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Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine. Also, this story is a lemon fiction therefore is intended for people of a legal age from wherever they come from. So, if these types of stories offend then stop reading now. Thanks

Edit: Hey everyone, if you're seeing a new update. Then it is because it was pointed out to me in a review that during the Karin portion, the effect she referenced doesn't apply to Mito. Thus, I replaced her name with Karura.

Chapter 96: Letting Go! Part: I

Suiren of Rain moaned as her fingers rubbed the outside of her pussy which began to glisten due to her efforts, before then pulling her fingers away to taste herself. She sighed in enjoyment around them as her other hand massaged one of her tits. Suiren imagined that she would present quite the erotic image from the doorway of her cell as she was laying on her disheveled and squeaking bed with her grey prison shirt rolled up to just above her breasts, while her pants were hanging from the leg that she had dangling over the side, allowing her to keep the other on the mattress as she returned to rubbing her cunt. Yet, despite the lust inducing sight that she imagined she presented, she found what truly made her feel naked was her missing mask. Still, she had adapted to its removal over the weeks that had passed since the Salamander Resistance had been crushed during the Battle of Ame, and while she would normally find her current acts shameful. She felt it paled in comparison to those of her so-called companions who had accepted Konan’s offer of clemency.

Granted, she would have likely accepted it as well, but that would have only been in order to attain the freedom she needed to continue her war against the blue-haired demon that currently ruled over Amegakure. In truth, she felt her description of Konan was more appropriate than ever, as like any demon would, she had seduced many of the Salamander members into giving up their vendettas. With the prize attained being their freedom, in exchange for giving up their hate. A price far too many of the Resistance had been willing to take, as in, every member it had been offered to.

Of course, Suiren and others like her, who had agreed and acted during the bombing campaign that the Salamander Resistance had engaged in against the people of Amegakure were not being offered the deal, at least until serving out the same prison sentence assigned to those that had been caught when Naruko Uzumaki had attacked one of their gathering points. A sentence that Suiren was currently serving, even though she had yet to be transferred to the actual prison yet. She suspected it was because Ame was still in the process of negotiating with The Grass Village over how much it would be charged to ship off its prisoners. Primarily, since unlike a major shinobi village, Amegakure didn’t have the same resources in manpower to assign its shinobi to watching over other ninja. Although, Suiren was rather surprised that Konan wouldn’t just turn to the Leaf or another member of the Alliance to house her prisoners. Since, due to the number of weeks that had passed since the battle, Suiren suspected Grass was playing hardball during the negotiations as it likely suspected that due to the number of prisoners that had been taken during the battle, it would definitely put Amegakure in a bind if they couldn’t offload them, and so Kusakakure was seeking to get as much as it could from any bargain struck.

Although, the Grass Village was on her list of places she wished to see burned to the ground, right behind her own, now that it was clear its people had fully surrendered their souls to the demoness that ruled it, Suiren was currently truly appreciative of Kusa’s habit of never missing an opportunity to benefit themselves as much as possible. Mainly, as she was beginning to see the cracks in the security of her temporary prison that were brought about due to Ame’s lack of a dedicated detention facilities for rogue shinobi. Not that it had ever needed one before, as the regimes before Konan’s tended to either kill any dissidents outright, or shipped the valuable ones off to Hozuki Prison. As Grass’s Hozuki Prison was literally in the business of detaining Shinobi, Suiren imagined that if she was to have any chance of attaining her freedom on her terms, in order to continue her war against Konan and her supporters, which she currently felt was all of Ame, it was the present.

Her cell door opening attracted her attention, and she gave the man a pleasant smile as he said, “Now isn’t that a welcome sight. Are you really so hungry for my cock that you couldn’t wait for my shift to start?”

Suiren ceased her rubbing and spread herself for the man as she replied, “Can you blame me? It took weeks for you to finally muster up the courage to enter my cell, despite me making my desire to receive a good fucking so apparent.” Suiren internally smirked as the man scowled at her minor dig. But she did let a frown appear once the man removed his belt containing his shinobi weapons and tools and hung it near the entrance of her cell. He then reached into one of the belt’s pouches and produced a pair of handcuffs which he began swinging around one of his fingers as he approached, prompting her to sigh as she said, “Do we really need those? Haven’t I shown you that I want this as much as you by now?”

The man gave her an amused and self-satisfied smile as he answered, “All you’ve shown me is that you’re a bitch in heat. But, I’m not some chump who’s going to drop his guard for a little bit of pussy. Now raise your arms above your head.”

Suiren didn’t let the insult phase her, as she listened to the command and placed her hands up to the top of the metal frame of her bed. He leaned in and fastened the cuffs to each wrist so that the chain linking them hung over the frame of the bed forcing her to keep them up, before then stepping back to push his pants down. Moving between her thighs, he gripped her hips and slammed into her.

Suiren let out a genuine moan, as her earlier actions had made her pussy quite desirous of a good fucking. Which she would admit the man now slamming himself into her was more than capable of giving. Not to mention, he was handsome enough that were the circumstances different and she were looking for someone to warm her bed for a night, she wouldn’t have been disappointed to find him there in the morning. But, despite her body enjoying the guard’s actions as her bed shook and squeaked noticeable from the pounding, she tried to keep her mind clear while occasionally moaning out encouragements.

She did have to hold back a frown of concern as the man commented, “I’m going to have to go down to storage to have a new bed brought up for you, looks like this one isn’t sturdy enough to handle the poundings that you’ve been receiving these past few nights.”

“Mmm, you certainly know how to treat a girl right,” Suiren replied as she squeezed her pussy around the shaft sliding within her trying to bring the man to release.

He groaned appreciatively, before leaning down to suck on one of her tits causing her to arch her back as she neared her own. Suiren mentally cursed as that was the last thing she wanted, and wondered why of all the guards she had tried to lure into her cell during the night watch, she had ended up with the one that was actually rather competent when it came to pleasing a woman. Hoping to move things along, she began moaning louder signaling that she was closer than she was, and smirked as the guard began moving faster as he accepted her audio cues as fact. His more frantic thrusts, helped her own situation as she needed to put more effort into faking her moans until he panted, “Shit, I’m close.”

“I’m cumming too,” Suiren cried out. While she arched her back in phony orgasmic bliss, while slipping her right leg under her blankets and adding, “Cum in my mouth! I want to taste you!”

The man was all too eager to comply, as he had requested as much a few times already only to have to settle with shooting his jizz onto her belly. Climbing onto her chest, he continued to fist his cock before firing off several ropes into her waiting mouth, and shivered when she wrapped her lips around it. She caused him to close his eyes in bliss as she rolled her tongue around the still tingling head of his prick, which is when she removed her foot from beneath the blanket to reveal the shiv that she had fastened from the frame of her bed, which was the true reason for it currently being rather flimsily held together. Clutching it in between her toes, she kicked up at him and buried the blade in the base of his skull where his spine met with it. The guard began to gurgle as he tried to call for help, but Suiren quickly release her grip on the blade to wrap her leg around his throat and pulled him back off of her. Gravity eventually took over as he fell onto the floor, resulting in her makeshift blade being pushed further into him until the point was sticking out of his still surprised looking mouth. With the bed no longer shaking, Suiren easily defeated the lock of the handcuffs using a sliver of the iron that had resulted from the forming of her make-shift blade. Standing over the guard, she spit his offering onto him before quickly making herself presentable. She then collected his belt and fastened it onto her waist, while checking to make sure the walkway of her cell was clear.

Not surprised to find that it was due to the lateness of the hour and a belief that the guard wouldn’t have acted on his lusts if there was another guard lurking about to report him for his improprieties, Suiren briefly weighed her options. A part of her considered simply making her escape, while leaving the rest of the imprisoned Salamander Resistance behind, since it didn’t appear that even her fellow prisoners were aware that she was free yet. However, she ultimately decided against it since she knew many of those who had engaged in the bombing campaign like her also did not regret their actions and have become even more convinced in the righteous of their cause after seeing how Ame had flocked to Konan in the wake of the battle. But, more importantly to her, if she was going to align herself with a force that could help make her dreams a reality, then she would need to be able to offer more than just her own services, particularly if she wanted to be in a position with some leverage. With a course of action decided on, she began to alert her fellow prisoners that their time in captivity was at an end.

***************************************************

“Honestly, you would think that with the number of times our caravan has visited Suna. It would get us some preferential treatment.”

Although she had kept her voice soft, so none of the Suna-nin currently inspecting the cargo and belongings of her people as they tried to enter the Sand Village would hear her complaint. At least one person had, who snickered, before saying more seriously, “Honestly, it is probably because we’ve stepped up our number of visits for the year that they are being so thorough. If the guards gave us a pass due to their familiarity with us, it would just create an opening some enemy ninja could exploit. Something tells me that is something their supervisors would be especially on edge about. Particularly with that new shinobi village the Land of Crows has established, and the part it played in the attack on Rain.”

“You’re right of course, Masako,” Sara said forcing some of her annoyance to fade as she gave her friend a soft smile.

The nearly decade older woman nodded her head, but then gave her a playful smirk which belied her being the older of the two as she asked, “But honestly, why so hot to trot? Do you have a piece warm body that you’re in a hurry to get to? Or, perhaps worried Seramu does, and your motherly instincts are tingling. Perhaps, you’re worried that she’s taken up with a certain blond man that we dropped off the last time we were here, and…”

“Honestly,” Sara said with a slightly disproving tone, “is sex all you ever think about? It’s like talking to a teenage boy.”

Rather than being insulted. Masako gave her a wide smile as she said, “Perhaps because I’ve reached the age where my sex drive is as active as one.” She raised her voice a little so two of the Suna guards searching their caravan nearest her could hear as she said, “In fact, as soon as they’re done. I’m going to invite that cute little thing over there to our camp tonight so he can give me a very through and private inspection. Probably his friend too.”

Although, the two Chunin in question didn’t know which was the one she had been talking about, and which had been the friend, it did seem to motivate them to finish up as one of them called out to the rest of their team, “The head of the caravan is clear. Let’s finish it up so these people can get on their way.”

Masato gave her a wink which caused Sara to smile, especially as the still highly attractive older woman said, “You’ve already been cleared. I’ll see that we get squared away for the night, so why don’t you go make sure Seramu hasn’t taken mister strong, blond, and good looking for herself since our last visit.”

Sara didn’t bother offering up a denial, as she simply settled for thanking her friend, before quickly heading into the village. A part of her did feel guilty for not sharing the truth about her relationship with the woman whom she considered her closest friend, particularly as they had shared her husband after Masato’s had passed, and after the harshness of tribal life had claimed her own, had kept her warm on nights when she had been particularly lonely. But, ultimately Sara felt that Masato was enjoying herself with her numerous flings far too much to settle down again, especially as there were quite a few men in their tribe who she had introduced to manhood on their sixteenth night who would snatch her up in an instant if she ever hinted as desiring as much, many of whom would gladly bear the brunt of their current wives anger for just another night.

Sara shivered a little as a sensation that Masato had described as her motherly instincts alerted her to just what her daughter was up to, and it elicited anything but a motherly desire in her as she picked up her pace. Quickly arriving at and entering the Hidden Oasis Inn, she made her way to her daughter’s room and threw open the door to find a sight that she imagined would send most mothers into a tizzy, but only elicited a deep seated lust as she found her daughter sitting naked on the edge of the bed with their shared lover as they shared a lustfully passionate kiss while masturbating each other. Seramu broke the kiss upon noticing her mother’s arrival as she pleaded, “S…she’s finally here…please…you win… let me cum.”

Naruto gave her a pleased smile as he stated, “As you wish,” before burying the middle and ring finger of the hand rubbing her cunt insider her, and quickly began working them within her. Seramu cried out as she let go of Naruto cock and fell back on the bed, as she put her feet up on it while she raised and lowered her hips frantically. After only a few moments, she tensed up before crying out in release before then collapsing onto the bed.

Naruto leaned down to kiss her softly before then standing to properly greet the young woman’s mother. Almost as soon as he stood, he found a soft warmth melting into him as Sara had quickly divested herself of the henge that made her appear older, as well as her traveling robes, as she closed the distance between them. Gripping her possessively, he locked his lips with hers, and began to explore her mouth with his tongue. Sara responded in kind, but eventually pulled back as she pouted slightly, “You two started without me.”

“Only so much as we began to tease each other when it became apparent that you were going to arrive later then you stated in your letter,” Naruto responded as he began to fondling a breast, causing her to moan as he tweaked her nipple. “We made a game to see who could hold out the longest.”

Sara smiled as she caused him to groan when she fondled his member which began to twitch heavily as she gently massaged it, “Since it looks like you won, let me give you your reward.” Sinking down to her knees, Sara gave the head of his prick a kiss before wrapping her lips around it. She moaned as it was heavily coated in his pre-cum due to the teasing he had already withstood. As such, she wasn’t surprised when Naruto gripped her head and began fucking her mouth frantically, nor was she when it was only a handful of moments later before he was burying his length against the back of her throat to pump his seed almost directly down it. Sara experienced a minor climax as his jizz tasted like a chocolate mousse treat that she hadn’t enjoyed since she was the Queen of Roran. Once Naruto finished feeding her, he stepped back as he relaxed his hold on her and said, “That was fantastic.”

Sara smiled, but was about to reply that most of the effort had already been done before she arrived, when her daughter stated, “No fair! I did all the work, but mom got all the reward.”

“Honestly,” Sara said in a playfully scolding manner, “You don’t even have a hello for your mother before you begin complaining.”

Her daughter smiled at her even as she fired back in an equally teasing manner, “Maybe because you couldn’t be bothered to give me a kiss hello before dropping to your knees to suck down Naruto’s tasty cum.”

“I suppose you’re right,” Sara said as she began to crawling towards her daughter on her hands and knees. Coming to a stop between her daughter’s thighs she said, “Now let me rectify my not giving you a proper kiss.” Sara then leaned in as she kissed her daughter’s lower lips, which she soon parted as she pushed her tongue inside her.

Seramu moaned loudly at first, but switched to humming her approval of her mother’s actions when Naruto knelt by her head and offered up his cock which she quickly swallowed. He groaned and reached out to massage one of her breasts as she swirled her tongue around his length while he slowly fucked her mouth.

After several minutes of enjoying her daughter’s unique piquancy, Sara pulled away from Seramu’s quim to look across her naked body. Her own pussy quavered in desire due to the sight of her daughter sucking on the cock which had given both of them so much pleasure. Feeling an emptiness within her, she imagined it was one her daughter also was experiencing so maneuvered herself under Seramu’s legs so they would rest over her shoulder and then began to stand. Lifting Seramu so that her hips were above her head, she gripped her daughter around the stomach with one arm before then smiling at her lover as she used her free hand to spread her daughter’s glistening pussy to state, “It looks like my daughter’s sweet pussy isn’t going to satisfied by my tongue alone, and is need of something a tad harder and longer.”

After hearing Seramu hum around his cock in agreement, Naruto pulled it free of her mouth, and raised up from his knees while replying, “I don’t think hers is the only one.”

Sara’s pussy quivered due to the look of desire she received from her lover, but replied, “What kind of mother would I be if I jumped the line and deprived her of something that she needs?”

“You mean like you did on my birthday,” Seramu stated in a teasing manner.

Sara smiled softly as Naruto grabbed her daughter by the cheeks of her ass to angle her hips towards him. He then began to rub his cock along her daughter’s slit, causing Saramu to moan at which pointed she responded to her daughter, “Well, to be fair, he was my Dream Warrior before yours, and I had to wait decades before he became our Dream lover.”

“I…I know,” Seramu replied while softly moaning, “I was just teasing. But, speaking of teasing…please stop Naruto…I want you cock inside me.”

Naruto quickly responded to Seramu’s request, causing Sara’s pussy to quiver once more as it desired to be similar filled. To help satisfy her own desires, Sara brought the hand she had used to spread her daughter’s pussy to her own, which she rubbed for a few moments before sliding her middle and ring finger inside her. She moaned while enjoying the close-up view of Naruto cock pounding into Seramu’s cunt. Her daughter’s cries of pleasure filled the room, but trailed off as Naruto suddenly pulled out of Seramu to offer his dick to her. Sara gladly accepted as she wrapped her lips around his manhood, and began bobbing on it savoring how her daughter’s flavor had been enhanced with their lover’s precum. She made sure her daughter didn’t cool down too much as she moved the hand of the arm that had been wrapped around Seramu’s midsection up so that she rub her snatch. She moaned appreciatively, which grew even louder when Sara having cleaned her lover’s rod of the pussy juice that had coated used the hand which had been teasing her daughter to guide Naruto’s dick back inside.

He began pounding into her again, causing Sara’s own pussy to ache as her fingers proved to be a poor substitute to the rod now drilling into her daughter. As a result, her pussy was at a near constant leak as her juices ran down the inside of her thighs and created a small puddle beneath her on the limestone floor. A puddle which grew bigger when Naruto again pulled out of her daughter to offer her his cock. Sara devoured it as she first bobbed her head on it to suction clean what she could comfortably swallow, before then letting him slip free as she licked the remainder of his shaft. When she was finished, she again guided it into her daughter, but this time rather than just letting go, she began to fondle his balls hoping to urge him into filling Seramu’s cunt with his cream.

Naruto groaned appreciatively as he returned to sliding himself within the warm tightness of Seramu’s velvet sheath. A sheath which began to grip him even firmer as she neared her release, and grew even more so as he began to swell in order to fill her womb. Seramu’s legs which for the most part had been angled up towards the ceiling suddenly straightened as she cried out, “Yes, I’m cumming…cum with me Naruto.” A request her pussy was also making as it coiled around him as it tried to coax his seed out of him. A request Naruto was more than happy to grant as with a final push, he buried himself fully inside her and began filling her womb to capacity and then some.

Sara let out a sympathetic moan as she recalled the times when she was the one being filled up. A feeling she hoped to experience in the immediate future, particularly due to how as Naruto slipped free of her daughter a small spurt of his cum followed making her imagine just how full Seramu must feel. Although tempted to bury her face back into her daughter’s snatch, she resisted in order to take over supporting her lower half as she set it down to the bed. She then spent a moment admiring her lover, who while bathed in the moonlight filtering into the room as he stood on the bed looked like a glistening statue as he caught his breath.

Which upon doing so, he then moved to join her on the floor where he pulled her close and into a kiss which caused her toes to curl. Sara felt the outside world fade away as she basked in the feeling of being in her Dream Warrior’s arms as his tongue danced with hers. She was pulled back to reality as their kiss ended, and Naruto told her, “Spread yourself for me.”

Sara nodded as she sat on the bed beside her daughter and raised her legs so that her heels were resting on the edge. Naruto knelt down before her, where he smiled as he wrapped his arms around her thighs and commenting on how wet she was said, “My you must truly have been suffering as you waited. It’s like an oasis down here.”

“Yesss,” Sara moaned as Naruto leaned in and began licking at the fluid which coated her pussy and thighs, “There’s an empty feeling that needs to be filled.”

“Don’t worry,” Naruto said in between swipes of his tongue, “You’ll be filled to the brim soon enough. But first I need to satisfy a thirst of my own.”

Sara leaned back and moaned while she buried her hands in his blond locks as Naruto began eagerly lapping at her dripping snatch. He eagerly drank up all her pussy offered, causing her to wrap her legs around his head as his talented tongue quickly brought her to the edge, and then pushed her over. She cried out his name as her world momentarily went black, while she filled his mouth with her flavor. When she came back to a few seconds later, Naruto was standing over her with a pleased smile on his face, and his cock pressed against her entrance. “Now let’s go about filling up the emptiness you were feeling.” Which he did in a flash as he pushed himself into her all the way to the base of his shaft. Sara cried out as she had another mild orgasm due to how sensitive she still was, which never seemed to completely fade as Naruto began moving within her.

Sara was in heaven as she locked her legs behind her lover’s back while he continued to slam into her. She tried to sit up, but found her muscles were still two relaxed from her previous orgasms. Yet, her lover sensing her intentions leaned down to her and sealed his lips to hers. Sara kissed him wantonly as his dick slid its way through her love canal over and over again, kissing her womb each time. She could feel another orgasm building up within her, which doubled in intensity each time Nauro’s rod hit her deepest point. He seemed to grow bigger inside her, although as Naruto movement didn’t seem to become more frantic, she attributed it to just her own pussy beginning to coil around him. Naruto picking up the signs that she was close pulled his lips from hers to begin pounding her more firmly, which caused Sara to cry out as she began clutching at the bed’s comforter. She also used her legs which were still clamped tightly around him to pull him towards her during his forward thrusts. Eventually the building balloon of pleasure within her met the sharp blade slicing through her that was Naruto’s dick causing her to cry out in orgasmic bliss yet again when they met. However, even as her mind went blank as it became almost pure sensation, a portion of it recognize that she wasn’t receiving a familiar warmth as well. The realization caused a small smile to appear as her awareness returned to find her lover pausing momentarily to let her bask in the moment.

Sara’s view of her lover was blocked suddenly as a recovered Seramu straddled her chest while facing their shared lover. Her daughter then pulled Naruto into a heated kiss, before stating, “It’s my turn next.”

Sara felt an unmotherly hunger while she stared at her daughter’s pussy even as she said, “I’m surprised that you wouldn’t say it is your turn now.”

Seramu looked back over her shoulder as she gave her mother a playful smirk to respond, “What kind of daughter would I be if I denied my mother the belly full of cum that she desires?”

Sara smiled back in amusement at hearing that, and replied, “I knew that I raised you up right,” before she then leaned in to begin licking her daughter’s cum filled snatch. Which she groaned into as Naruto began moving within her again, while he kissed her daughter hungrily.

A kiss Seramu broke as she leaned back to press her pussy back against her mother’s mouth when she began sucking on her clit. She let out a moan as Naruto used the opportunity to latch onto one of her tits, which he nipped on lightly before rolling his tongue around the hardened nub. After a moment he pulled away, and took a hold of her mother’s hips as he began ferociously pounding her. Her mother’s eating of her became more erratic as she pulled away several times to vent her cries as they became too much for her. Seramu leaned forward as she began licking Naruto’s chest making sure to tongue his nipples, while she also teased her mother’s clit with her fingers.

To her surprise, Naruto suddenly pulled out of her mother, and gripped her head to push it down to his cock, which Seramu eagerly began slurping on. She moaned as much from tasting her mother on it, as from the fact that her being separated from their shared lover’s pleasure stick had allowed her mom to refocus on pleasuring her. Seramu cleaned Naruto’s dick of the former queen of Roran’s essence, while her mother did likewise for the cum that he had deposited into her earlier. As Seramu finished her task, she then let him slip free of her lips before lining him up with her mother’s entrance again. She moaned sympathetically, as well as from her mother’s tongue, as he pushed himself back inside.

Seramu felt the tension that her mother’s action was causing to build inside her begin to boil over so stated, “Oh mom, you’re tongue feels so good. I’m so close.”

“Me too,” Sara replied when she pulled herself free of her daughter’s delightful snatch, before quickly diving back in.

Naruto began really throwing himself into Sara as he tried to ensure mother and daughter reached their completion at the same time. Sara mewed appreciatively into her daughter’s pussy as her lover’s cock began pounding her womb over and over again. She similarly began to focus on her daughter’s clit as she began to flick it with her tongue causing Seramu to lean back as she pressed her mound firmer against her mouth.

Searmu in turn gasped as Naruto leaned in and began sucking on one of her nipples until his need to plant his seed in Sara became unbearable, at which point he switched his focus to her other tit where he lightly bit her hardened nub. The sudden jolt of pain and pleasure sent Seramu over the edge as she coated her mother’s face in her juices, who began to cry out as well once Naruto fully buried himself within her and began to paint her womb in his warm jizz.

Naruto felt his knees grow weak as Sara’s massaging cunt wrung every ounce of pleasure it could from him. Once their respective climaxes passed, he felt a sense of satisfaction as Seramu fell onto her side to reveal a thoroughly pleased looking Sara, whose face was coated with her daughter’s release. Sara gave him a weak smile as he laid beside her on the bed at which point, she stated, “Mmmmm, I’ve been dreaming of this moment since we first picked you up in the desert all those weeks ago.”

“I hope it lived up to those dreams,” Naruto replied as he leaned in towards her.

“Always,” Sara replied before accepting her lover’s kiss, which although it started off tender, soon grew heated again as Naruto could taste her daughter on her lips.

Their lips soon parted, and Naruto looked over towards Seramu to see that she was sleeping contently so stated, “Speaking of dreams, it looks like you sent Seramu off to the land of them.”

“Good,” Sara said as she gripped her lover to roll him over onto his back with her on top. Staring down, she began rubbing her pussy against her lover’s partially deflated cock, and stated, “Because, I think it is about time that I get a little alone time with my Dream Warrior. So, just lay back and relax, let the Queen of Roran pleasure her beloved.”

“As my Queen commands,” Naruto said while folding his hands behind his head to bask in the sight before him as he became harder and harder.

Sara smiled as she felt his dick respond to her rubbing, and once fully erect, slid herself forward until she slipped off of it, before then pushing back so that her lover’s rod slipped back inside her. She sighed contently as she sat atop Naruto and thought, “Now this is what dreams are made of.” She then began bouncing up and down, fully intending to be sent to the land of dreams herself while still connected with her lover.

********************************************************

Shikamaru felt both a lingering sense of frustration and a growing sense nervousness as he walked through one of Ame’s apartment building hallways. The frustration was being directed towards the Grass Village’s ambassador, who he had the displeasure of meeting with a little while earlier in the aftermath of the prison escape that had occurred a few nights earlier. The man had attempted to argue that due to how many of the prisoners that had compromised Sasuke’s mercenaries had ended up dead in the resulting riot started by the Salamander Resistance Members who had also been imprisoned for their participation in the bombing campaign against Ame, that the Rain Village was now on the hook for the promises Grass had made in regards to handing them over to interested parties. The Grass ambassador felt this was the case as originally the plan had been that Ame would pay for the incarceration of the convicted members of the Salamander Resistance by using the bounties to be collected from Sasuke’s mercenaries. Naturally, most of the Ame representatives had balked at the idea, especially as it had been the Grass ambassador’s attempts to squeeze every ryo out of the bargain that he could that had allowed the overburden prison system of Ame, which normally only had to simply containing civilian offenders, to break.

Shikamaru had noticed that Fuyou, who had technically been heading up the negotiations for the Rain group, had been checked out as she allowed her comrades to take point during the discussion. It didn’t exactly take a genius IQ to recognize that it was tied to what had been discovered in one of the cells within the block where they suspected the riot had begun. Not that he could blame her.

Shikamaru felt a small sense of satisfaction creep into his mood as he had shut down the Grass Ambassador’s attempt to force Ame to pay for his promises by offering to house the Salamander Prisoner’s in the Leaf’s Maximum-Security Prison for free. Which, while he knew that he was technically overstepping his authority, he had been fairly confident that the Hokage would back him up. If only to stick it to the Grass Village. Still, he had been somewhat surprised that the Ame-nin present had appeared rather hesitant to accept the offer. Although, in hindsight, he suspected it may be tied to them fearing that coming to rely too heavily on the Leaf would be detrimental to their village, similarly as was being displayed by their needing to rely on Grass to house their Rogue-nin. But he also couldn’t rule out that some of them still held negative opinions in regards to his home. Fortunately, before he had truly needed to determine which was the case, or even ask for Tsunade’s approval, the Grass ambassador backed down less he have nothing to show for his efforts.

With the day’s frustrations dealt with, he had hoped for a moment to talk with Fuyou alone. However, she had quickly excused herself before he could even approach her. A part of him, had actually been glad, since she was the source of the nervousness that he now felt. Although, he couldn’t exactly place his finger on why. But, the seed for it had been planted a few days before the prison riot when he had found her standing outside his hotel room after returning from having a smoke break. While he approached, it had been apparent that she had been nervous, as well as a little scared, making him wonder if she had been outside his door for a while before his arrival and debating on whether to knock or not. He was about to call out to her, when she suddenly noticed him, and a slight look of panic appeared on her face.

She quickly recovered as she greeted him, but as he invited her in, and asked what had brought her by. He suspected the reason that she gave, of wishing to congratulate him provided the rumors of his going to be promoted to Jounin were true, wasn’t actually anywhere near the top of her list. Still, he had shared with her that he hoped the rumors were false, as he felt his life was already troublesome enough. A fact which had bemused her, but it had quickly become apparent that there was a great deal being left unsaid between them, which began to smother the conversation to the point where they were standing hoping the other would speak, at which point she had somewhat awkwardly excused herself.

He would almost say that he was glad for the timing of the captured Salamander Resistance members escaping, in the sense that it had been something else he could focus on rather than what he felt or didn’t feel for Fuyou. Still, the sense of mental relief didn’t last long in the vein that he soon began to feel the invisible pressure of a ticking clock. With the fear being that should it reach zero, he’d decide to act only to find that he had been beaten to the punch by a certain Uzumaki. A part of Shikamaru kind of resented the feeling, since he felt it was putting undo pressure on him to act when he would rather sit back and contemplate the matter further. Not to mention, how the Uzumaki had already bedded a majority of the women that he knew or interacted with. Including two that had indicated that they had feelings for him in the past. As such, he had felt the urge to rush down to Suna and declare to Naruto to steer well clear of Fuyou. Of course, Shikamaru imagined that if he followed through with such a desire that he’d receive a confused look from the Uzumaki as to what he was talking about, since to his knowledge neither of them had interacted with each other. Not to mention, Fuyou didn’t exactly hold Naruto in the highest of regards. But he knew the Uzumaki had a way of getting people to reevaluate their opinions of him, and Shikamaru feared should it happen again, he’d soon find her name on the list of women that used to be infatuated with him. Which, while Shikamaru still couldn’t say he was pleased that he felt such a sense of urgency to act, the fact that he did feel it was perhaps the truest answer he would receive regardless of how much time he spent debating the matter.

Moreover, he recognized that when his mother was lost to her pain and grief, his solution had been to bring in a certain Uzumaki who could help her let go, and focus on the future. Which, if he didn’t want to see happen this time around, meant he needed to step up and be that person for Fuyou. So, reaching his destination, Shikamaru took a deep cleansing breath, and knocked on her door.
************************************

Fuyou heard the knock at her door, and considered disregarding it as although she truthfully didn’t want to be alone in her darkened apartment. She also couldn’t say that she wanted company either. Not to mention, with the way her week had been going, she imagined that she would open the door to discover some chunin on the other side, who was there to tell her that Iwa was invading or something equally as devastating. Sitting up from her couch, which she had been laying across haphazardly, she frowned at the several empty and discarded beer bottles laying across her coffee table. She considered tossing them since she didn’t know who was there or what their purpose was, but upon her gaze focusing upon the file the bottles were scattered around found her desire to make her place more presentable quickly fading. Doubting that she was in much better condition than her apartment, she decided to get it over with.

Reaching her apartment’s entrance, she placed her hand on the handle and took a deep breath to steady herself to receive what devastating news the world wanted to throw at her next. Pulling the door open fully, she instantly regretted it as the light from the hallway caused her to wince since she had kept her apartment rather dark to better reflect her mood. She was almost glad for it, since if she had realized who it was on the other side, she probably would have slammed it shut. But, with the mild discomfort causing her to freeze, she couldn’t do anything as her guest identified himself by taking in her disheveled state asking, “Hi Fuyou, I didn’t mean to bother you. Were you sleeping?”

Fuyou wanted to break out into a litany of curses against the gods, but just continued to stare at Shikamaru as her eyes adjusted to the brightness and he came into focus. She tried to respond in the affirmative hoping to have an excuse for her unkept state, but then quickly began to second guess herself that it would be the proper answer, since she was still wearing her normal chunin attire. Granted, with how chaotic the past few days had been she could play it off as her simply having fallen into bed, but she imagined the lie would be exposed if he didn’t simply decide to leave. Which as she had answered the door, left the possibility that he might ask for her to invite him in, since she was still dressed. An outcome, that she wasn’t entirely adverse too, although she didn’t exactly want him to see how she had spent her evening.

“Is everything okay,” Shikamaru asked with a hint of worry entering into his voice due to it taking longer than expected to receive a simple yes or no to his question.

Fuyou felt on the verge of letting out a scream as she began to feel like a fool, but after a moment something seemed to break inside as she responded bitterly, “What do you think?”

Internally, Fuyou was berating herself for responding in such a manner especially as she could see Shikamaru was somewhat taken aback. But, a voice inside her wasn’t taking it quietly as it began to push back that it didn’t matter. After all, when she had showed up at his hotel room a few days earlier, hoping to apologize for speaking so glowingly of Pein, a man that she had admired, but who had killed his father. She had instead begun to simply speak of the rumors regarding his potential elevation to the rank of Jounin. She wasn’t entirely sure why, but attributed her apologizing as potentially exposing a weakness to someone that although she knew she had some feelings for, might not feel the same, and was from a place that she didn’t exactly have the highest opinion of. As a result, the wall which had seemed to have come between them after she had been interviewed by Ino about where her allegiances lay and she now understood was due to her praising his father’s killer had grown a little taller and thicker as the conversation seemed to become stiff and awkward. The voice pushing back within her argued that there was no point to her worrying about such things, as she had already blown her chance, and so the best course of action was to simply keep push him away rather than endure another painfully awkward conversation in which nothing was said.

The voice arguing such within her was in the process of convincing her that Shikamaru also wanted to avoid such a scenario, and had likely only shown up as a courtesy. Furthermore, he would see her bitter response as a means of escape, which he would take by responding to her in a heated manner before taking his leave, and to complete the maneuver would head back to Konoha in the morning along with the medical personnel that the Leaf had lent Ame. Fuyou admitted that it was indeed likely, so prepared to play her part, so was somewhat cut unawares when the Nara replied, “I think you could use a friendly ear at the moment.”

The bitter voice within her fell silent as Shikamaru’s response caused deep cracks to appear in the wall she felt existed between them. Hoping to do her part to tear it down she replied gratefully, “I’d like that.”

She stepped aside and Shikamaru stepped into the apartment although not very far due to how dark it was. Hitting the light switch near the door, Fuyou almost instantly regretted it, as it put her apartment’s state of neglect on display which she couldn’t pin on the battle as she lived in a section of the city that had seen relatively sparse fighting. Moving past him in a panic, she began to pick up some of the discarded clothes as she said, “I’m sorry about the mess. It’s been a hectic couple of weeks as you can imagine.”

“Hmm,” Shikamaru replied as she turned away to discard the pile of clothes she had gathered, “Nothing to be embarrassed about. You should see what my room looks like.”

Fuyou paused suddenly, as even though his words were delivered in a joking manner, they seemed to cut through her. She felt tears begin to gather in her eyes, as a surge of emotion swelled up within her causing her to choke out, “Why?”

Shikamaru was confused as although she was facing away from him, it was easy to hear the raw emotions that were threatening to spill forth. Not exactly sure what he had said to trigger such a response, and positive he was about to wade into an emotional minefield he asked, “Why what?”

Like an emotional dam suddenly bursting, Fuyou replied, “Why are you here? Why are you acting so nice? Why are you acting like you don’t hate me?”

Shikamaru was a little taken aback by the outburst, and let out an audible sigh which he noticed caused Fuyou’s shoulders to tense as if he was just about announce that it was too troublesome to answer and leave. A part of him was considering doing as much, since he recognized that proceeding further was likely to take him well away from the path that he had laid out for himself during his match against Temari in the Chunin Exams. But, beginning to understand what his father had been speaking of about how the right woman could make even slackers like them endeavor to be more, he answered, “I’m here because I imagine that after the past few days you’ve had, you could use a sympathetic ear or if need be, a shoulder to cry on. As to why I’m so nice, well I like to believe I’m general a pretty agreeable person, and finally, I’m not acting like I hate you because I don’t.”

Fuyou turned to face him, and revealed a face that that was teetering between hopeful and fearful, which began to slide towards the more negative end of the spectrum as she asked, “Why? How could you not after all the praiseful things I said about Lo… Pein?

At first, Shikamaru was confused why she appeared torn up about the night Ino had pried into her feelings on Pein and loyalty to Konan. But it quickly dawned on him that at some point since the battle Fuyou had learned about the people Pein had taken from him. Yet, desiring confirmation he asked, “I’m guessing someone told you that he killed my father and sensei during the battle of Ame.”

“He killed your sensei as well,” Fuyou said as she began to feel even more guilt begin to fray her emotions.

Shikamaru cursed mentally, but having debated himself on his feelings over the matter before arriving quickly stated, “He did. But, that doesn’t and shouldn’t reflect poorly on you.”

“How can you say that when…”

Fuyou trailed off after Shikamaru sighed loudly, beginning to feel the situation was becoming rather troublesome, since it appeared that she wanted to feel guilty, and recognized that he would probably have to offer up more than just platitudes. “When you praised Pein, you did so in ignorance of my own history with him, outside of his attacking my home. And, while some might feel that is enough reason for why you should probably have held back some. Sadly, there are entire books filled with the horror and atrocities that our two villages have committed against each other. So, I can understand why you would have felt his attacking my home was just him giving back a little of what Ame had experienced during the Second and Third shinobi wars. Hell, having heard much of Pein’s history from Konan, I can even understand why he hated the Leaf. Yet, it doesn’t change how I’ll never be able to forgive him for the suffering and death he inflicted.” While it appeared that his words had succeeded in pulling Fuyou’s mostly out of the guilt that she had been feeling, it was apparent his last sentence as he paused filled her with dread as if he was setting her up for a sudden reversal. Particularly as he hadn’t been able to keep much of his hatred for Pein out of his voice, still he took a calming breath before continuing, “However, the battle that we just fought was fueled by the same hatred and self-righteous assuredness that Pein displayed when he attacked Konoha. Men like him and Sasuke allowed what are perhaps true wrongs committed against them, to paint everyone with the same guilty brush for the thinnest of reasons. Their hatred blinded them to the fact that within the monolithic entities that they have named enemies, there are good people just trying to get by. So, I’m trying to learn a different lesson from my own tragedies by not allowing it to blind me to that fact.” Stepping closer to her, he added, “Especially, when someone is hurting because someone close to her appears to be taking the path of hatred and vengeance.”

Fuyou felt almost magnetically drawn to the Nara and like when to opposite polarities came to close together, suddenly found herself in his arms and began crying into his shirt as she vented the grief that she felt at Suiren’s complete rejection of the redemptive path Konan was offering, not to mention the guilt that she had been carrying for the past few days.

Shikamaru was rather surprised himself, and wasn’t entirely sure if he had succeeded or not. But, figured now was the time for platitudes as he told her everything was going to be okay, which he didn’t necessarily believe, and doubted she did either, but seemed to be the words the moment called for. After a while, Fuyou tears began to cease, and so she pulled back, but began to feel mortified upon noticing the wet mess she had made of his shirt, so immediate said, “I’m sorry…”

“It’s okay,” Shikamaru replied, which although she had meant it in the more immediate sense of his shirt, his words carried a heavier significance for the both of them.

Fuyou forgot about the shirt, as she stared into his eyes, which normally appeared bored most of the time, but at the moment carried a soft warmth in them. A warmth she wanted to bath in longer, as she said, “I…I don’t want to be alone.”

“I don’t have anywhere else I need to be,” Shikamaru replied, aware that her statement was an invitation to spend more time in each other’s company, rather than a promise of anything more.

Fuyou nodded, as she pulled out of his arms and said, “Um… do you want anything to drink.” Receiving a nod, she continued, “Let me see what I have, and why don’t you take off that shirt so I can clean it. I should have something you can wear while it is in the wash.”

Shikamaru pulled his shirt over his head, and felt a spark of pride when Fuyou returned a moment later, and paused to take in the sight. She quickly got ahold of herself and handed him the shirt that she had gotten. Unfolding it, Shikamaru arched an eyebrow as it was a half-shirt that would have left his torso exposed, and had some cartoon characters printed on the front. Fuyou gave him a soft smile which teetered between apologetic and playful.

She disappeared again after he handed over his, and pulled on the one she had given him. He felt a little uncomfortable in the borrowed shirt as it was a little tight on him, but also left his stomach uncovered. Still, as he moved towards one of the windows of her apartment, he figured if it helped Fuyou forget her troubles for a while it was worth a little discomfort.

*******************************************************
Sakura was finishing what she assumed would be her final rounds through Ame’s hospital as she also met with the various department heads who would be taking over for her and the other Konoha-nin once they returned to the Leaf. With the last of those meetings having just gotten over with, she began heading down to the hospital’s basement to check on one of her fellow Family members that had practically lived down there in the weeks since Sasuke’s attack.

For a moment, the pink haired kunoichi, felt a sudden surge of hatred and anger as she thought of all the misery and pain that she had been forced to deal with over the past few weeks, as she had led the Konoha’s relief force which had surged into the village almost as soon as the battle had ended. All of which was necessary because of the selfish whims of a boy who had been gifted with incredible power, but was so caught up in his own pain and grief that he was lashing out at the world at large. Hoping to avoid a similar fate herself, she thought of her lover which like a much-needed rain during a firestorm, began to dampen and suppress her negative emotions as his actions showed her that a better path was possible.

Sakura’s pace slowed as she passed a room so she could discreetly check on the occupant due to the door being open. Inside, she saw the human Bijuu Kukaku Shiba sitting up in bed, while absentmindedly looking out a window. Perhaps, due to it appearing that she wasn’t really focusing on anything, she was gently petting a black cat which was sitting in her lap, and if Sakura had to guess was likely Yoruichi. Although she knew the two Bijuu had not been getting along for the most part since assuming human forms, ever since her sister’s wounding, Yoruichi had not spent more than a few hours outside of Kukaku’s presence. Which wasn’t to say that their relationship had been repaired by the ordeal, particularly as Kukaku seemed to ignore her sister’s presence in favor of her own thoughts. But, to Sakura, it did look as if some unaware part of her was appreciative of Yoruichi’s presence.

Moving past the doorway, Sakura’s thoughts turned towards her mother, who she feared that without similar support, was in danger of traveling the same path of the Avenger that gave birth to Sasuke. She sighed, since before the battle in Ame, she had seen some improvement in her mother’s attitude particularly during the weekly dinners that she and Naruto would have with her. Which was why she feared that if and far more likely, when her mother heard about how injured Naruto had been in the aftermath of the battle, even if he had done the worst of it to himself, it would just further convince her mom that she was right in her desire to kill Sasuke. Not that Sakura would be particularly heartbroken if her mother succeeded in her self-appointed task. But feared that if she did so with a heart blackened by hate, it would only result in someone just as bad taking his place.

Resolving to put her more aggressive plans to dissuade her mother from becoming an avenger into play upon returning to Konoha, provided the key component to them had healed from his self-inflicted damage, Sakura turned her thoughts to the present upon reaching one of the hospital’s basement laboratories, where Karin had sequestered herself shortly after the Battle of Ame. Stepping into the room, she began to understand why a few rumors had begun to spread among the hospital staff as it was apparent that the female Uzumaki had made herself at home, and perhaps a little distressingly was giving off a mad scientist vibe as there were discarded or forgotten experiments spread throughout the room. The one which made Sakura the most uneasy being a easily visible and partially dissected White Zetsu that was located within one of the three surgical suites used to dissect quarantined or possibly infectious deceased individuals when combating potential plagues which were built into the back of the lab. While the other two suites were darkened, indicating that they hadn’t been used for a while, Sakura could just make out covered bodies on the tables within them as well.

Sakura frowned at the sight, since although it was easy to think of the Zetsu as just the byproducts of an experiment, she suspected that Karin wouldn’t really be all that considerate to the dignity of the deceased even if they had been human, provided there was a scientific curiosity that had captured her attention. Granted, she understood that unlike her, Karin’s own medical abilities were primarily due to the nature of her chakra, and that she didn’t really have much interest in healing others. But, a part of her wondered if perhaps some of the disregard Karin was displaying towards the Zetsu, was a trait that she had picked up from her time working under Orochimaru, who definitely saw other people as merely things to be used in order to expand his own knowledge of jutsu and science.

Shifting her gaze away from the surgical suites, Sakura spotted Karin bent over one of the labs many workspaces. Her focus was on a report that she was currently reading, while also occasionally using a pair of chopsticks to pick at a plate of food which likely had been delivered from the hospital’s cafeteria. For a moment, Sakura had a strange sensation that she would attribute to being similar to someone walking over her grave, as she believed that in many ways, Karin was like a reflection of who she may have become if she had left Konoha when Sasuke had defected. Not that it was currently a bad thing, as Karin had devoted herself to helping fulfill the Family’s ambition, but there were times where she seemed rather unaware of social norms, which Sakura attributed to her spending several years working alongside the likes of Orochimaru. Although, to be fair to the red-head, while it had been a similar held attraction to Sasuke which had caused her to abandon her home village, it didn’t appear like she had held many connections to it in the first place. Unlike with her, who at the time had been willing to toss away her bonds with both her friends and family in order to pursue a relationship with the Uchiha. Sakura felt a wave of disgust at how shallow she had been, but didn’t let it foul her mood too much as she considered it a stepping stone to understanding how lucky she was to be loved by a man like Naruto.

Feeling buoyed by her love for the blond Uzumaki, she was about to announce her presence, when Karin looked away from the report that she was reading in order to grab a morsel from her plate, and noticed she wasn’t alone. Standing up, she appeared to grow somewhat nervous as her eyes darted about the room to the various experiments that she had running or had been abandoned. “Sakura,” she said sounding surprised, “How long have you been there?”

“Not long,” Sakura answered giving a disarming smile, “I didn’t mean to startle you. But I got lost in my own head there for a moment.”

“It happens,” Karin said understandingly as she ran a hand through her hair and noticed it seemed a little greasy to the touch, so wondered how long it had been since she had last taken a shower. Growing a little self-conscious at that, as she wondered at just how disheveled she must appear, she asked, “What brings you down here?”

“Well, I just wanted to let you know that as of tomorrow, I’ll no longer be in charge of the medical system here, so if you plan on staying then you’ll need to make your requests to the Ame medical chief.”

Karin frowned, as she began to say, “I thought there was at least another week before…” She trailed off as she realized that she now had her answer for how long it had been between showers. She spent a moment looking around the lab, before finally stating, “I guess I should start wrapping up then.”

“If you feel that you need more time, I’m sure they’d be willing to accommodate you,” Sakura stated while indicating some of other work areas that housed still active experiments.

Karin appeared to give the matter some thought, but after a moment stated, “That’s okay, most of them are going through their third or fourth repeat to make sure the results are consistent.”

Rather impressed the red-head was so far along, Sakura asked, “Do you mind me asking what it is you are hoping to discover? Not to be condescending of the work you’ve been doing, but I figured that we learned everything of value there was too from the Zetsu corpses that Hana and Ibuki took back from the wreckage of Obito’s base after the Bijuu raided it to free the rest of their siblings.”

“I would agree with you in terms of their physical capabilities,” Karin said growing excited at the prospect of sharing her theories with someone. “Before, I begin, how closely did you read the after-action report about the battle.”

“Not too closely I’m afraid,” Sakura replied, “I had my hands busy repairing and dealing with the human consequences of it.”

Karin nodded, before turning away to pick up the report she had been reading when the pink-haired medic had entered. Handing it over, Sakura skimmed through it for the relevant parts, a task made easier as Karin had highlighted them, and revealed that Karin was interested in the battle that took place between Sage and the Black Zetsu. However, after reaching the point where Sage had tried to separate the soul of it from its body and had then experienced a vision of some sort as a result, Sakura would admit that she still had no idea as to what Karin was hoping to prove.

Stating as much, she said, “I’m afraid that if there is some sort clue as to what you are looking for in these pages, I’m just not seeing it.”

Karin gave her an understanding smile, before stating, “I’m not too surprised, because what I’ll be proposing may be pretty farfetched. I just wanted us to be on the same page events wise before I begin.” Receiving a nod, she began to explain, “Now according to Sage, she succeeded in absorbing the soul and memories contained within the Black Zetsu that she faced. Yet, later in the report, we learn that the Black Zetsu was able to help Tobi escape so they could take the Rinnegan from Pein’s mausoleum.”

“Yes,” Sakura agreeing with the facts presented, before stating, “But, that particular Zetsu also survived a Lighting Cutter from Kakashi-sensei. It just may be able to recover from overwise fatal techniques.”

“That may be true,” Karin replied, since they didn’t have enough data to make a conclusive answer. But, having an alternative theory, she countered, “However, I imagine recovering from a physical wound is quite a bit different then surviving having your soul pulled from your body.”

Sakura inclined her head in recognition of her point. Her gaze then drifted towards the autopsy rooms, and with a shock of realization stated, “You believe the soul Sage removed belonged to a White Zetsu.”

Nodding excitedly, Karin replied, “Exactly. For starters, I don’t believe the White and Black Zetsu are not truly related or more accurately are only tangentially so.”

Sakura grew a little confused so asked, “What do you mean?”

“Well, we originally assumed the Black Zetsu was one half of the Zetsu that was a member of Tobi’s Akatsuki. But what if the Black Half was in fact its own being all along, and was using just a standard White Zetsu as camouflage to operate in the open? Does that story perhaps sound familiar?”

Sakura frowned with concentration for a moment, before stating, “It, kind of sounds like what happened to the name sake of the Uchiha Clan after he got sick.”

“Exactly,” Karin said as she began making her way to the autopsy rooms, “I believe it is likely the man that the Uchiha clan eventually changed their name to, possibly didn’t survive his illness or if he did, was still left in a position where the Black Zetsu could manipulate him like a puppet.”

“To what end?” Sakura asked unsure where the Uzumaki was going with her explanation.

“I believe the Black Zetsu was attempting to awaken the Rinnegan in Uchiha,” Karin answered upon reaching the back wall with the autopsy cells. “This would explain the atrocities Uchiha committed, as he attacked other clans that descendent from the Sage of the Six Path’s two sons. After the Black Zetsu failed when the clans united against Uchiha, it probably returned to the shadows so it could manipulate events from them again, with the goal being to awaken the Rinnegan.”

“I suppose it is definitely plausible,” Sakura stated after thinking the matter over for a minute. “Still, that doesn’t explain what you’ve been doing down here.”

“I suppose it doesn’t,” Karin said realizing she had headed down another tangent, “Sorry, it’s just there are so many questions, that I sometimes have trouble focusing on what is in front of me.”

Sakura cast her gaze around the room at the numerous experiments littering the room before teasingly stating, “You don’t say.”

Karin smiled good-naturedly at the teasing before explaining, “I guess what brought me down here originally was my seeking answers to the question, where did the memories Sage saw originate from? After all, while it would be easy to say that the White Zetsu, regardless of how simple they appear, are alive and thus have a soul for Sage to absorb. What if the truth of the matter is that they are more akin to Zombies?”

“Then they wouldn’t be alive,” Sakura replied almost without thinking.

“True, if we use the definition presented to us from popular media,” Karin stated, but wasn’t willing to concede the point. “However, there is a little known theory which tried to explain all the states of being within the world, and in that theory, Zombies are not simply reanimated corpses. But, instead are beings whose souls and chakra have left their bodies which are technically still living, and thus are consumed by the need to eat constantly in order to produce the energy they need to sustain themselves.”

“I don’t think the Zetsu match that definition either though,” Sakura said as she shifted her focus from the red-head to the dissected Zetsu laying on the table of the currently lit autopsy room.

“No, not on the surface,” Karin admitted, “However, the theory that I mentioned isn’t just to assign a label to something. But, to try and understand which of the three pillars, chakra, soul, and body were lost or gained to arrive at a point. In this case, I believe that what the Zetsu represents are a reanimated soul, something which was perhaps lost, or more accurately, absorbed and laid dormant, but has been given a semblance of life through Furofuki’s experiments on Madara which allowed him to awaken the Rinnegan.”

Sakura looked back towards Karin in shock, before it dawned on her, “You’re saying that what Sage witnessed when she absorbed that soul was its death.”

“Probably,” Karin said, “Although, my guess is the person that particular Zetsu had been likely died of starvation while in some sort of genjutsu. Although, I imagine the roots that appeared and ensnared everyone, likely were absorbing their chakra, and apparently their souls so it is possible they died before they starved, but I imagine that would be cold comfort for them.”

Sakura nodded, and felt her own mind begin to race down different rabbit holes with various questions that she now desired answers to. The first of which she voiced, “So, let’s assume you are correct. What does that mean exactly?”

Luckily for her, it appeared Karin already had quite a few answers at the ready, “Well, for starters, it means Furofuki was wrong about Madara creating the tree the White Zetsu appeared from. I believe though that he likely implanted the clone that he created of the First Hokage into a tree that already existed, and that provided the template for these souls to latch onto, to in effect resurrect themselves. Although, based on the Zetsu limited cognitive function it is likely this was merely a byproduct of the implantation, and the life-giving properties of the First Hokage’s Mokuton, rather than a deliberate action taken by the souls trapped within the tree.”

Sakura nodded in agreement, before asking, “Assuming that is true, then that means the tree should be massive since we are talking about something that has been around since ancient times. It shouldn’t simply be a myth.”

“I believe it is,” Karin said, “Except it isn’t raising to the heavens. At least not anymore.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, for starters, what happened to the roots of the tree that Furofuki attempted to raise in Konoha after it was toppled?” Karin asked.

“I don’t know,” Sakura admitted, “I assume most of them were removed when the stump was pulled free. But I suppose there can still be some down there.”

“And what if the stump was never removed, but was simply paved over?”

“They would probably just die without the main stem of the tree to produce the hormones it needs,” Sakura stated recalling some of her old biology lessons.

“Not, if it had the souls of say a continent’s worth of people to keep it going for a few hundred thousand years,” Karin suggested. “Plus, it is possible that it might have alternative means of attaining nourishment.”

“Wait a second,” Sakura said, “Are you actually suggesting that the original tree roots that Sage saw in her vision are still out there?”

“Not just still out there,” Karin answered, “But, probably beneath our feet even now, buried deep throughout the continent, and waiting for the reactivation of some jutsu to rise up again, and well you can imagine what happens to us if that happens.”

Sakura felt a little unnerved at the idea, but figured that if true, the only thing to be done was to stop whatever the being they called Black Zetsu was planning. Still, she was somewhat skeptical so stated, “I don’t know. That seems kind of hard to believe. If I’m following you correctly, then you believe these ‘souls’ within the Zetsu are basically what, the leftovers from some extinction level jutsu. It is kind of hard to believe this root system would be able to sustain itself off of victims from what possibly tens of thousands of years ago.”


“To be honest,” Karin said sounding defensive, “I believe it is a little premature to make such an assessment without evidence one way or the other. After all, based on what Sage saw in her vision it is possible this root system was in place long before any humans walked this land at all, since it is also hard to imagine massive roots would just appear out of the earth out of the blue. So, it is difficult to say exactly how it sustains itself. More to the point, it might be someone twisted the roots to their own ends.”


Sakura inclined her head to acknowledge Karin’s argument was valid. But nodding towards the dissected White Zetsu asked, “Still, I’m not sure why you found it necessary to dissect several of them just to come up with this theory.”


Karin grew a little apprehensive as she replied, “Well, it is related as I was curious about why if they wanted to create an army of Zetsu, they are going about it in such an inefficient manner.”


“Inefficient,” Sakura said sounding somewhat disbelieving, “From our best guesses based on when the Bijuu raided Tobi’s base of operations they had something like a hundred thousand of them.”


“Exactly,” Karin said as if Sakura had made her point for her, “Which is a paltry sum when considering that they have been at this for somewhere between twenty to thirty years. Even if we are generous and say that they’ve only been at this for the bottom portion of that timeframe, that is a measly five thousand Zetsu a year.”


Sakura began to see what Karin was driving at when she said, “Especially when you consider the spore method that they have of copying themselves.” She frowned as she quickly directed her gaze to the darkened autopsy suites as she stated, “You didn’t?”


“I may have isolated two spores and gave them enough chakra to fully develop,” Karin said sounding mildly apologetic, as she hastily added, “But, I made sure to keep them sedated.” In an instant, her tone switched purely to excitement as she continued, “It proved to be worth the risks because I believe it proves my soul theory.”


Sakura wanted to disagree, but found her own curiosity piqued as she asked, “How do you figure that?”


“Because only one of the clones is still alive,” Karin stated excitedly.


The pink-haired kunoichi would admit to being a little unsettled by Karin’s giddiness over the matter, but figured it was just tied to the thrills of discovery. Trying to puzzle out why the Uzumaki felt that only one of the clones surviving proved her theory, she mentally chewed on what had been revealed thus far before stating, “These clones were derived from the one that Sage killed.”


“Precisely,” Karin said nodding towards the dissected Zetsu, “It was easy enough to locate in the courtyard since it was the only one that looked to have died of natural causes. While it doesn’t conclusively prove that it was the only Zetsu to exist with this soul. I feel that it is a strong possibility, since after creating the two clones, one of them got stronger, while the other began to wither away. This would help explain why there are not more of these Zetsu since it appears the majority of the ones created using the spore method end up dying shortly after. Unless, the Zetsu the spores originally came from is no longer around.”


“But why?”


“I’m not sure,” Karin admitted, “I suspect though that it is because these spores work in a similar manner as say a Shadow Clone. Except instead of dividing chakra, the White Zetsu divides the soul it originally was born from. These soul fragments though quickly die out within the copies causing their termination in turn, but if the original is killed, then one of the copies is selected to become the new alpha as it were.”


“Much as some chakra is recouped when a shadow clone is terminated,” Sakura said understanding Karin’s analogy. “Still, if you’re correct then the original one was already dead when you decided on your little experiment. Shouldn’t its soul have passed on?”


“It is possible that it did,” Karin said feeling a little bit on shaky ground since the topic was rooted more in the spiritual then in science. Still, recognizing that it didn’t truly matter where the soul went, she stated, “However, it is possible that so long as one of the copies exists or is recreated at some point via the spore method, then a link to the original soul exists. Sort of like how a sacrifice is used to call back a soul using Endo Tensei, except in this case there already exists a tether to the body it is being called into. So rather than requiring a life to establish the tether, the original soul simply bleeds into one of the copied bodies until it can be considered the original.”


Sakura nodded figuring the logic tracked as she stared into one of the two darkened autopsy rooms, and noticed that the sheet covering the Zetsu inside was rustling. Turning to Karin in shock, she asked, “It’s still alive.”


“Well yeah,” the red-head responded in confusion, “I told you one of them survived.”


“No, I mean…why?”


Karin frowned as she said, “Because its sedated and currently isn’t a threat to anyone. What, did you expect me to just smother it with a pillow or something?”


“I don’t know, maybe,” Sakura said causing the red-headed Uzumaki to look mildly offended. Hoping to mitigate the offense she had given, she asked, “I mean, what else are we supposed to do with it? After all, whatever the truth about its origins, it appears the White Zetsu are at least loyal to whatever agenda the Black one is working towards.”


Karin continued to stare at Sakura for a moment as if still considering whether to be mad at her or not, but figured she could understand considering how reckless it had been of her to create the pair of copies in the first place. So, with that in mind she conceded, “True, but I think it is worth keeping around for a couple reasons. The first is, if like a shadow clone the Spore born Zetsu retain all the memories of the one that created it, we can then trace this particular one’s history to the point of its original creation. Which should give us quite the intel boon, particularly if the Black Zetsu didn’t mind spilling any of its secrets in front of it.”


“It’s worth a shot,” Sakura stated at first feeling the likelihood of such a major intelligence win was extremely low, unless the Black Zetsu liked monologuing to itself in front of what could be considered its rank and file troopers like a cartoon villain. But she quickly felt a surge of excitement as she realized that if they could trace this particular White Zetsu back to its creation, and it helped prove Karin’s theory that it had been born of a vast root network that coated the continent. Then even if the birth of the white Zetsu from it was a byproduct, it might hint to the fact that the Black Zetsu had been aware of the roots’ existence, and that they may even factor into its overall plans. More importantly, if the previous White Zetsu production facility had been the base that Kiyomi and her sisters had destroyed when they had taken the statue that contained the rest of their siblings, then it was likely a place where the roots had been close to the surface, and thus it stood to reason the Black Zetsu may have other hideouts located at similar points along the roots’ network, especially if it wanted to restart production and so with one such location known. They could begin mapping out the entire root network and likely uncover other places tied to the Black Zetsu.


Sakura’s mind began to race with other major possibilities as she felt like someone that had been staring at puzzle pieces for a while with no clue as to how they fit together, but had just received a piece that many of the others could now be plugged into. Moreover, even knowledge that she had already possessed and felt she understood completely, she now believe could be looked at in a new light as she stated, “The Great Tree located within the Hidden Waterfall Village, it might be a place where a sampling from these roots has sprung up. It may explain its unusual size, and even why the Hero’s Water is derived from its roots. Even with it being ancient, it could just be a sampling when considering how big the original tree must have been.”


Karin looked excited at the possibility as she began nodding her head energetically adding, “That also might very well be why Furofuki wanted the synthetic hero’s water, not just for her oversize flowers, but to accelerate the growth of the tree that she planted in Konoha. Which, if she said the statue was more plant then beast, might even mean that the Ten Tails is also somehow tied to the tree whose roots gave birth to the White Zetsu as well.”


Refocusing on the living Zetsu that now seemed far more mysterious and interesting then she originally thought, Sakura asked, “Still, one thing bothers me about your theory. Why do all these White Zetsu act and look the same if they are born of different souls?”


“Well, that is actually the driving force of my second reason for keeping this Zetsu around,” Karin stated as she let her excitement for new potential discoveries fade in favor of a more subdued tone. “In Sage’s recollection of the visions she experienced, she mentions it felt like she was transported to some ancient village. But what if, she had just become a spectator within someone of a similar build.”


“You suspect the Zetsu was a woman?”


“This particular one yes,” Karin answered with a curt nod. “I suspect Sage’s disorientation at what was happening would explain why she felt she had been transported back as opposed to just witnessing someone else’s experience. Like a Yamanaka, except without the control. The fact that she was witnessing the world from another woman’s set of eyes helped sell the misconception. Yet, the fact that she continued to witness events, even as she felt a sense of contentment that she couldn’t place especially when considering the unnerving situation that she was witnessing, lends credence to this theory. I also think it explains why the White Zetsu are rather simple minded to put it mildly, and is a factor into why they don’t exhibit what I’ve termed to be the Karura effect. Although, I’ll probably need to change the name if I ever publish a paper on it.”


“The Karura effect,” Sakura stated with a questioning arch of her eyebrow.


“I named it after her since she was the first soul to human host transplant,” Karin stated, “Although, I was also tempted to name it after Kushina, since Karura was brought back using Edo Tensei first. But, ultimately felt that fact doesn’t matter too terribly in the grand scheme of things.”


“Why not after Haku then? She was the first to be brought back.”


“While accurate,” Karin replied, “Kushina used matter from the bridge that they were fighting on to shape a vessel for her soul. As such, this converted genetic material never would have had a previous DNA to be overwritten.”


It quickly dawned on Sakura as to what the female Uzumaki was about to explain so said, “Ahh, I get it. You’re referencing how despite having bodies that they’ve taken over, both Karura and Kushina are considered to be exact genetic copies of their original ones.”


“Exactly,” the red-headed stated with a nod, “Which makes sense since they look the same, so you figure the DNA would be close. But, outside of environmental factors that they’ve experiences since their rebirths, there weren’t any noticeable differences between the samples that we had on record. Thus, it would seem to indicate that within the chakra that makes up the soul, there exists some blueprints that help shape these takeovers. Which makes sense, especially when considering Edo Tensei would be all but useless otherwise, since you would need to find sacrifices that match the abilities of the people that you wish to bring back, and then rather than resembling the person being resurrected, it would probably just be a ghost in possession of a body.”


“And the Bijuu don’t count because they just rewrote their host bodies’ DNA to match how they wanted to look,” Sakura stated earning a nod of concurrence from Karin.


Although, the red-headed Uzumaki was quick to added, “However, I believe Nel’s previous diminished stature would point to why the Zetsu all look the same.”


“That feeling of contentment Sage felt,” Sakura said quickly earning a look of surprise from Karin. “You believe the original soul was placed in a genjutsu. One tailor made for the victim which is why Sage continued to witness what was actually happening to the body, it wouldn’t have held any meaning for her.”


Karin began to clap sincerely as she said, “Bravo, Sakura. Exactly correct. More to the point, I believe the soul is still trapped in that genjutsu. What better way to ensure that people wouldn’t resist as you suck out their chakra? Not to mention their very life essence as it turns out.”


“So, with their higher consciousness trapped in a genjutsu these souls emerge as basic White Zetsu templates of the Senju/plant hybrid that Furofuki created,” Sakura said as she began to feel sorry for the White Zetsu due to her beginning to see them as victims. “Does that mean if we were to awaken them… they would become normal humans again?”


“I don’t know,” Karin answered hesitantly as she was approaching the limits of the knowledge that she had gained from her experiments, “Keep in mind, the DNA that they are comprised of, isn’t wholly human to begin with, unlike with the bodies Kushina and Karura inhabited. It’s possible the White Zetsu could become copies of their original selves if their souls regained awareness, but it is also just as possible that the plant DNA would cause extreme mutations without an outside force controlling it. Like a Bijuu for example.” Karin moved to the window of the Autopsy suite which was still lit as she stated, “Hoping to answer that question, along with the one about this Zetsu soul’s gender is why I dissected the original.”


“Did it provide the answers that you were looking for?”


“Nothing conclusive,” Karin said with a hint of frustration. “I did find signs of underdeveloped female sex characteristics. But I cannot really make a determination as to whether or not that is because of the soul occupying it had an influence during the development cycle, or if it is due to the original Senju/Plant Clone template Furufuki created. Which while the original human DNA may have been taken from a male, who knows what she did to it in order to meld it with a plant’s. I’d need to dissect quite a few of these Zetsu to see if there were variations such as some having signs of having a male reproductive system or other unique traits to see if the souls that I suspect they have, indeed have an influence when they are developing when they are first created.” Sakura was a little surprised that Karin had stopped with the first autopsy, at least until she added with a hint of self-consciousness in her voice, “I would have followed this lead further, but I suspect that I already unnerved the staff here a bit, so I didn’t want to cause you any trouble by making requests that some may have felt were influenced by who I used to work for.”


Sakura felt a sense of guilt, especially when considering some of her own thoughts had traveled along such lines earlier. Hoping to make up for it, she stated, “I’ll see about getting as many of the remaining Zetsu corpses that haven’t been disposed of yet collected and ready for transport to Konoha. I’ll also furnish you with a lab and any staff that you need to further your research when we get back.”


“Are you sure?” Karin replied surprised at the support Sakura was offering her.


“Absolutely,” the pink-haired medic replied placing a hand on Karin’s shoulder as she added earnestly, “You reminded me today that just because we believe that we know everything there is to know about a subject. It can only benefit us to never let our assuredness become so rooted in place that we blind ourselves to the possibilities that what we thought we knew was wrong or only just scratched the surface.”


“Thank you,” Karin replied touched at how much faith Sakura was putting into her proving her theories, since if they didn’t pan out she imagined that the pink haired kunoichi would face some potential flak about the resources she was pledging.


“Don’t sweat it,” Sakura replied with a smile, before adding, “I’m fairly confident that your research will go a long way to helping us wrap our heads around what that Black Zetsu is working towards.” She then turned away in order to get started on fulfilling the commitments that she had just made, but stopped to say, “I’ll be back soon to help you clean up down here. In the meantime, you’ll want to start coming up with explanations for your theories that don’t necessarily rely on information gleamed from events our Family has experienced. I won’t be able to guarantee all the staff members are in the know. Also, are you going to keep doing your duties as president of the Great Tree Shipping Company? If things really pan out, this could become a fulltime job for you in Konoha’s research department.”


Karin bit her bottom lip as she contemplated the matter for a moment, before stating, “For now, I’ll continue on as president. If my work in one or the other begins to suffer, I’ll make a call then, and we’ll just have to make sure our lover boy is the one that interviews my replacement for whichever position needs filling. If that interview was anything like the filling I received, I’ll need to sit in on it too.”


“Me three,” Sakura replied mirroring the smirk Karin wore as she left to complete her new tasks.


*******************************************************
If Hinata regretted one thing about her assuming her current role as head of the Branch Family, it would be her attending meetings such as the one that she currently found herself a part of. Even if tangentially, as she was kneeling behind a small table located off to the side within a largish auditorium that resided within the Hyuuga compound. She was not participating directly as those in attendance treated her group as if they were invisible, but instead she was meant to listen to the gathered heads of the Main Family, and based on the needs of their various endeavors, was supposed to assign members of the Branch Family accordingly. She was being flanked by her cousin, and the elder of the Branch Family whose role she had taken. Arrayed out before her were her father and sister, who were kneeling in a similar manner as her on a raised platform and were facing the various heads of the most prominent Families of the Hyuuga Main Branch. The Family heads though were sitting in ornate theater like boxes that as they proceeded towards the back of the room, sat a level higher than the proceeding set.

Hinata found the room’s setup to be somewhat perplexing. Particularly for a clan as tradition focused as the Hyuuga. But, taking in the physiques of some of the Hyuuga occupying the upper seats in the back, she imagined that they would have found it difficult to kneel in a more traditional manner, especially with as long winded as they could be. On the other hand, she found it reflected her clan perfectly since the higher the seat, the more influential the family was. As even within a Clan that saw fit to force more than half of their members into servitude, that didn’t mean members of the other half were considered to be all equals. Naturally, the elders of the clan occupied the top row, which she didn’t find to be too surprising. But what she did find somewhat strange was how the actual Head of the Clan seemed to be kneeling in subservience to all those present.

Which, she suspected may be a simple matter of optics, as kneeling in the manner that they were did require strength and discipline, something she could see quite a few of the Family heads seemed to currently lack. Moreover, it probably was secretly brilliant in the sense that it used the members own sense of worth against them. After all, if something were to happen to her father, along with Hanabi and herself, she imagined that the person that they would suggest as having the greatest claim to taking over the Clan Head position would be someone from the blood linage of the members that were currently sitting in the row before the elders. Therefore, the rooms layout likely allowed the current clan head to assess where the greatest threats to his position were, based solely on where their rivals felt they laid within the hierarchy of the Main Branch.

Hinata admitted that she may be reading more into the sitting arrangement then was actually there. However, taking a quick inventory of the Clan members that she felt were her father’s allies, she noted that most of them were spread throughout the lower rows. More to the point, a few representatives of the members that were seated higher up had begun to reach out to her. Not necessarily to offer their support but were likely trying to feel her out.

She was somewhat confused as to why this would appear to be the case, since previously she had always seen the Main Family as a unified group. But, she assumed that quite a few of the more prominent main families were tired of the uninterrupted rule of her bloodline, which had held the Clan Head position since it had become the Hyuuga, and although the next time she attended such a meeting the seating order may have shifted as members of the Families gained or lost prestige, and would take the seat of a rival in order to show off their new perceived standing. It generally wasn’t a shift to any major degree, more often than not, being just a lower rung taking the seat of a weakened member just one rung up who may have overextended him or herself in some game of court. Not to mention, these gains were often short lived as the seating would return to normal by the next meeting as the more prominent Families generally had the resources to insure any such gains by a lower rung were quickly reversed. Yet, Hinata was coming to believe this game was what had allowed her family to hold its current position for what was likely a thousand or more generations as the Branch Family elder had mentioned to her that it seemed to him that the Main Family seating chart had been shifting far more often than not as of late.

Which, if true, and she had no reason to believe that it wasn’t, meant Hinata was likely the cause of the turmoil. Or, at least her challenging her sister for the position was as many of the Families likely saw it, a tumultuous event which would allow them to more permanently shift their status. In that light, she began to see that it was rather clever of her father to align with the socially weaker bloodlines as while they were the furthest removed from assuming the Clan Head position, they would likely be the group that would introduce the most chaos into the struggle as they tried to usurp their rivals. Thus, giving those only one to two rungs away from her Father’s position something to worry about if they tried to move against him.

Her father was about to call an end to the meeting, for which Hinata was glad as she would be leaving the village in order to enact her plans to give the Branch Family a means to begin moving up the rungs of power. However, before he could, someone that she would have placed firmly in her father’s camp, as he had tried to marry her off to the man that had stood suddenly in order to state, “Before we finish up, I believe that it is time for us to address the issue this clan faces with its potential future leadership.”

Hinata was confused since it was a question that would be answered when Hanabi turned sixteen. However, whatever matter it was that he wanted to bring to the floor, it appeared to be one that his Uncle Hoheto was privy to as he stood suddenly to angrily state, “Now is not the time for this discussion.”

“And why is that Uncle?” Iroha replied after turning to face him while allowing a little disdain to drip into his voice at the family title.

An attitude which surprised Hinata somewhat, as she had never known there to be such discord between the two. She began to wonder if perhaps it was a result of how much like her father and his brother had been separated to different stations at birth, the fact that Hoheto sat several rows above his nephew could have been the reason for it. Still, she felt something was off with such an explanation, as she had a hard time imagining that Hoheto would have suggested or supported her marriage to his nephew if such discord existed between them. Although, she figured that it may have been a recent development, a result of how the attempt to marry her off to his nephew had blown up in both their faces, and perhaps had ended with Iroha coming to realize that he had been but a pawn as well.

Iroha shifted his focus to the other gathered Main Family nobles before his Uncle could reply as he continued, “Do you truly value your place as Lord Hiashi’s most loyal dog over the good of the clan?”

There were a few gasps of surprise, which then lapsed into a silence that seemed to grow oppressive, and became even more so as Hiashi stated in a calm and collected manner, “On the topic of dogs, there is the old proverb of not biting the hand that feeds you. Your presence among those gathered here is in no small part due to the influence and achievements of your Uncle.”

Iroha spun to face Hiashi as he fired back “The same can be said for your youngest daughter,” causing a flash of anger to appear on her father’s face.

“You go too far,” Hoheto shouted, although there wasn’t much anger in his tone which to many of those gathered, Hinata included, indicated that his issue wasn’t entirely with what he said, but the venue in which he was voicing his grievances.

“Have I?” Iroha asked never removing his eyes from Hiashi, “As was pointed out, much of the reason I stand here today is due to your influence Uncle. But I have accomplishments of my own to fall back on as well.” Turning to the side, so he could look at the other nobles, like he was a lawyer addressing a jury, he held an open palmed hand out towards Hanabi as he stated, “The same cannot be said of the Lady Hanabi. After all, unlike every other Clan Head since the Hyuuga joined the Leaf Village, she has not attended the Academy. Instead, she has been sequestered away to be trained by her father, and we have to simply take his word for it that she is up to the task of leading the Hyuuga.” There were quite a few murmurs, mostly in the back of the room as many of the more influential members of the Clan, while not willing to risk their own standing by directly challenging Hiashi, were willing to give the appearance of at least considering what the young Hyuuga was saying. This only served to embolden Iroha as he continued to press, “Yet, what challenges has she faced? You tell us, Lord Hiashi, that she is ready to take charge of the Hyuuga, and yet you fear the only true challenge to actual appear in front of her because you can’t control her.” Iroha turned his gaze towards Hinata, and gave her a soft almost nervous smile, similar to the night when her father had tried to offer her up to the young man. It faded to be replaced with a steeled gaze as he focused on Hiashi as he said, “It was shameful of you to try and remove her from the running for the position you now hold by offering her hand to someone as unworthy as myself. Something she made painfully apparent to me with how vehemently she opposed the notion.”

He favored her with a soft understanding smile which displayed that he bore her no ill will, as many of the Hyuuga members present chuckled at the self-deprecating joke. Hinata however, felt warning bells begin sounding off within her. She wasn’t sure why, since she truly didn’t know much about Iroha, but regardless something about him in that moment struck her as false. Looking about the room, and noticing that he seemed to be winning over many of her father’s rivals, Hinata suspected that her feelings were due to him coming off more as a politician to her rather than one legitimately concerned with the wellbeing of the Hyuuga. Which she imagined if it was apparent to her, was probably apparent to everyone present. But they likely wouldn’t really be bothered by it as many of them were playing the same game, and were even probably pretty pleased as it appeared her father had truly been caught off guard by the sudden questioning of his chosen heir’s qualifications.

“Hanabi is more than capable of meeting the challenge that her sister represents,” Hiashi responded with a note of finality to his voice.

Which Iroha ignored as he said, “That remains to be seen Lord Hiashi.” He turned to face the gathered Hyuuga nobles as he stated, “More importantly, it is a question that will only be definitively answered in what…a little over another year and half. Meanwhile, we just have to keep accepting your word that she is going to be worthy of the title. All the while watching someone who appears to be truly worthy of the title continue to work diligently, and some would say unappreciatively in the background. After all, Lady Hinata has gone through the Academy and passed giving us an unbiased assessment of her skills. She also has several high-ranking missions under her belt, and even participated in the Chunin Exams twice and placed highly in both appearances as it is no small feat to clear the first two rounds consecutively. These are all challenges that you have shielded your chosen heir from, and yet continue to tell us that she is ready to lead. If you truly feel that is the case Lord Hiashi, then I say it is time to demonstrate it through action, not words. We are nearing the end of the period where teams could be nominated to the Chunin Exams that will be held in the coming weeks. You should nominate Hanabi as a participant, she may not be a registered active shinobi, but she is registered as a reservist so is eligible.”

Almost immediately, several of her father’s rivals seconded the notion while Hoheto and other members loyal to her father tried to shout down the motion being presented. For the most part, it didn’t appear that Hanabi seemed overly daunted by the idea. However, her calmness was replaced by a look of betrayal as Hinata forgetting herself shouted, “No, father, you can’t!”

“See,” Iroha said almost proudly, “Even Lady Hinata recognizes that her sister would be in over her head if presented a real challenge.”

Hinata winced as an angry glare appeared within her sister’s eyes as she looked at her, which quickly turned cold before she looked away. This caused an eruption of fury within her, but she did not allow it to show as she silently settled back into her kneeling position. Although there was a hardness now within her gaze as her eyes landed on Iroha, who appeared to smugly smiling at her father while behind him the Hyuuga nobles argued among themselves over the merits of his proposal.

Her father for the most part had remained emotionless, and allowed much of the shouting to die down before saying, “Very well, I will nominate Hanabi to the Hokage. She’ll be entered along with two appropriate members from the Branch Family. If there is no other business to be addressed, we will adjourn.”

Hinata stood quickly as she made her way towards the special entrance the Branch Family used to enter the room, as her mind was running a mile a minute hoping to come up with some way to undo the bitterness that she believed Hanabi now harbored towards her. Moreover, she was also trying to think of who would best be suited to accompany her sister through the exam. As for a brief moment, a part of her was also concerned that it could all just be a trap to discredit her, where if Hanabi didn’t perform well in the exams, her father would blame the outcome on the Branch members she selected, stating it was a deliberate attempt by Hinata to sabotage her sister. But, even on top of all that, Hinata was terrified that considering how the Family believed the Raikage was going to target Naruto, she feared that with a Hyuuga of the Main Branch now entering, it might prompt the man to add another target to his list. Particularly, as it would be another daughter of the man that had thwarted his previous attempt to get his hand on the Byakugan, which although was a slight from over a decade ago was probably still bitterly fresh in the Raikage’s mind considering how Tsunade had forced him to admit his being the inciter of the whole kidnapping plot.

She felt like cursing as she stepped into the hallway that led to the Branch Family’s part of the compound as she was supposed to leave for the Land of Rice Paddies, and felt torn, since she wanted to stay to try and undo some of the damage to the still new relationship that she had been building with her sister, but also to put other safeguards into place. She began to feel guilty as she knew that trying to fix things with Hanabi, which at the moment, was what her heart was telling her to do, would be putting herself above the people of the Branch Family that had placed their faith in her. She was about to force herself to keep to her planned schedule, when Neji from behind her said, “I’ll inform Kurenai that we will be delayed in leaving.”

Hinata was about to tell her cousin not to bother as she felt her duty to the Clan should come first, but before she could the Branch Family Elder Katashi stated, “I’ll take care of picking the teammates for Lady Hanabi.”

Hinata came to a stop, and turned to face her cousin and the Branch Family elder who were both giving her knowing smiles. She felt a wave of gratitude for them which she expressed as she stated, “Thank you,” before giving them a steep bow.

However, before she could take off a voice said, “Lady Hinata, would you please give me a moment of your time.”

Hinata’s good cheer evaporated, which caused Katashi and Neji to bow as the elder of the two stated, “We’ll take our leave milady.” They then walked past her as they continued down the hall as Iroha moved towards her. Hinata struggled to hide her recently developed negative feelings for the man as she watched him come to a stop before her before asking, “What can I do for you Lord Iroha?”

Iroha gave her a quick and overly pleased smile as he said with good cheer, “Please, just call me Iroha. We were almost married after all.”

“No, we weren’t,” Hinata replied dismissively.

Iroha appeared a little caught off guard by her response, and began to look a little unsure of himself. After letting out a nervous cough he said, “I just wanted to let you know that going forward, I plan to give you my full support in your bid to become Clan Head.”

“Is that what you think you were doing back there?” Hinata asked as she struggled to keep the fury she felt in check.

“Well…yes,” Iroha said surprised at the anger the normally soft-spoken woman was beginning to radiate.

“That isn’t what I would call it,” Hinata said taking a step forward as she poked the man in the chest causing him to take a step back. “Because I would call it a self-serving asshole trying to insert himself into a situation that he was neither needed or wanted in.”

“Now hold on a minute…” Iroha said letting some anger of his own enter his voice, “As I stated, I feel that what I did today would ensure the best leader assumes the Clan Head position.”

“Really,” Hinata countered before poking him again, and continued to poke him each time she paused in her tirade, “Because that isn’t how I see it. You claim to have faith in my abilities, and if that were true you would have simply have kept your mouth shut. Because if you had faith in my abilities, then you’d have believed I would have emerged from my bout with Hanabi as the Clan Head. Instead, you have turned what would have been a clean, and clear-cut way of handling who will be running the clan into an unmitigated mess. People can die during the Chunin Exams, is that truly how you imagine I want to claim my birthright by stepping over the corpse of my sister?”

Iroha caught Hinata’s hand as he let his anger at being treated so disrespectfully show in his voice as he replied, “Get off your high horse. You may claim that you are not willing to step over her corpse, but it appears that you’re more than willing to cast her into the Branch Family to achieve your goals.”

Hinata yanked her hand free of his grip as she met Iroha’s angry gaze with one of her own as she stated, “If you believe that, then you truly are a fool.”

She then rounded on her heel to walk away, but stopped as Iroha said in a disbelieving and mocking tone, “What? Do you believe the elders are going to allow you to break the rules should you become Clan Head? Better men then you have tried.”

Hinata turned to look over her shoulder as she allowed some of the bravado that she felt she had inherited from her lover appear as she gave Iroha a smirk while stating, “I find that hard to believe, because then the rules dividing this clan would have already been shattered.” She then continued on her way leaving a confused, and somewhat concerned Iroha behind.

*******************************************************
Kaede Yoshino spun towards the sound of a bush rattling as she pulled a kunai from her pouch which she held at the ready. The rattling got worse, caused her to frown since a shinobi would have attacked if they had accidentally given away their position in such a manner. She tensed to attack as a moment later something appeared, but immediately calmed as it was revealed to be a rabbit which scampered off further into the training grounds. She felt the adrenaline begin to fade from her system as the tense moment passed, and she began to put the kunai away. Which was when a small rock flew from the exact same bush, which caught her in the hand causing her to drop the kunai.

Following behind the rock was the shinobi that she had thought she was tracking, but appeared to have been hunting her instead. He easily tackled her, as she had been in the midst of moving to clutch her just struck hand. Still as he tried to pin her to the ground, she managed to use his forward momentum so that they rolled end over end a few times before he managed to overpower her.

“Do you yield,” Konohamaru said with a pleased grin as he held his blunted kunai against her throat.

“Hmmm, why would I?” Kaede asked with a seductive tone, “I have you right where I want you.” She then rubbed her hips against his while letting out a soft and playful moan.

Feeling her rub her mound against his cock, which had begun to turn rigid caused Konohamaru to realize the sight someone just stumbling upon them would see, which was of him laying atop of Kaede between her spread thighs. Feeling suddenly self-conscious, Konohamaru began to sit back which Kaede didn’t allow as she followed him up, and then tackled him as she used her weight to force him on his back as she settled on top of him, having also managed to steal his kunai which she was now spinning around on her index finger as she said, “Honestly, if you react that poorly from a little light flirting from the opposite sex, you’re not going to last very long in this world.”

“You call that light flirting,” Konohamaru stated in disbelief still having some trouble picturing the young woman currently sitting atop of him, as the young innocent crush who had left Konoha several years ago. “What exactly did they teach you in those kunoichi classes they had you take.

“Oh, you know,” Kaede replied playfully, “Flower arranging, the tea ceremony, how to bend a man to your will by giving him the best sex he’s ever experienced.” Kaede felt the pole she was balanced on strain against her, and could imagine that Konohamaru hoped she hadn’t notice. She let the moment linger for a little longer before laughing as she rolled off of him, and said, “Honestly, you’re far to easy to tease this way. Don’t you already have a girlfriend? It doesn’t look like she is doing a good job of building up your defenses against womanly wiles.”

“It’s complicated,” Konohamaru replied as he allowed Kaede to help him to his feet, and began moving to leave the training ground as it was nearing the end of the time that he had reserved it for. “But what do you mean she isn’t doing her job?”

“Well,” Kaede responded after appearing to give the matter some thought, “It’s apparent that you and your supposed girlfriend haven’t really been intimate with each other.”

“Why do you make it sound like you don’t think she is real?” Konohamaru asked due to the inflection that she had put on the word supposed, and was truly coming to regret having even hinted at having one in response to some of Kaede’s previous teasing.

“Did I,” Kaede asked sounding a little too innocent for him to take her seriously that she didn’t know that was exactly what she was doing. She then gave him a smirk, which told him she knew exactly what she had been implying, before explaining, “I guess it is because you haven’t even told me her name. Which implies either she doesn’t exist, or she is someone that you aren’t really supposed to be seeing, like maybe a married woman. The more likely of the two scenarios therefore is that she doesn’t exist, especially considering how weak you are against women.”

Konohamaru frowned at her assessment, even as he was surprised at how accurate it was. He even accepted that although she was wrong in terms of the example that she had provided, it was in the sense only because it was the most common of scenarios to be encountered in such cases. “Well think what you like,” he replied figuring it would be for the best, since it would be somewhat of a problem for Naho if rumors of their relationship spread. Particularly as he got the sense that her uncle the Daimyo of the Land of Fire wouldn’t approve.

His eyes widened in surprise, as Kaede suddenly wrapped her arms around his while pressing her breasts into it as she stated, “Now that’s the kind of response that leads me to believe that she is real.”

Konohamaru tried to ignore how nice they felt, as he asked with a high squeak to his voice, “Really,” before settling into a calmer, “Why’s that?”

Kaede smiled at him as she said, “Mostly because if you had made her up as some sort of pride saving measure, my claiming she doesn’t exist would be a poke at that same pride. So, you’re taking solace in the fact that she does, and you’re not telling me is simply because you don’t trust me.”

He noticed a hint of sadness entering her tone at the last part prompting him to state, “It’s not that I don’t trust you…it’s just…”

“You don’t,” Kaede said, although she didn’t sound offended. Letting go of his arm as they reached the edge of the village, she moved to stand in front of him adding, “Nor really should you. We’ve both changed in the years that we’ve been separated, and if you have a reason that you can’t discuss it more openly then you shouldn’t. But I do hope to become someone you can trust in time.” Konohamaru gave a slight nod of agreement, which changed into one of surprise as she added, “Still, unless your girlfriend steps up her game, she shouldn’t be too surprised if someone ends up stealing you away. Like say an old friend, recently returned.” He was taken a little aback by what she had said, but before he could determine if she was teasing him again or not she stated with a wave as she took off, “Well today was fun. I’ll see you later Konohamaru.”

Kaede didn’t stop until she reached her home, and upon stepping inside sat on the front step where she removed her heeled shinobi sandals before standing. At which point she pulled down and removed her panties. She smirked as she noticed the slight wet spot which she imagined had been imprinted when she had rested on Konohamaru’s hardon. Tucking them away in her pouch, she moved deeper into the large house and her pussy grew even wetter as the sweet fragrant incense that was almost permanently burning grew stronger. Reaching her family’s living room, she waved to her mother as she approached who was standing behind a counter as she prepared a meal. “Hi mom,” she said, as she noted the color in her mother’s cheeks, “What’s for lunch?”

“Curry with rice. I made it extra spicy for you,” Rea Yoshino answered her daughter with a slightly breathless tone as if she had just sampled the dish, which to an outside observer could also explain the rose tint that was adorning the bespectacled green-haired woman’s cheeks. Yet, Kaede knew that wasn’t the case as she could also hear a soft whirring sound which told her that her mother’s pussy and ass were probably filled by her favorite toys. Her mother let out a moan as she suddenly squirmed a little, letting her daughter know how close she was, who was tempted to take over for the toys. But her mother had other plans as she said, “Be a dear, and tell your father that its almost ready.”

“Okay,” Kaede said as she moved passed the counter towards her father’s study, but looked back to see her mother’s naked backside and the toys sticking out of her. After climbing a flight of stairs, and traveling a short bit down the hall, she knocked on the door of her father’s study. “Come in,”

“Hi daddy,” Kaede said as she stepped into the room that he used while conducting business as an ambassador for the Leaf. “Mom says that lunch is almost ready.”

Her father grunted in response while he continued to read the letter that he had been studying upon her entering, so Kaede spent a moment studying her father’s face, which to her had always been rather noble and handsome, but now she felt was almost otherworldly so. The glasses that he wore were thin framed, and truthfully only served as a prop since there was nothing corrective about the lenses, but he wore them because he had needed glasses before his being sent to Suna as an ambassador. Much like back then, he still kept his long dark hair slicked back, and which ended in a long pony tail at the nape of his neck. But, unlike back then, he had a far more wiry and muscular body, Kaede doubted anyone from the village who had known her father in the past would notice the change as he often wore loose fitting clothes that hung off his frame.

Finishing the letter, her father placed it down and asked, “I’m sorry, what did you say sweetie?”

“Lunch should be ready soon,” she answered as she moved to stand beside him.

“Really,” her father said, “I’m surprised that you’re back in time to join us.” He reached his hand underneath her skirt as he buried a finger inside her pussy while he added, “I figured that you would be too busy playing with your friend.”

Kaede moaned as her father’s experienced finger knew just where to rub her before stating, “He’s not ready for that kind of playing yet daddy. He is still carrying a torch for the noble that he’s seeing. If I p…p…press too hard, he’ll begin to resent me, or feel needlessly guilty afterwards.”

Her father smirked as he said, “Sweetie, trust me once his little prick has been inside you, He wouldn’t feel guilty for long.”

“It’s not so little,” Kaede said, not entirely sure why she felt a need to come to Konohamaru’s defense, “Besides, it would be the time when it wasn’t buried inside me that would be the issue. Didn’t you learn your lesson about rushing things with that shopkeeper that you attempted to coerce into progressing further on the Path of Desire?”

Her father withdrew his finger, causing Kaede to let out a whimper of disappointment. Then with a tone of admonishment, he stated, “Should a minor acolyte, who hasn’t even been invited to the main temple really feel so free to criticize a priest so freely. Perhaps, we should ask your mother what she thinks?”

Kaede eyes grew wide at the notion, since while she could hear a slight tone of playfulness in his rebuke, she knew her mother would not find the matter funny in the slightest and as her father’s head acolyte would harshly punish her for the transgression. “Please anything but that.”

“Well,” her father said as he pushed his chair back from his desk, “I suppose I could be convinced to overlook that mouthiness of yours, provided you put it to a better use.”

Kaede quickly sunk to her knees between her father’s legs, and after freeing his already stiff member, used her mouth to earn his forgiveness. He let out an appreciative grunt as he stated, “Still, you do have a point. I did underestimate Kasumi’s attachment to that shop of hers, when considering how she bulked at needing to give up her worldly posessions. There’s more to her relationship with her partner then she let on originally as well. It’s strange, especially considering how eagerly she threw herself into the religious elements that I did introduce her too.”

Kaede let his cock slip free of her mouth and began stroking it as she asked, “Do you want me to kill her for you daddy?”

Her father looked down at her for a moment as he considered the idea, before answering “No sweetie, I don’t think that is necessarily.” He then placed his hand on the back of her head, urging her to get back to the task that he had given her. Groaning as Kaede once more wrapped her lips around his length, he continued, “While it can be problematic if she talks too freely about us. In that scenario the worst thing to happen is that people would just learn that we are kinkier than most. Even the shows you and I put on for her benefit would in that worst-case scenario just cause me to lose my position, but we could even then spin it in such a way to help you accomplish your mission. Besides, Kasumi didn’t strike me as one who would speak too freely about such matters. However, if she ends up dead, her connection to us could be revealed as part of a murder investigation, at which point, considering my station I would probably end up on the list of suspects.”

Kaede again pulled away as she nodded in understanding, but a small look of worry appeared on her face which was also reflected in her tone as she asked, “Do you think Konohamaru would still want me if he knew what we did daddy?”

Her father fought back a frown even as she began stroking him while waiting on his answer, since her concern may indicate her dedication to the mission that she had been given to seduce Konohamaru, not just as he could be a potential Hokage candidate, but as a means to turn the entire Sarutobi clan to the Descendants of the Moon’s faith, wasn’t entirely due to her devotion to that faith. Deciding her motivation for the task didn’t matter at the moment, so long as it was accomplished, he answered, “I’m sure he would sweetie, particularly if he believed that he was saving you from your evil father. Besides, based on reports from fellow followers of the faith within the Daimyo’s court it appears that his relationship with the niece is doomed as she’s been promised to someone else. So, it is only a matter of time before his poor heart is broken and he becomes puddy within your oh so talented hands.”

Kaede smiled up at him as she kept the pace of her hands steady before stating, “Thank you daddy, but isn’t there someplace even better that you would like to be right now then my hands.”

Her father chuckled as he said, “I suppose that did start this conversation in the first place. Get on my desk sweetie.”

Kaede eagerly did as instructed and took a seat on his desk, as she bit her lip in anticipation while her father stood from his chair. She cried out as with little preamble he buried his full length inside her with practiced ease. She moaned loudly as her father tenderized her insides, but stiffened in surprise as her mother said from the doorway, “Honestly Kaede, I sent you up her to fetch your father, not fuck him.”

“Sss..sorry,” Kaede moaned out even as she made no effort to disengage from her father.

“You spoil her too much, Nobuhiro,” Rea said as she crossed her arms.

Nobuhiro smiled at his wife as pumped himself even harder into the young woman they had both brough into the world as he said, “What can I say? She’s still my sweet little girl.”

With a sighed, “Fine,” Rea turned to head back to the dining room. “Just don’t take so long that the food gets completely cold, and Kaede, don’t spill a drop of his seed. I intend to have my desert as soon as I’m done eating.”

Kaede didn’t respond as she was too busy basking in the pleasure that she felt, particularly as her father began to redouble his efforts likely driven on by his eagerness to watch his wife suck his seed from his daughter. Kaede for her part simply clung to him as she began to envision a future where Konohamaru and her enjoyed a similar happy home life, although with her in the role of the priestess and him as her Head Acolyte, and so pictured it was him calling out her name as he filled her up with his spunk. Kaede found the idea made her cum harder than she had in a long time, and perhaps even harder than the first time her father had finished inside her. Her father quickly pulled out, leaving her sprawled out on his desk as he headed to the dining room. Kaede for her part was busy giving thanks to the Goddess as she believed that she had just received a holy vision of the desire that laid buried within her heart. One, she had forgotten for a time as she had been exposed to the world of pleasure during her own indoctrination into the Cult’s teachings, but had now been reawakened so she could best act as Konohamaru’s guide during his own journey down the Path of Desire.

********************************************************
Hanabi delivered a barrage of blows to the gel dummy in front of her, her strikes were far fiercer and more punishing then were needed when using the Gentle Fist technique. With her final one, she closed her hand into a fist and delivered a shot to the dummy’s jaw which caused its head to vibrate wildly. Breathing heavily, and coated in sweet, she admitted it felt somewhat liberating to have exerted herself in such a manner while wearing nothing but her shinobi sandals. As she felt that much of the anger that had built up since the meeting that morning had abated, at least until a voice said from behind her, “Thinking of anyone in particular.”

“Leave me alone,” Hanabi said without turning to face her sister, “You’re the last person that I want to see at the moment.”

“I don’t believe that,” Hinata said softly.

“Why?” Hanabi said rounding to face the woman she felt had betrayed her, “because you’re such an expert on me now.” Even as angry as she was, Hanabi was struck by how beautiful her sister was, especially as she also wasn’t wearing anything, although it did appear that she was holding something behind her back.

“No,” Hinata said with a simple shake of her head, “But, I do believe if you weren’t open to speaking with me, you wouldn’t come to the one place where we could speak privately away from the clan.”

“Why’s that,” Hanabi said snidely, “Because this is your private playground.”

“It was,” Hinata pointed out, “Before I cast the vote that opened it up so that you could become a member.”

Even as angry as she was, Hanabi was forced to admit to the truth of her sister’s words so asked, “What do you want?”

“I wanted to explain myself.”

“What is there to explain,” Hanabi snapped, “You and Iroha set us up beautifully. You’ve cast yourself as the caring older sister, concerned that her poor incompetent younger one isn’t up to completing the same tough challenges that she faced. You’ll probably saddle me with a couple of Branch members that I’ll need to carry or will actively try to sabotage me, so regardless of how well I do I won’t measure up to your accomplishments.” Hinata let out an unamused chortle, which prompted her sister to ask, “Does that thought really amuse you?”

“No,” Hinata said sadly, “It was just that when father stated I was to assign Branch Family members to take the exam with you. My first thought was that he was doing it so he could claim I was sabotaging you if you didn’t perform well.” Moving to sit down on the ground, she waited until Hanabi joined her to say, “Hanabi, I am not working in league with Iroha.” She held up a hand as her sister was about to ask why she should believe her, “I know you find that hard to believe. But, if anyone believes my first time through the Chunin Exams was a stunning success, well I’m afraid they are looking at things with rose tinted goggles.”

“Yes, because getting nominated when just a rookie, and only being eliminated by the clan’s prodigy are things to be considered failures,” Hanabi sneered, preparing to stand as she heard enough.

She paused though as her sister stated, “Being nominated, and being ready are two different things.” Hinata gave her a soft smile, as she said, “I was not ready to take the Chunin Exams my first time. I only forced myself too, because I didn’t want to hold Shino or Kiba back as Kurenai-sensei told us all three needed to participate. I heard some sensei left that detail out, but I think she felt that she had to as she knew I wouldn’t show up otherwise.” Hinata sighed before continuing, “Still, even though one could say I did it for my team, in the first exam I didn’t spare them a second thought as I jeopardized their chances to advance.”

Despite herself, Hanabi asked “How?”

“There was this boy that I liked,” Hinata said smiling softly that Hanabi seemed to be responding to her opening up to her, “and I ended up sitting next to him during the first exam. It was apparent that he didn’t understand that the point of the exam was to cheat on the written test we were given without getting caught by the proctors present otherwise you and your team would be eliminated, and so after I had gotten all the answers, I offered to let him cheat off of me.”

“But if he didn’t understand the point, he would almost assuredly get caught.”

“Yes,” Hinata responded with a nod, “But, I wasn’t thinking of my teammates, only of myself in that moment. You see Hanabi, the Chunin Exams are as much a test of your abilities to work as a team, as much as they are a test of your abilities, including leadership. If you think of the teammates that you are assigned as only pawns who you have to carry, or who are actively working against you, you’ll fail. I promise you that the members that will take the test with you will do their best, just as I known you will, but if you see them as only pawns in a grander game, you will not be able to come together when you really need to.”

“If that really is the case, and you believe I’m capable,” Hanabi said displaying the hurt she had felt at the idea her sister didn’t think her capable. “Why did you react like that at the idea of me taking the exams?”

Feeling a little disappoint in the woman that she had outgrown, Hinata answered, “Because, while I may have forgotten about my teammates during that first exam, they never forgot about me. Even after being eliminated by the boy that I had tried to help in the exam and witnessing me trying to make a good impression on him. Kiba was still more concerned about my wellbeing then his, because he knew of Neji’s hatred of the Main Family. I may have been a poor teammate in my first exam, but they helped carry me regardless. I fear you will have to face it without a similar level of support, unless you are the one to bridge the divide that will likely exist between you three.”

Hanabi frowned as for the first time since they began talking, she felt Hinata wasn’t being entirely forthcoming so stated, “Even so, you sounded almost panicked this morning. If you truly don’t think I’m completely incompetent, why were you so against it?”

Hinata was somewhat hesitant to respond as the concern was born of information the Family had, but fearing Hanabi would also be caught up in any plots the Raikage had in motion and knowing she needed to be as honest as possible with her said, “As you know things are pretty tense between Konoha and Kumo at the moment, and since the Raikage has already shown once that he would use underhanded tactics to get his hands on the things he desires, I’m concerned that he may use the Chunin Exams as a way to get his hands on Byakugan as he was denied it once already.”

Hanabi looked rather doubtful as she imagined that as the only member of the Main Family who would be taking them, that it would take quite a while to get the pieces into place to make such an attempt, far more than the Raikage would have in the few weeks that would remain by the time her father officially made the announcement. Still, she could tell that her sister had been truthful in stating that to be what had prompted her outburst. Particularly as Hinata reached behind her to reveal what she had been hiding as she said, “So, with that being the case, please carry this with you when you take the exam.”

Hanabi accepted the small ornate knife, which had a cord wrapped around it and appeared to be held in place by a wax seal that would break if she attempted to remove it from its sheath. Arching an eyebrow, Hanabi stated, “It doesn’t look like it would be of much use if I got into trouble.”

Hinata gave her a pleased self-satisfied smile as she said, “Looks can be deceiving.” She grew somber as she continued, “If you do find yourself in a situation that you don’t think you or your team can escape from, break the seal. I promise you’ll be protected.”

Curious why her sister was so sure, she asked, “What’s supposed to happen?”

“I hope you don’t have to find out,” Hinata said as she stood. But she did give her sister a playful smirk as she suddenly turned away before adding, “But, if you don’t end up needing it during the exams. Maybe we can break the seal together afterwards and I can show you something truly earth-shattering amazing.”

Hanabi found her curiosity truly piqued, particularly as if her eyes weren’t deceiving her, it had appeared as if Hinata’s nipples had begun to perk up, which was what had prompted her sister to suddenly turn away. However, it was something else that her sister had said which prompted her to ask, “Sister, you said that boy that you were trying to impress didn’t understand the first test, but then how was he able to copy off of you without being caught in order to progress far enough along to eliminate your teammate.”

Hinata giggled as she looked over her shoulder and fought the urge to tease her nipples which ached with desire now due to her having momentarily fantasized about Hanabi and her breaking the seal on the knife that would summon her lover, and their sharing him as a result. Although she was in a hurry to get in a little alone time, in order to indulge in the fantasy further before leaving to meet up with Neji and Kurenai, who would accompany her on her journey to the Land of Rice Paddies, she explained, “That’s because he didn’t copy my test. He managed to pass without answering a single question. You see, although being able to gather information was one of the skills being tested, the proctor based the final pass or failure of the exam on a person being willing to gamble everything on their being able to answer the final question.”

Hanabi looked shocked as she said, “But if he hadn’t managed to answer a single question up to that point, he would almost have to be a fool to think he would be able to answer the last one.”

“Very true,” Hinata said sounding rather dreamy to her sister’s ears, “But, sometimes the best thing a person can do when faced with a no-win scenario is to carry on. It’s true most times they may probably fail, but giving up always ensures that you will.” Hinata seemed to consider her own words for a moment, and so said, “I am sorry if my outburst today made you feel that I believed you should give up and while I most likely will not be in the village as you are taking the first two exams, I will be cheering for you.”

Hinata turned to give her sister a small bow, but was surprised as she found herself the recipient of a tight hug as Hanabi said, “I’m sorry too, for assigning to you the worst possible motives.”

Despite the nature of where her previous thoughts on feeling her sister pressed against her had been, they didn’t color them presently as she basked in the warmth Hanabi was coating her with. Returning the hug, and hoping for more like it in the future she said, “I understand. Trust takes time to build. Keep that in mind when you meet your teammates.”

“I will,” Hanabi said feeling a sense of comfort from her sister’s scent, before adding, “Be safe during your travels as well.”

“Will do,” Hinata responded before making her exit from the training grounds located within the confines of the Woman’s Bathing Association.

Hanabi found herself surprised by just how easily her sister had flipped her mood when considering where it had just been. But it did plant the seeds of a new fear within her as she realized just how glad she was that it appeared her sister wasn’t trying to mislead her, as it showed her how much she truly desired the relationship being built between them. So as such, found that she now feared what would happen to it when they finally met to determine which of them would assume the position of Clan Head of the Hyuuga, leaving her to wonder if it was a fight even worth having.


*******************************************************
Tsunade cursed as she blocked a kick with her arms which caused her to backpedal, since normally when forced to fight, she often believed that the best defense was an overpowering offense. Naturally, considering her ability to heal almost any injury, she knew it was a philosophy most couldn’t throw themselves into as wholeheartedly as her. Although two of the three shinobi that she currently faced were definitely showing that they were of a similar mindset. Something that she would normally make them regret, but as she was trying to take her grandmother’s words of wisdom as to how she should try to the unlock the Mokuton ability within her genes to heart, she was forcing herself to fight defensively and relying on Earth and Water style jutsu for the most part.

She showcased this new mindset as he leapt away from a fireball jutsu that Kakashi had fired at her once enough distance had appeared between her and the man that had delivered the previous blow. While airborne she flashed through several hand signs, which she finished the last of upon landing where she pressed her hands to the ground causing a wall of earth to rise up between her and the swiftly closing jutsu. Her barrier succeeded in defeating the fireball, but proved insufficient to the task of protecting her from one of the two beasts that she fought as Gai smashed through it while shouting, “Dynamic Entry.”

Tsunade momentarily forgot her defensive strategy as she felt the man was getting a little too cocky to close with her in such a fashion, so made him pay by smashing him down into the ground which although a far cry from how much damage she could have delivered to him, still left him lying at the center of a small crater. This prompted his green clad clone to shout, “Gai-sensei!,” as he charged forward to avenge his sensei.

Although Tsunade was being pressured somewhat by Lee, she found his style to be too straightforward to truly make him a threat, and truthfully found his relentless attacks were giving her time to collect herself as they were preventing Kakashi from snipping at her with jutsu. Still, she recognized that she couldn’t remain in such a comforting situation forever since she noticed Gai was pulling himself together, not to mention how it was defeating the spirit of the training that she was trying to put herself through.

In order to be more in line with that spirit, Tsunade took a step back so she could begin to block Lee’s attack with just her left arm, while she kept her right out of his line of sight. Kakashi though could see what she was up to so tried to warn the youth, “Lee disengage now!”

The warning came too late though as Tsunade ducked under a kick, just as she finished her one-handed signs. Lee had a moment to gawk at her in surprise, before she brought both hands up to her mouth and expelled a large stream of water which sent the young man flying. Tsunade didn’t have any time to congratulate herself though before needing to roll to the side as a wolf made of lightning smashed into the spot where she had been crouched. As the jutsu released its energy, she saw that it was just the first to have reached her as two more followed in its wake. Flying through another set of seals, she this time stomped the ground which caused a spike of earth to rise up, almost like she had hit the edge of a loose floorboard which then froze in place. The spike impaled one of the two lightning beasts as it could not arrest its charge causing it to explode, while the other was forced to take a more circular path towards her less it get caught-up in the violent death of its fellow jutsu. As the Lightning Wolf angled itself back towards her, Tsunade ran up the long spike she had created as the jutsu fell in behind her although along the ground.

Kakashi fired several fireballs at her, hoping to either knock her down or slow her enough that the jutsu chasing her could catch up. Yet, despite the narrowness of the beam that she was traversing, she didn’t even break her stride as she easily avoided the jutsu, before reaching the end of the spike and leaping off it. Her leap carried her over the wall that she had used to shield herself from Kakashi’s fireball moments before, and as she landed on the other side, she turned towards it giving it a flick, which caused the wall to shatter and sent projectiles tearing through the jutsu that had been chasing her. Yet, even as the wolf exploded, she wasn’t given a moments respite as she turned and caught the pair of legs that had tried to catch her between them.

She could see both Gai and his protégé begin to sweat nervously as she tightened her grip on their legs, but before she could determine how far to toss them, her attention was pulled towards the village as she heard a series of small explosions, and noticed a cloud of smoke rising up somewhere within. Without a word, she began charging towards it as Lee, Gai, and Kakashi fell in behind her, leaving her to wonder what threat was currently attacking her home, and whether or not it was a new or old one.

*******************************************************

Kurenai began coughing due to the smoke and dust that was currently obscuring her vision, and was still more than a little confused as to what was happening as the last thing that she had expected when visiting the graves of her lost family was to find herself caught up in some kind of battle. Still, as she had decided on the visit after hearing from Neji that Hinata’s trip was being delayed, it wasn’t as if she was completely unprepared to defend herself. Pulling a kunai from her pouch, she scanned the dust for some sign of the two komusō monks that she suspected had caused the explosion.

Kurenai had first spotted the monks as she had headed towards the small unnamed grave of her lost child, after having visited Asuma’s which was located in a more secure portion of the graveyard. She hadn’t thought much of the two men as they had been standing under a tree nearby. But, as time had passed, and despite being lost in thought while she used the reminder of what she had lost, to question what she should be doing with her life going forward in terms of embracing her relationship with Naruto, or finding a different path, she had noticed her fellow Konoha-nin quietly surrounding the pair. Realizing that it was likely the pair had been under observation since entering the village, Kurenai was about to take her leave so the men could move in.

Unfortunately, it had turned out that if she had noticed the Konoha-nin surrounding the pair, even with how distracted she had been by her own thoughts, the monks were even more so. It was at that point, when the area around her had seemingly erupted into smoke and dust.

Kurenai caught a quick movement in the dust, and spinning tossed a kunai which hit what appeared to be a clay doll spider which had been flying towards her. The kunai carried the doll away, which squirmed a bit as if to get back up, but then exploded. “My don’t you have sharp eyes, hmm,” a voice called out towards her. Turning towards it, she heard the voice add, “Although, I don’t particularly care for that shade of red. So how about I close them for you?”

“Who are you?” Kurenai shouted as she made several hand-signs in preparation, “What do you want?”

“What! You’ve never heard of my art,” the voice shouted incredulously. “Just what the world needs, another red-eyed critic. Here, have another taste of culture.”

Kurenai heard another series of weak explosions near where she had been standing as she began dashing through the dust which was beginning to settle down. They were followed by the man asking, “How did you like that? What are you speechless? Come on…my art shouldn’t have been strong enough to kill you…unfortunately.”

A calmer voice answered him as it stated, “That’s because they didn’t hit her. She placed you in a genjutsu.”

“What!? When?”

Kurenai having circled around closed with the monk that had attacked her, and noticed him make the sign of release. Almost immediately, he spun to face her although she felt it was too late as she leapt the final few feet, and attempted to bury her kunai in the monk’s basket-covered head. However, he managed to raise his hand up to block her kunai. Which just before it pierced it, she noticed what appeared to be a mouth residing in the palm. A sense of revulsion swept through her, as the mouth opened despite the blade that had stabbed through it, ripping itself open, which was followed by a tongue that wrapped around the kunai. Kurenai leapt back as the head of a clay snake also began to appear from the man’s palm, which tried to wrap around her wrist, but ended up just missing before the construct exploded.

To her shock, despite his arm essentially evaporating in the explosion, the monk didn’t appear to mind in the slightest. She began to understand why as dust and earth began to gather around the wound as the arm and clothes essentially grew back. “Kabuto,” she said with a sneer, as she realized the monks were victims of Edo Tensei, and that Kabuto was likely hoping to collect more DNA samples from Konoha’s dead heroes.

“No,” the monk said pulling the basket from his head using the hand that wasn’t in the process of regenerating, “The name is…”

“Deidara,” another voice called out as with most of the dust having settled, revealed that more Konoha-nin had arrived. Kurenai didn’t recognize the name of the man who had spoken, even as he continued, “You’re supposed to be dead. You blew yourself up trying to kill Sasuke Uchiha.”

Another of the gathered Konoha-nin pointed out that it was obvious someone was using Edo Tensei to revive the former Iwa-nin. But Deidara turned towards the man with a murderous glint in his lone visible eye as he asked, “What do you mean… tried to kill?”

Kurenai answered for the shinobi as the S-class-nin’s murderous intent caused him to forget how to use words, “Sasuke Uchiha is still alive, and currently heads a shinobi village located within the Land of Crows.”

“T…this is unacceptable…” Deidara shouted, “You mean to tell me that my ultimate art failed to kill anyone. That’s horrible news, all you red-eyed freaks should just disappear.”

Deidara reached into his bag as he prepared to erase the shame through death and carnage, despite the instructions he had been given, which weren’t as binding as they should have been since Kabuto hadn’t wanted the pair to be captured. However, before he got the chance a voice said, “Take your own advice.”

He turned to face the person who had spoken, only to see a fist closing with his face at which point everything went dark as his head, and a good portion of his upper body ceased to exist.
***********************************

Tsunade straighten having run in to deliver the blow. But almost immediate her own vision was blocked as the other monk moved to attack her. She saw him pull back to deliver a punch of his own, but Tsunade charged in which caught the monk by surprise. She dodged his fist which had been aiming for her face, but was blown forward a moment later as an explosion went off behind her. Recognizing the attack as the Explosion Release: Landmine Fist of Iwa, she vowed the man wouldn’t get a second shot so delivered a finger flick to the basket covering her opponent’s head which sent both flying from his shoulders.

Still almost immediately, she noticed the swirling dust converging over the body as it stumbled away which meant the man’s head would be growing back soon. Looking around she took a quick stock of the shinobi that had gathered, and frowned as she didn’t see anyone with the necessary abilities to contain the two Edo Tensei zombies permanently. Pointing to one of them, she shouted, “Head back to the village and summon the sealing and barrier corps.”

“Don’t bother,” Deidara shouted having finished regenerating and positioned himself near where Kurenai had been standing as they observed her, as he had pulled off his robe to reveal the mouth located on his chest, which was already munching on a large ball of clay, “There isn’t going to be a village in a few moments. It is almost a crime to resort to this again, since it only cheapens my art. But at least this time there will be more people that get to experience.”

Tsunade cursed, before kicking Gari toward Deidara, whom she recognized as his head had regenerated and from descriptions Pakura had given of past battles against the man that had been a rival of hers.

“You missed,” Deidara stated in amusement as Gari landed just behind him.

“Think that if you want,” Tsunade replied as she finished the seals needed before clapping her hands together as she took a squat stance and created a large dome of earth around the two men. Looking over her shoulder, she shouted, “Everyone get out of here now! Try to evacuate the village, I’ll try and delay it for as long as possible!”

Many of the gathered shinobi didn’t need to be told twice, although she noticed how several refused to abandon her. Likely as aware as her how futile running would be. She tried to think of someway to save her home, but even though the earth dome was draining the two men of chakra, as Edo Tensei zombies they would never run out. Moreover, as the recipient of the chakra and due to the speed and magnitude at which it was building within Deidara, it would only be a matter of time before she was topped off at which point she would just end up doing the same damage to her chakra network as Naruto was just finishing his recovery from. That was if she didn’t just explode in a similar manner as Fury had been designed to.

Still, she knew that every second mattered as it would give her shinobi more time to escape, so tried to find some way to delay the explosion for as long as possible. There was also a part of her which was finding the moment exhilarating, as she began to get a sense of everything around her not just a sense of what was happening with the two currently trapped within the dome. One of whom, Gari she suspected, was trying to escape it by trying to dig his way out using his Landmine Fist to dig out of the dome through the floor. She found it strange that he wouldn’t attack the walls directly, but assumed it was because he knew they would just repair themselves. Although that would also be the case for the floor, so didn’t understand why he wouldn’t focus on the thinner walls of the dome unless there was some quirk to the jutsu that she was currently unaware of. Yet, a moment later she felt his presence fade from the dome entirely, making as the chakra Deidera was giving off began to eclipse everything else.

Yet, she put it out of her mind as she felt herself growing warm, which she knew was the beginning signs of her chakra network beginning to overload as her coils began to scar and weaken from the strain. Yet, rather then giving in to the panic she felt, a sense of calm descended on her as almost of its own violation her stance shifted to the one her grandmother had found her practicing. She felt a cooling sensation pass through her as the water nature she had unlocked mixed with the earth that she had used to create and maintain the dome. The results were almost immediate as large vine like roots emerged from the earthen structure which wrapped around it as they grew thicker and began to harden into wood, at which points more roots would grow as the process continued due to her using the chakra she was receiving to reinforce the dome over and over again.

Tsunade wasn’t aware of how long she was at it since the dome was now several times larger, but suddenly there was a large if muffled explosion as the world around her began to shake. Just as suddenly as it had appeared, the connection to said world that she had felt vanished as she sank to her knees feeling completely drained and coated in sweat. Forcing herself to her feet, she smiled appreciatively as Kurenai moved to support her. Scanning the shinobi that had remained, she noticed the Cat mask of Yuugao as she knelt perched in a tree, and wondered briefly when she had appeared. But, finding the pair that she sought, she locked eyes with Gai before nodding her head towards the dome.

Gai picked up on the silent order, so said, “Right, leave it to me. Come on Lee.”

“Yes Gai-sensei,” Lee shouted as he followed after his teacher and upon reaching it, in synch assumed similar stances before smashing their fists into the now wooden dome. A large opening appeared, with Gai stating in awe, “By the gods…”

Coming up beside him, Kurenai gasped while Tsunade sent a quick prayer to said gods for helping her in protecting her home as a large crater of vaporized and scorched earth was all that existed within. Tsunade began to feel a fit of shakes, although quickly realized she wasn’t the cause, as she turned towards the woman supporting her. She felt her heart wretch in sympathy as she could see in the woman’s pale face that a wound which had begun to heal, had suddenly been ripped open anew due to the loss of her unborn daughter’s resting place.

“I…I need to go,” Kurenai said her voice strangely blank as if scrubbed of emotion. “I need to meet up with Hinata to see when we are leaving.”

“Kurenai…” Tsunade tried to say as the woman pulled away and quickly began walking away, as she disappeared among the gathering crowd.

However, she was interrupted as an Anbu appeared behind her and dropping to a knee stated, “Lady Tsunade, Captain Yuugao is missing and has likely been kidnapped.”

“What are you talking about?” Tsuande asked rounding on the parrot masked man before looking towards where she had spotted her, “She’s right over…” She trailed off as she found the purple-haired woman had disappeared from her perch, and was nowhere to be found. Returning her focus to the Anbu, she asked, “What makes you think she was kidnapped?”

“Captain Yuugao was overseeing some remedial training for Anbu members in danger of being dropped due to poor performance,” Parrot reported. “As they were at Training Ground S, with the privacy barrier up, I assumed that she might not have heard the explosions. I found all the remedial members unconscious, but no sign of the Captain.”

“What is the status of the members you found? Are they dead?” Tsunade asked worriedly.

“No milady,” the Anbu replied, “But there was definitely a fight, strangely…it did look like some of the more injured members received some basic first aid.”

Tsunade felt a headache coming on, and looking around noticed that Shizune had also appeared with some medical personnel. Approaching where her apprentice had gathered those that had been caught in the initial explosions, she asked, “How many did we lose?”

“None,” Shizune said sounding surprised, “There are quite a few concussions and ruptured eardrums. But… it looks like those first few explosions where just meant to stun everyone.”

“Shit!” Tsunade said growled out, causing her apprentice to look surprised at her reaction to what would normally be considered good news, “That fucking snake was just using them as a distraction.”

“For what purpose,” Shizune asked not sure what her teacher was referring to.

Tsunade ignored the question, as she yelled, “Kakashi.” She waited until the jounin reached her, and frowned as Gai and Lee followed along. But regardless she ordered, “Get Tsume and Hana, head to Training Ground S, and find out where Yuugao is heading.”

“We’ll tag along Kakashi,” Gai said placing a hand on his rival’s shoulder while giving him a thumb’s up.

Kakashi met her eyes, obviously asking if he should allow it, as he got the sense that whatever was happening was somehow tied to his student’s relationship with the Anbu Captain. Tsunade gave a slight nod, so he said with a put-upon sigh, “Fine, let’s go.”

“Yosh, perhaps Captain Uzuki caught sight of the villain and is in pursuit,” Lee suggested as he followed behind the two jounin.

Tsunade closed her eyes as she tried to sense Yuugao through her fox mark, and wasn’t surprised to learn that she couldn’t detect her. “I hope that’s the case,” she said more to herself then anyone present, as deep in her heart she knew it wouldn’t be that simple.

*******************************************************
Kabuto stepped back after removing a bundle from one of the two coffins he was standing before. He felt a scowl appear as he focused on the still reforming form of the man occupying the other. But it was replaced a moment later with an amused smirk as he sighed, and then said, while sounding like a parent whose child had misbehaved. “Whatever am I to do with you? I wasn’t looking for a bloodbath you know.”

Deidara didn’t respond, not that he expected him to, so he turned to face the Leaf Village which was several miles away. “So, Tsunade has access to the Mokuton now. Interesting…very interesting, guess I’ll have to update my card on her. I wonder if it was a natural development, or artificially induced.” He chuckled in amusement, as he found his mind filling with questions. Still, he simply began to file them away, since while the distraction force that he had sent into the village to cover his own infiltration had succeeded far beyond his wildest dreams in achieving the objects that he had given them, although almost with a body count that he didn’t want since he feared it would jeopardize his plans further down the line. Everything had been done s that he could get the answer to a simple question at some point down the road. However the one currently on his mind was, “What are you going to do now, Naruto?”

Granted, Kabuto already believed he knew the answer, but a good scientist always tested his hypothesizes before accepting them as fact. Still, while many considered Naruto to be unpredictable, to him the Uzumaki was anything but. That wasn’t to say the blond man couldn’t be crafty in the heat of battle, but rather he was referring more towards the principles that drove the Uzumaki. In that regard, Kabuto believed even your more common, everyday citizen or shinobi could be considered far more unpredictable. Mainly as you never could tell under what sort of circumstances such people would disregard their principles and more importantly why. Admittedly, one could hazard guesses, such as by getting a pacifist to commit violence by threatening to harm those he cared for. But even then, such a person may surprise those threatening him, and allow the violence to happen to their loved ones so they could hold tight to their principles of nonviolence. Kabuto knew some would say that was the noble thing to do, as it would deny the people seeking to bend them to their will the victory they sought. Although, Kabuto found such responses to be pretentious, as the person had still allowed some violence to take place, and just took solace in the fact that theirs wasn’t the hand to commit it as if that made them clean.

Kabuto though wanted to know Naruto’s answer when faced with such a dilemma, as a recently born desire of his depended entirely on the answer. Yet, Kabuto knew he was still quite a while away from receiving his answer, as he had only taken the first steps to begin even asking the question. Yet, whether or not it would even be worth asking the Uzumaki his question would depend on how Naruto responded to the events that he that just set in motion by asking a certain purple haired woman a different one, “How would you like to know who murdered the man you loved?”

Kabuto smiled as Yuugao had been quite eager to hear the answer to it despite her protests to the contrary, and now he just needed to sit back and wait to see what she did with that information. Particularly as he had also informed her that her deceased lover was currently on his way to Suna to kill the man that had separated them. Turning away from the Leaf to stare in the direction of the Sand, Kabuto who typically viewed his plots as being similar to a game of Shogi, felt a different game was more appropriate in this instance as he asked, “Well that’s the end of my action phase Naruto. Now show me how you respond.”

Next chapter: Letting Go! Part II

Author’s notes: Hello everyone, first let me start off by saying, I’m sorry for how long this chapter took to come out, and for ending it on a cliffhanger to boot. But, as this chapter is a little longer then standard, I hope that somewhat makes up for it. I hate to say it, but it seems the older I get the more distractions there are that keep me from just sitting down and hammering out chapters. In any case, I hope this one proves to be worth the wait. Again, I do apologize for ending on a cliffhanger, but while originally, I planned for this to be its own Limelight chapter when it focused on Yuugao. I felt considering how long she had been somewhat static, not to mention the larger ramifications it needed to be included in the main story, unlike with say Yugito where the events of her actual defection were not as important when measured against the waves it set in motion.

So, again I hope this measures up to my previous chapters. I will not make a guess as to when the next will be up, but will try to keep you up to date as to my progress via my deviantart account. As far as what I’m working on and the order.

The Queue:
1. Eroninja: Letting Go Part II
2. Little Black Book
3. Limelight: Mabu
4. The Pride for a chapter or 2
5. The Promise
6. Eroninja: Chunin Exams
So, until next time, take care. Sincerely, The Lemon Sage.