Chapter 18
Not even five seconds after the explosion Baki, Temari and Konkuro landed a few feet from the two of them, Naruto hadn’t let go of Gaara yet.
“Look up on the kage box. Tell me that isn’t Orochimaru.” She spoke to the people behind Gaara and each of them did so, their eyes widening. “I tried to warn you. I told you what Orochimaru was a part of yet none of you listened. Call off your men and no harm will come to Suna, I give you my word.”
Temari and Konkuro looked nervously to their sensei who looked her in the eye, “You knew? And yet you did nothing to stop us?”
She shrugged, “The sandaime wanted to lock you all T&I till you divulged what was going on but I convinced him otherwise. We’ve been after Orochimaru for years, if he comes to us that makes our life a lot easier.”
“You… talked the sandaime hokage… out of having us tortured?” asked Temari, as if the words were foreign. She probably didn’t receive many threats of torture often.
“Look we can stand here all day discussing this or you can call off your men. If you don’t there’ll be consequences. One-” she raised a single finger, “I’ll be forced to attack your people, and since you’re attacking my home I will kill them. Two-” she raised a second finger and detached herself from Gaara and took a few steps back, hardening her eyes as she looked at them, “You will face the wrath of the sandaime hokage and Konoha’s jinchuriki.”
At that Baki let out a chuckle, “We have been here for nearly two months and have not seen nor heard hide nor hair of your jinchuriki.” He gave a sign for the ninja’s above to come down however before he could bark out his orders they fell to the ground, both with holes through their chests were her tails had pierced them.
Four sets of wide eyes regarded her however she looked anywhere but to the set of eyes that would distract her. “You? You’re the jinchuriki of the kyuubi?” asked a breathless Konkuro who looked a little green.
She had her tails waving behind her as her eyes turned red with a slit in them, her teeth grew to fangs, whiskers grew thicker and her nails turned to claws. She also had a thin layer of Kurama’s chakra cloaking her, her ultimate shield.
She gave a curt nod, raised a brow and titled her head, “Would you like to call off your men? This will be the last time I give you that option.”
“Gaara.” Spoke Baki, his voice carrying a warning, “You remember the plan?”
Within her peripheral vision Naruto saw him nod, she ignored the pang she felt in her chest when she saw him do that however his next words bought confusion upon her. Upon everyone there.
“Attack Otogakure ninjas and protect Konoha ninjas.”
There was silence amongst them for a total of eight seconds before Temari pointed a finger at him, eyes wide. “Did Gaara just defect?!” she exploded, tilting her head to the side as she hit her ear a few times checking if she had heard correctly.
Konkuro nodded slowly, “Can you blame him? He just found out the girl he’s been stalking is a fellow jinchuriki. If I was in his position I might defect as well.” Konkuro looked deep in thought when he spoke again, “Is there really any point in attacking though? Our kazekage clearly seems to be Orochimaru and last I heard, my dad was the leader not him.”
Naruto had been focused on not looking at Gaara she hadn’t noticed him moving closer to her. She gave in and looked into his eyes and it was as if the world slowed down.
When she first saw those eyes, she though they looked hypnotic when they were cold she was clearly mistaken. Looking at his eyes now, they seemed to have melted and burnt at the same time, like a fire was ignited within them. She felt her breathing hitch and her heartbeat accelerate as he came chest to chest with her.
Leaning down he whispered into her ear, “…Your eyes…” she could feel his breath on her neck and ear as he spoke and she gulped, “...are so blue, so bright… so… beautiful.” With that he used a sand shunshin and went who knows where. She was too shocked, too red faced to bothered at that moment.
‘And you said you wouldn’t be seduced by him.’
Kurama’s voice bought her out of the gutter as she shook her head, pointed a finger at the other three before yelling out, “Come down here you lazy ass!”
She heard a groan and only a few seconds later, Shikamaru landed next to her. She turned and faced him, “Shadow possession them. They’re not to move a muscle till I say so.”
He nodded and did as she said, the others three being too stupefied to even register what she said till it was too late. She placed a finger on Shikamaru and transferred some of her chakra into him, her chakra and not Kurama’s.
He gave her a smile in thanks and crouched down, “Well, now that I’ve had a pick me up, I’m gonna stay here and keep you all tied up.” She gave them a lazy smile as Temari grew red face, spluttering nonsense she didn’t care to listen to as she looked for Oto ninja.
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.
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Three hours later Naruto was standing across the four from Suna, each on their knees as and ANBU stood behind each of them on high alert. Naruto was there to make sure Gaara wouldn’t attack even though she had the chakra suppressant seals were enough.
“Never in my life have I been placed in such a complicated situation.” Spoke the sandaime. He looked different today, garbed in his shinobi gear and his eyes were hard. Gone was the loveable old man and out came the professor. “You planned and launched an attack upon us, however you did so by order of your kage. However that was Orochimaru. And you didn’t know that. Inoichi has proven that fact with his memory sweep.
“So that leaves the question… what should I do?”
Tsunade cleared her throat drawing all eyes to her, “You forgot to mention how Sunagakure’s jinchuriki attacked Oto.”
“Also fact.” He replied before looking back to the four. “Right now all citizens of Sunagakure who came to Konoha are in our prison cells within T&I. no harm is befalling them and they are being looked after as well as they can be given the situation.”
None of the four spoke a word, they didn’t even raise their heads. Naruto reminded herself over and over she had to be impartial, not allowing her silly feelings to get in the way.
“Another fact is that their jinchuriki did not help us out us a sense of duty.” Spoke Inoichi, looking pointedly at Naruto causing several eyes to look at her in turn yet she refused to allow it to distract her.
“The reason isn’t what counts.” Rebuked Tsunade, arms crossed.
“Take war as an example. Starting a war for a petty reason over a good reason doesn’t mean people don’t suffer Tsunade-hime.” Spoke Jiraiya and Naruto to agree.
“He has a point. When Suna saw Gaara attacking Oto they joined him, believing the attack plan had changed.” Naruto replied.
Danzo didn’t seem to care though, “How can we be certain Sunagakure will not do something like this again should we allow them to go unpunished?”
“A new treaty. We shall sign a new treaty with a clause stating should either village attack the other without valid reason, the person who did the attacking will face punishment from the other village. Other parts of the treaty can be discussed and agreed upon later.”
“How do we make certain neither of our sides will attack the other?” asked Koharu, eyes squinted as she looked at her kage who simply sighed.
“A marriage alliance. More than one preferably. Have a few citizen marry internationally and have two diplomatic marriages.” He replied without missing a beat.
“And who do you propose marries whom for the diplomatic marriage? Your son is infatuated with one of our kunoichi’s and your grandson is too young. Tsunade-hime is too old for a diplomatic marriage as she is past birthing age.” Replied Homura who raised a hand to stop Tsunade from saying anything from the quip to her age.
“Homura has a point. At least one marriage should be from the kage bloodline and I see no other candidate.” Spoke Koharu when no one said anything.
“There’s one more child of a kage in Konoha.” All eyes fell onto Naruto including the four heads which had been on the ground a moment earlier.
This caused chaos in the room. There was shouting, arms waving, weapons waving and hitting.
Naruto sighed even though she could feel Kurama eating an imaginary bowl of popcorn as he watched.
She released her KI and everyone instantly stopped. She couldn’t see herself however she knew her eyes were hard when she spoke, “As the only person with the blood of a kage that isn’t already romantically involved nor inadequate, I believe I am the final choice.”
“You realize that if you go through with this, hime-sama, that you may not be able to become hokage. That has been a life-long dream of yours.” Warned Danzo.
“When you weigh the options, me not becoming hokage doesn’t mean much in comparison to peace.” Her voice was void of any emotion with her reply. Danzo had hit a button he knew better that to press.
“This meeting is adjourned. I want the Suna delegates, the remaining sennin and Naruto here within five hours.”
None of them hesitated to leave once the four Suna representatives had been escorted out, Naruto not even waiting as she hiraishined to her apartment, away from the eyes and ears of those who would be able to hear or see her tears and chocked sobs, the portrait of her parents gazing down at her as she did so.