Chapter 24
‘Shukaku, allow me to give you an early warning.’ Spoke Naruto as she froze the Ichibi with her glare, ‘You breathe a word of this to Gaara before he gets to his house and I will drive you insane.’
‘Kurama, bro, tell me she ain’t bein’ serious!’ yelled an indignant bijuu yelled the elder didn’t care to reply, seemingly content to sleep.
‘Oh I am. I will annoy you in your mindscape and make sure you will never be able to annoy Gaara if you tell him. This is a surprise and I’ll be damned- you know what! I’ll seal you from being able to talk to him for 24 hours!’ she yelled happily before slamming her hand against the bijuu’s tail and black ink appeared.
Kurama raised his head in interest, ‘What does it do?’
She replied with a large smile on her face, ‘It stops spiritual beings- chakra or manmade- from talking within a person’s head. I made this so Sakura wouldn’t hear her split-personality whilst on recon mission. Because that personality is wacky.’
‘I had assumed her and her personality merged…’ he grumbled, ears perking when he noticed Shukaku couldn’t reply. ‘I like this seal, you should use it on him more often. I think you’re ningen lover would like it as a present more than the one you already gave him.’
Naruto agreed but she’d be damned before she let him know that and simply appraised her hard work. The fact that she’d actually managed to transfer the seal like that was an achievement for her. Or it could have been because she had simply been obsessing about the seal so much she memorised it.
She turned and glared when she noticed something in his statement, ‘Jinchuriki! Not ningen!’
He snorted in reply and pushed her out of their shared mindscape, thoroughly pleased to be Shukaku try and fail to talk to him.
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Two days later several Naruto’s could be found wondering around the village with clipboards and pens, taking notes of the necessary information such as the stability of the village if she made a tunnel, people who lived near dangerous areas, and general information about the land which she would need to know.
Gaara’s birthday had been a simple affair and much to her shock she found out it was the first birthday he had had in years, Naruto made a note to always come for his birthday and celebrate it for days.
By the time she arrived at the kazekage mansion it was 4 in the afternoon and she was about ready for a cup of coffee to rejuvenate her. As she made her way to the kitchen she heard voices, “You cannot allow her to carry on parading around our village like this Temari-sama.” She recognised the voice as the really annoying person on Suna’s council that kept saying no to her requests.
“This is going to be her home. She is giving a lot up for this treaty and it’s only fair that she be allowed to make changes to the village. And besides, she’s doing things that’ll benefit us in the long run.” Replied an irritated Temari.
“And we accept that little fact but she acts as if she owns the place!”
“Now- now tell me something council member. Naruto-hime did she or did she not first go to the council and ask for approval before actually doing anything?”
“Yes she did.” He begrudgingly replied, and Naruto could hear him grind his teeth together.
“So how is she owning the place if she asked for permission to do so beforehand?” when she received no answer she carried on, “We are on thin ice with Konoha council member, and you verbally harassing their princess. We have signed a new treaty with them and if I or any of my siblings think or believe you will be a threat to Lady Namikaze or to the treaty she helped put in place, we will hand you over for Konoha to decide your fate. And may I remind you they have a unit specified for torture and are not afraid to use them.” She left the threat hanging in the air and Naruto sensed someone behind her.
She smiled and turned around to face him. He looked like he had just gotten out of bed which was a normal thing she had noticed as he worked through the night and slept during the early hours of the morning, or at least tried to.
He was wearing a red v neck shirt with black shinobi trousers, the necklace she had given him rested between his collarbones, her chakra glowing within it. His eyes however seemed darker today, as if he had heard Orochimaru spilling his guts on what experiments he had run on those children before running away.
She furrowed her brows and reached up to touch his cheek, “Are you alright?”
Instead of answering he took her hand in his and dragged her to the kitchen, sitting her on the chair before making his way round to the cooker, teal eyes colder than the icy mountains of shimugakure when he turned around. “Counsel member. What are you doing here?”
The elder man gulped quietly however Naruto’s sensitive hearing caught it. “I was talking with Lady Temari about certain… matters.” He gave a fleeting glance at Naruto, a glance Gaara and Temari caught in on.
“By matters do you mean my fiancé?” if possible the room temperature dropped and Naruto found herself sighing in relief. A sound which Temari looked at her incredulously about.
The council member’s shoulders stiffened, “With all due respect, Gaara, she must learn her place and with the way you three children go about-”
“Children?” asked an amused Baki, a few feet away from him was Lady Chiyo and Kankuro. “These are the children of our yondaime and you treat them with respect.” He stated, humour long gone as his face hardened.
“The jinchuriki didn’t even follow commands when it was stated he should have attacked Konoha but instead he attacked Oto, our allies during the coup. Instead, for a girl, he went and-” Naruto tuned out the rest and raised a brow at him, wondering if he realised saying such things constituted as treason.
‘Ah screw it.’ She thought before wrapping one of Kurama’s tails around him causing amused looks from the occupants in the room, “You know… there’s this clause that was added to treaty before it was sent to Suna which we added for the sake of the two kunoishi giving up their homes for another village…” she faded off when Gaara placed a food of onigiri in front of her and she gave him a kiss on the cheek. “It basically states that no one is allowed to outright disrespect us just because we’re foreign consuls. And that is what Temari and I are. We are both consuls. Can you tell me what that is shinobi-san?”
“An official appointed by a land to live in a foreign village or city to protect its citizens and interests there.” He spoke through clenched teeth, eyes glaring at the blonde who hummed in acknowledgement and didn’t say anything till she finished her first onigiri.
“So tell me… what are you trying to accomplish by disregarding that which you and your council agreed on? Because right now it looks like you are purposefully committing treason and trying to instigate a war.”
She allowed her words to hang in the air and dropped it at that, of course she dropped him unceremoniously on the ground as well, just for good measure as she went back to eating the food Gaara and given her.
She tuned out the rest of the conversations going on around her and simply gave Gaara a knowing smile and wink before entering his mind-scape.
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She looked around and was… unsure what to feel. Gaara’s mind-scape consisted of sand. Everywhere. Not that her original mind-scape was any better but still.
‘How did you get in?’ she turned around and saw Gaara standing behind her leaning against a sand pillar.
‘Shukaku’s got a bad habit of coming into my mind-scape to annoy Kurama and left a sort of passage for me to enter your mind-scape easier than it would have been otherwise.’ She stated and chair formed through the sand.
She looked at Gaara and back to the chair then he answered her unasked question, ‘I made it so you can sit down. It’s safe and stable so you won’t sink.’ She felt the temperature in his mind cool down and she was quite shocked her had such good control over this place considering he was unstable a few weeks ago.
‘You have said that name before; Kurama, however you have ever stated who it is.’
She blinked owlishly at him and replied with a nervous smile, ‘I didn’t realise. I told Temari and forgot to tell you… Kurama is Kyuubi’s name.’
As if sensing his name had been called Kurama entered the mind-scape and Shukaku sat beside him. Naruto hadn’t even noticed the bijuu’s presence.
‘Shukaku has been complaining about how you placed a seal on him to stop him from talking on the 19th.’
She nodded and gave him a smile, ‘I didn’t want him to ruin the surprise party I had planned so I placed it on him. Whilst it wasn’t developed necessarily for bijuu it still worked and I’m very pleased about that.’
‘Are there many seal masters in Konoha?’
She shook her head with a frown, ‘No. It was mostly and art the Uzumaki clan used and when they died the art practically died with them. Jiraiya-sensei is at level 12 but my dad was at the same level because he and my mum learnt together. The sandaime knows up to level 7 fuinjutsu since he never really learnt much about it. Kakashi-sensei knows up to level 6 I think but I’m- I was training Konohamaru, Moegi and Udon the art before…’
‘Could you teach me?’
She looked up at him and blinked, unsure if she had heard him correctly, ‘You want to learn fuinjutsu?’ when he nodded she asked, ‘Why?’
He shrugged his shoulders and crouched down in front of her, ‘Fuinjutsu was a part of your clan, was it not?’ when she nodded he continued, ‘You may be marrying into the Kazekage clan but that doesn’t mean you have to forgo your clans art. When we have children you will have more people to teach the art to as well.’ He gave her a small smile which she returned, tears in her eyes as she leaned down and gave him a hug, simultaneously crushing him to her chest.