Naruto listened diligently to Choji’s instructions.
“Got it!” Naruto said, and returned the book to the case, “I’ll see you both tomorrow night at seven. Good night.” Naruto ran off towards his apartment, waving over his shoulder. Since he was looking back at them and not where he was going, Naruto managed to bounce off two light poles and a bench before he was out of sight. Choji just laughed, Shikamaru sighed.
“Are you sure you want to have dinner with that knucklehead again?” Shikamaru asked.
“Oh come on, Shikamaru. He may not be the brightest guy, but he’s lots of fun. Besides, this can be like a real first date for us.” Choji glanced around quickly, then took a hold of Shikamaru’s hand. The two of them walked down the street together, enjoying this rare chance to be alone.
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Naruto unlocked the door to his apartment and walked inside. He shut and locked the door behind him and took off his sandals. As he walked to the bathroom, he stripped off his jacket and shirt, throwing them into one of the dirty clothes piles. Once in the bathroom he washed his face and brushed his teeth. As he left the bathroom, he scratched his head as he walked to the bed. He grabbed his sleeping cap from the shelf above his bed and put it on, then set his alarm. Then took his pants off, leaving him wearing only his green boxers and cap, and crawled into bed. He smiled as wrapped the blanket around himself, and fell asleep without even reaching for Sasuke’s headband.
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Been a while since I've posted, been having personal, familial and internet problems. I'm hard at work on the next chapter, as well as the prequel series (So when I eventually start posting those, they'll come out much faster). Hope you enjoy, comments, as always, are much appreciated