Chapter 16
“Gaara?” asked a weary Temari. She had never seen Gaara go only partly into his transformation without half his body being covered in sand. “You need to calm down. What’s wrong?”
She didn’t receive a reply, however she noticed Jiraiya leaving the blonde and said blonde making her way over to where they were. She stopped right in front of Gaara and raised a hand to his face before leaning up to whisper something into his ear.
Whatever she did seemed to have worked as his eyes went back to normal and she gave him a weak smile, “Sorry guys. I’m gonna be out of the village after tomorrow’s sealing and I won’t be back till roughly five days before the exam.”
“Going anywhere in particular?” she asked, finally back to normal.
Her reply was a shake of her head as she leaned up again and said something to Gaara before waving them goodbye. Temari found it odd that Naruto hadn’t questioned why they were where she lived to being with however favoured asking her brother, “What did she say to you?”
He looked at her and spoke, “She said I needed to calm down and placed a small seal on my neck where she touched me which would channel her chakra into me whenever she left something odd.”
Temari raised a brow, “What does she think that’d do?”
The two of them began to walk again, “She believes her chakra would be enough to subdue Shukaku.”
“Will that effect fathers plans?” she asked, although she wanted nothing more than for their father to give his letter saying to stop the attack however she knew her father well enough to know that he would do no such thing.
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“Are you absolutely certain? Could it not have been people pretending to be from Suna?” the sandaime asked Naruto as she stood between Jiraiya and Tsunade.
“It could have been. I don’t know anyone from Suna expect the four that I have mentioned and even then I don’t know them very well. But that doesn’t obscure the fact that Gaara loses control over the one tails and attacks us. Nor does it explain Orochimaru attacking. After all, ero-sennin did say he had already left Akatsuki.” She looked up to Jiraiya who nodded back to her, affirming her statement.
“Hmm…” the sandaime took a breath of his pipe as he crossed his hands. “Naruto. If I’m not mistaken, tomorrow you will be fortifying the seal on the kazekages son?” she nodded and he continued, “Carry on with that plan. It may be that he gets very angry and he lost control, your seal will help him with that.”
Naruto nodded in reply, sincerely wishing that the idea the sandaime had was the truth. She didn’t want to think that Gaara and his siblings were planning on destroying them.
Wait.
“I doubt they’re working with Orochimaru. He used to be a member of Akatsuki and they hunt bijuu. I doubt the kazekage wants to risk the safety of their jinchruiki.” She shrugged her shoulders as she nibbled on her lower lip.
“She has a point sensei.” Spoke Tsunade, the first thing she had said whilst the younger blonde had arrived at the office.
“Never-the-less, we will tighten security around the village, check on how many ANBU enter the arena as well as have someone check their identity, check everyone who enters the village and make sure there are plenty jonin during the final round should anything happen.”
“You forgot the part where you’ll be getting an extra protection up in the kage box as well old man.” Spoke Jiraiya, sending his sensei a look that left no room for argument.
Of course that look wouldn’t work on a kage, “Nonsense Jiraiya. I don’t need extra protection-”
“You’ve gotten senile in your old age. Orochimaru is your student and is younger than you. Meaning he can last longer in a fight than you can. If he catches you without many people protecting you, nidaime knows what forbidden jutsu’s he’ll use on you.” Replied Naruto harshly as she glared at him. “If anything happens to you Konohamaru will be raised by me. And you wouldn’t want me to corrupt your darling beloved grandson now would you?” she spoke sweetly causing everyone’s sweat to drop.
Naruto’s habits weren’t a secret and some would claim she was the embodiment of the three sennin together. She drank, perved on people and enjoyed using people in T&I as her test subjects for new poisons and such.
They all shuddered at the thought of little Konohamaru being a carbon copy of Naruto. And where Konohamru went, Moegi and Udon went as well.
“Fine. I will have two people guard me.”
“Kakashi and Gai or we have no deal.” Spoke Jiraiya.
“We may as well bring Itachi here. It’d be funny to see Orochimaru’s reaction to seeing him again.” spoke Naruto through chuckles and the others followed suit.
Clearing his throat, “Right. Sadly that won’t be able to happen unless-”
“Unless we have him henge. Come on old man! I want to see Itachi! It’s been forever since I saw him! Plus, Sasuke wants to show Itachi he can do chidori and I want to show the rasengan!” she had a large smile on her face as she imagined the meeting. No doubt they would go to the tea house Itachi frequented and order lots of dango.
“Okay okay. Just stop shouting.” Spoke a resigned hokage, causing his two remaining students to stifle their laughs behind their hands causing the professor to squint his eyes at them.
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(MAJOR TIME SKIP! A WEEK BEFORE THE EXAM! Because I am too last to write what happens in detail what happens and if I did then it’d be filler.)
If anyone was looking a certain electric blonde female they could find her easily. She was skipping and spinning her way round Konoha after having been away for nearly three week, giving her a week before the final round of the chunin exam.
She was quietly humming to herself as she made her way through the village when she caught a familiar scent. Sand, blood and a feint smell of flowers. Smiling her herself she trailed after the scent and wasn’t disappointed at the sight that greeted her. In fact, it was a sight that made her feel flushed.
Gaara had apparently been training up until a few minutes ago and Konkuro had taken over, and it also seemed that Baki had worked him a good sweat.
He had just finished pouring a bottle of cold water onto himself when as she froze mid-step.
‘Breathe Naruto. Don’t allow Shukaku’s host to seduce you. As I recall, that’s your job.’
‘Shut-up! I’m not being seduced.’
‘Of course. Return to the land of ningen and wipe the blood from your nose.’
She flushed at the comment and gave a discreet wipe at her nose and was slightly irritated over being so easily distracted as Temari turned around, eyes wide as she looked at Naruto.
“Naruto! When did you get back?! And how long have you been standing there?” she asked with a large smile making her way over to the honourable daughter.
Naruto found she couldn’t give the elder blonde a reply as she found herself captivated by the same teal eyes that had followed her in sleep all the way in Mount Myoboku.
There was a… tint in them that hadn’t been there when she had first met him and it confused her; she didn’t know how to react.
“Um… I got back a few hours ago and just got here now.” She managed to reply after Kurama hit a mental tail against her head.
Temari was standing right in front of her when she leaned down and whispered into her ear, “Are you enjoying the sight of a wet Gaara? It doesn’t faze me but it should you.” She sang the last part before moving back straight again. Her comment caused a small blush to reappear on her face.
However she wasn’t going to be deterred and kept a large smile on her face before nodding.
Konkuro took the bait “Now what’s got you so happy Naruto hime?” he gave a smirk as he leaned against a tree behind Temari, his talk with Baki having either finished or placed on hold.
“Oh you haven’t heard?” she gave a quizzical head tilt as she regarded the middle sibling. He gave a shake of his head and she continued, “Well, Jiraiya sensei caught wind of Orochimaru’s location and he intends to bring him in for the safety of our jinchuriki.”
“What’s this about jinchuriki safety?” asked Temari, eyes slightly widened as had Konkuro’s and Baki’s.
She smiled, once again they had taken the bait, “Well it’s quite simple. Ororchimaru has valuable inside information of the Akatsuki whose plans are to hunt down the nine jinchuiki, absorb their bijuu’s and keep the powers for some plan of theirs. Even though we know this much, Orochimaru was a member for many years and could have even more information about them that would be invaluable for the five nations. He also know how to absorb the bijuu’s discreetly so should any of the jinchuriki meet him, they should report it immediately.”
She gave a small smile before latching herself onto Gaara’s arm, ignoring the shocked and enraged faces of the other three from Suna. All that mattered to her right now was getting Gaara to spill his guts and getting him the hell away from the pedo-hebi.