Chapter Text
Arriving back at Kiri, Naruto worked expediently and swiftly, making sure that the three chuunin were sent to the medic nins and that the lab equipment was as soon as possible put into proper storage. 7,564 percent of the equipment was lost as it was already and Naruto refused to let even one more iota be damaged. What more, the sense of exhaustion, numbness and frustration at the entire thing just made him want to take a long shower, make himself a good dinner and lock himself in his room with a book for a day or five. Yet, just as he was making sure that the gear was taken away he felt the holder for the scroll in which the Kubikiri Houcho had been sealed rub against his arm.
Of course, he had to bloody go and report in that, report to a woman who most likely would treat him like dirt for having been so defiant. The situation favoured cynicism and while Naruto stalked away towards Mei's office a long row of scenarios shot through his head. The contents were roughly similar in most cases; Naruto walking inside, Mei acting like a prick and Naruto exploding with anger. Overall Naruto felt like he had been much more emotional than he used to be these last months and right now it felt like it could go south very, very fast.
When he came into the Mizukage's room he found himself with a mental check-list, cynically prepare to tick them off one after one. Mei looked up from her paperwork when he entered and already at the cool look on her face he ticked off the first item on the list.
“Mizukage-sama,” he greeted her, almost hissing at her when a wave of irritation hit him.
“You're back I see,” she said calmly, icily even. Naruto now all of a sudden realized that he wouldn't be able to handle this in as civilized a manner as he wanted. He merely took out the scroll and summoned forth the Kubikiri Houcho mid-air. The giant cleaver sword spun around and crashed blade first into the floor. Mei jumped a bit in her seat from sheer surprise now and her visible eye went wide.
“Momochi Zabuza is dead,” Naruto told her, “Hoshigaki Kisame got away. Also Gato got involved and he as well as his entire shinobi army is, as it stands, dead. Was there anything else, Mizukage-sama?!” he almost snarled the last words and for a few seconds Mei only stared at him in shock. Naruto, after the initial outburst, suddenly realized what he had done and for a second just wanted to sink through the floor with embarrassment. Mei however leaned back.
“ANBU,” she said, “leave, now. No one enters this room until I give the word.” Surprised, Naruto looked around as the hidden elite ANBU posted here departed and while they did so Mei got up to pull the curtains behind her shut. A few seconds later they were alone in the room and Mei looked to him. “What happened?” she asked. Her voice was softer now and had lost any inkling of its coldness.
“Pretty much what I said,” Naruto told her with as much calm as he could muster. Mei didn't buy that answer however. Not if the way she came up to him and put a hand on his chin was any inclination. Naruto stopped her however, sweeping the hand away.
“Naruto,” she said now, “What's wrong? This isn't like you.”
“Look,” he began, “Things happened, not all of them pleasant, but under the circumstances Kiri weathered this as well as could be and...”
“Naruto,” Mei cut him off, “I don't care about that right now. What happened to you? You are livid,” she said, “I've never seen you this furious before. Please, talk to me.” Naruto found the strength leaving him fast now. A soft touch and a kind word after which he lost his anger. Was he really this ensnared by her? Wait, yes he was.
“You don't have to involve yourself in,” he began.
“But I want to,” Mei told him, “please,” she said, slowly dragging him towards the desk where she sat down, gently steering him to sit down there as well. Sighing explosively, he eventually gave in, sat down on her desk and hid his face in his hands. Mei put a hand over his shoulder and another on his leg now.
“I don't even know where to begin,” Naruto said tiredly. Indeed where was he going to begin? This entire mission had stirred up so much dross from the bottom of his mind that he didn't know where to start.
“Start at the beginning,” Mei said gently and Naruto sighed. He didn't want to but eventually did.
“When I was an apprentice to Orochimaru I had a fellow apprentice,” he just knew how this would sound to Mei. “Mitarashi Anko,” he added after a second.
“Really?” Mei said curiously and Naruto felt the hackles rise again.
“Yes and don't you dare make a thing out of this,” he said icily before forcing himself to calm down again.
“I wasn't going to,” Mei told him with a somewhat taken aback voice which only made him feel even worse.
“I'm sorry,” he sighed again. “Either way, she was in many ways the reason I didn't become a second Orochimaru,” he told Mei, “she was like a sister to me, my closest friend. It might have been by simple virtue that I didn't have any others but still. She was a chaotic, defiant and crude woman but at the same time she was... she mattered to me, incredibly much. And she died because she was sent on a mission where we were told there'd only be bandits but a rogue jonin was there as well.” There, Naruto had said it. He had spoken aloud of that time, that event that still pained him in some ways. Mei seemed to feel for him too if the way she took his hand in hers and squeezed it was any inclination.
“I wanted to kill the clients,” he told Mei, “I almost did it too. I was so certain they had lied. I refused to think of it only as a mistake. I came this close...” he said, holding up his thumb and index finger with only a millimetre between them, “To killing a man over it and after it I was a wreck for several days. And the thing is this,” he began, getting to the issue at hand, “That time I lost someone due to a simple mistake, a plain lack of information. In Wave however...” he began, petering off. He felt a surge of anger and frustration at it all again.
“What happened?” Mei stroked his chin now, gently urging him to continue.
“Momochi Zabuza and Hoshigaki Kisame were there, and so was Namikaze Kimiko, my sister,” he forced himself to say. “They had been on a C-ranker escorting a client to Wave... a client who had lied about the mission parameters. He was being chased by Gato's shinobi but hadn't told them since it'd make the mission to expensive for him... and my idiot sister refused to abandon the mission when she found out about it. The mission was terminated, the client had lied and thereby rendered the entire thing null and void and yet that little idiot demanded they'd keep going. What more her sensei, who I thought had some kind of basic ability to use his head, had agreed!”
He let it all spill out now, methodically revealing every last bit of the events that had taken place that he could tell her of. His threat to the bridge builder, the clash between him and Kimiko, his disappointment and anger and how it all had ended in a blood-bath. It all frustrated him so immensely and left him so tired and enraged. His sister was in such immense danger and the little idiot refused to see it, refused to acknowledge the plain fact that she had duties beyond her own impulses. It almost came pouring out of him and while he kept his voice even he couldn't stop himself from telling Mei everything. He was so tired of it all and needed to vent so he did. And yet through all of this, his ranting, his frustration and his agitation, Mei sat silently and listened. She did not interrupt him with questions or made any remarks, she just listened to him.
Naruto fell silent after what felt like an entire hour of ranting. After having gotten it all out of him the frustration was not gone perhaps but at least spent. The tension he built up felt like it had vanished and all that was left in its place was the release, the catharsis. Sitting on Mei's desk, he realized that he was breathing somewhat harshly when Mei leaned in to give him a peck on the cheek.
“Seriously?” he asked her now but nevertheless did so without any actual venom, “that joke wasn't funny the first time you humiliated me with it,” he reached up to wipe the lipstick off but found that there wasn't any.
“It was hilarious the first time.” Mei smirked at him as she leaned back to support herself against the desk, a motion that pushed out her chest somewhat. “Don't worry though,” she continued, “I'm using a different brand than that time. Do you feel better now?”
“Not better as much as less,” Naruto said, “thank you for entertaining my ramblings. And once more, my apologies for snapping at you.”
“You brought me a sword and a missing shinobi team,” Mei said, “It'll have to do for this time. So the gear is retrieved now?”
“A little less than a tenth was destroyed,” Naruto said, “But it's within tolerable parameters. Within the week it all will be set up and the R&D division will finally start making serious progress. The... the wave mission was in all things a staggering success for Kiri. Not only was the Kubikiri Houcho retrieved, Gato is now dealt with once and for all and the seized equipment was retrieved at no loss of personnel.” Yes, that was the truth. For Kiri it was such a success no matter his personal view of the matter.
“My hero,” Mei whispered in his ear and Naruto felt a shiver at her hot breath. How amusing in a manner. After his first meeting with Konoha again, and his sister no less, in months he had been furious and yet now, back in Kiri, Mei had disarmed him within the hour. Faced with it head on, he realized that he didn't like the idea of someone, anyone, having this much control over him. And yet as he looked at Mei, seeing the wry little smile on her lips, he realized that he didn't really mind as long as it was her. Infatuation was a fascinating psychological phenomenon wasn't it? A year ago he'd have scoffed at the very concept and yet here he was.
“Is this going to end the way I think it will?” Naruto asked Mei now, seeing the Mizukage purse her lips at this.
“I've no idea what you are talking about,” she said innocently and Naruto rolled his eyes. Yep, it was going to go that way. Mei was a master at playing him it seemed. She nudged and hinted him in the direction she wanted him so subtly that in the end he was the one taking action. And right now, after things had gone as they had gone, there was no doubt only one thing on Mei's mind. Was he in a position to complain however? No not really; it was on his mind as well. Damn this woman for so easily making him relax.
“You win,” he said dryly and saw the small gleam of triumph in her eyes right before he leaned in to kiss her.
Getting to her apartment was something of a tricky question seeing as how the ANBU were right outside the door yet let it never be said that either of Mei or Naruto were not well deserving of their shinobi skills. It was not long before they got back to her quarters and even that time was like an age compared to how long it took them to go from the window through which they entered to the bed. Naruto still, as said, had frustrations to work out and if Mei found anything objectionable about the intensity arising from this she did not show it. The opposite in fact and Naruto realized something fascinating.
If he did it well enough, using what he had learned about her, he could make her lose control. Not from sheer shock like when he had first started to bite back during her teasing. No, tear the control from her by simple skill and leave her unable to retake the initiative which actually put her at his mercy. And Naruto being who he was refused to not exploit the initiative.
Some time later, Naruto having no idea how long, he found himself lying in Mei's bed with the owner in his arms and her back against his chest. She wasn't asleep, that much he could tell, but she did not move an inch. She seemed content where she lay and Naruto found himself forced to admit that so was he. Here, holding a woman he logically should have nothing to do with and being far away from the Konoha R&D division he was content to be. He wanted to remain here in Kiri for now. Konoha to him felt like one massive mess he'd be happy to not have to deal with as it was. Sighing to himself, Naruto thought that he really didn't mind that this mission would take several more months to finish up.
____________________________________
Early the next morning Naruto decided to pay a visit to his apprentice. Having been gone for over a week during the most intense phase of her mutations, Naruto felt it the most prudent to visit her and get an overview of her current state. There shouldn't be any issues but then again, at the bleeding edge of science many things were uncertain. If Sakura's mutations ended up turning malignant quite a lot of nasty things could possibly happen. Even at a cursory consideration Naruto could think up a dozen ways this could kill her. The most nightmarish of these would probably be if the formation of her subdermal snakeskin which was based in the genetic disorder called Ichthyosis ended up going haywire. Her death would be the stuff of nightmares. Naruto remembered when Orochimaru had shown him what he called a “harlequin baby”: a baby who was born with a hardened skin which cracked and broke into what looked like plates and which without exception would die within days of birth.
No Naruto thought as he walked up the stairs to the third floor of the giant high-rise where Sakura had been given a small apartment. That shouldn't happen. The risks were minimal of something like that coming to pass and even if it did he had other retroviruses which should reverse the process. Sakura would no doubt be in a lot of pain as it was but that would be all. Even that was cause for some concern or at least some attention however so that was why he currently was heading towards her apartment.
From what he could see when he looked around it seemed to be a sort of pleasant “neighbourhood” she lived in. Two doors to the right he saw several children's toys scattered around the door and the walkway and directly to the left the windows were filled with flowers. Some normalcy would probably do the girl well considering all the strange things that was happening to her. The door was open he realized as soon as he touched the door handle. A bit careless in a manner he supposed but then again he left the door open as well. They were amongst allies so it was a forgiveable lapse in watchfulness. When he opened however he heard something inside. Voices were talking inside and Naruto smirked to himself. It did not take his mental acumen to figure out who her visitor would be. That boy really did take his assignment seriously didn't he? Or perhaps...
Either way Naruto snuck inside and closed the door behind him soundlessly. The apartment was mostly unlit and the voices came from the bedroom it seemed. An errant thought flashed through Naruto's head at this. He thought about what sights might be beheld if one entered his apartment under similar circumstances. He shuddered at the thought and slowly shook his head. If that was the case Sakura had taken that little acquaintanceship several miles too far. Still there was no reason to make claims without data to back them up so he therefore silently moved towards the bedroom and glanced inside.
To his relief nothing improper whatsoever was going on. Sakura was lying in bed and Chojuro was sitting by her bedside currently pouring some tea for her. His apprentice looked bluntly put horrible. She was pale, sweaty and radiated discomfort. An idle thought struck him that she would make for a good painting as she looked now. With some well-arranged lighting and a decent artist to capture it she'd really cut it as a drawing capturing the essence of disease and weakness.
“Thank you,” Sakura said with a broken voice now as Chojuro gave her a mug of tea before she slowly sipped of it.
“Are you sure you don't need any more medicine Sakura-san?” Chojuro asked now with a voice betraying his naked concern. “The drug-store is still open.”
“No,” she told him, “master told me...” she said weakly before being cut off by a savage attack of coughing that left her unable to answer and which made her shake. It was almost a minute before it broke off and Naruto nodded to himself. A raw throat was to be expected. She really shouldn't talk too much as it was. “He told me...” Sakura began again, “that my body... normal medicine won't work on it.”
“But why...” Chojuro said, “I don't understand why he has to do that to you. What kind of...” the young swordsman petered off now and seemed unable to explain what he wanted.
“It's a side-effect,” Sakura told him, “I had to give some things up to...” she was broken off by another barrage of coughing now, “to learn what he could teach me.” She croaked the last words. Chojuro didn't seem convinced however.
“But what has he even taught you...” he said now, “he did this to you and then left on some errand...” Now Naruto decided to intervene and with a few subtle moves he got inside the room at least partially.
“Said “errand”” Naruto began as he leaned against the doorframe. The reaction to his appearance was Sakura gasping and Chojuro almost flying off his seat in shock, “was to save more or less every bit of progress we have made here.” He stood now with his arms folded and a dry look on his face, “I would appreciate if you did not belittle my work,” he added and watched how Chojuro flinched again. “How are you Sakura?” he asked and Sakura swallowed. He could tell that doing so was painful for her but she answered him nevertheless.
“I... I think it is starting to get better, a little.” He wondered if she was trying to impress him or if she was trying to tell herself that such was the case. In any case she was hardly looking like anything was improving.
“Good” he said nevertheless and glanced at Chojuro. “Would you mind?” he asked frankly,“I need to talk to my apprentice.” Chojuro initially didn't seem too interested in obliging and looked towards Sakura for a second. His protective instincts were embarrassingly obvious and Naruto mentally rolled his eyes at the spectacle. Motioning him to come up closer he leaned in to whisper in his ear. “If you are that frantic to help her there is a brand of elbow grease that could help her. It is called Dihydrogen monoxide. I have seen it in Kiri.” Fishing out a small bill out of his wallet Naruto pushed the boy towards the door and while he still seemed hesitant he nevertheless obliged eventually.
“I-I'll be back as soon as possible Sakura-san,” he said before departing and Sakura nodded understandingly towards him with a small smile. How adorable were they not together? Naruto shrugged off the thought after a second along with one about how many things he thought about now that he had refused to consider before meeting Mei.
“How are you truly?” he asked after Chojuro had left and he had seated himself on the chair said swordsman had been using. He leaned back and clasped his hands now as he waited for her answer.
“I...I...” Sakura looked down at the sheet covering her now. Her unease at the thought of speaking what she'd no doubt perceive as ill about her master's work was obvious.
“I ask not for what you think I want to hear” Naruto told her frankly now. “I am asking for the truth and nothing but the truth.” Now neither of them spoke for a while. In the end however Sakura did break the silence.
“I'm scared” she said with a tiny voice. “I don't know what's happening to me and it only seems as if it gets worse every day. I'm thinking that...” she trailed off now and fell silent.
“That?” Naruto asked calmly.
“That... you've done some mistake” she admitted. “That I'm dying.”
“Have you felt it like your skin is getting stiff enough to prevent your actions?” Naruto asked her now. “Uncontrolled muscle spasms or seizures? Sudden fainting? Strange smells that no one else feels?”
“No...?” Sakura answered him.
“Then there shouldn't be any risk to your life” Naruto stated plainly. “you are in the final stages of your transformation however. This is the most trying part but there will be nothing but improvement from where you are now.
“Did you... feel like this too?” Sakura coughed.
“Not quite” Naruto said. “I spent five years mutating like this and while it was never at this level of intensity for me I was not excused from any part of my training. Also...” Naruto looked dryly towards the door where Chojuro had exited. “I did not have such a caring nurse.” He looked towards Sakura who blushed somewhat at this.
“But master...” she said. “Weren't you in Konoha then? Didn't your family...” she broke off into another coughing fit now.
“It was they who handed me to Orochimaru to essentially get rid of me.” Naruto told her this to him old truth but Sakura's reaction was immense. She stared at him in pure shock and her head began to slowly move sideways in denial.
“What?” she asked incredulously. “But that... how could Hokage-sama do that? He isn't... master... I don't understand.” Of course she didn't understand. The mere idea of the grand hero of Konoha Namikaze Minato abandoning his son to a complete monster seemed preposterous.
“Let's begin with this,” Naruto said “There is no cartoonish villainy involved here. Hokage-sama is not some soulless card-carrying manipulator who threw me away because I was inconvenient. What happened was the attack of the Kyuubi no Kitsune against Konoha. Do you know where the Kyuubi went Sakura?” He thought to himself that it was time that Sakura learned of this fact.
“Didn't Hokage-sama kill it?” Sakura asked and Naruto shook his head.
“You can't kill something like that so easily,” he said “It was sealed away into one of the few things able to contain a thing like that: a human.” The look that came over Sakura's face now was horrified yet at the same time understanding. The implications made her reel and the enormity of what it meant was clear to her yet at the same time she knew enough to see how and why to some degree.
“That...” Sakura said with the shock still evident on her face. “What do you even call that?”
“Jinchuuriki.” Naruto informed her. “The “Power of human sacrifice”.There are nine tailed beasts and at the moment eight jinchuuriki. The three-tails is sealed away in a hidden location, all the others are sealed into humans. Sabaku no Gaara of Suna. Nii Yugito and Kirabi of Kumo. Roushi and Han of Iwa. Utakata of Kiri. Fuu of Taki and finally, Namikaze Kimiko of Konoha.”
Naruto guessed that this string of revelations really formed a quite massive hat-trick for Sakura so he therefore decided to remain silent for a while and let her process these facts.
“Kimiko-chan...” Sakura sat still and slowly blinked. It was obvious to see how completely the feet were swept out from under her by the revelation that her old friend was a container for a demon. Naruto wondered if she'd fall down the usual pitfall that people for some reason kept bumbling into and denounce Kimiko as the same as the Kyuubi. Probably not and if she did he'd slap it out of her in a moment.
“You no doubt have some questions,” Naruto said now. “Let's hear them.”
“Kimiko... does... does she know?” Was the first question.
“She does and hates it.” Naruto knew that well. Kimiko hadn't one good word to say about the demon inside her. “Unlike most Kages however Hokage-sama decided that Kimiko was to be given a normal life. The fact that she is a jinchuuriki is information classified as need-to-know only.”
“But... but why did that make Hokage-sama give you to... to that man?”
“What do you think happens to a family after the father has decided to seal a demon inside their newborn daughter?” Naruto asked this softly. After all these years and all that had happened he remembered that time with a dispassionate pity more than anything else. “And what more said father has an absolute responsibility for the greatest shinobi village in the world which now is devastated. The mother meanwhile is left at home with a child desperately struggling to adapt to the horrifying new chakra present in it and who screams in pain almost constantly. There was not much room for another person in the picture. Human weakness and tragic yet perhaps understandable oversights on their part left me alone. Then they discover that they essentially abandoned their first born son and at that very moment Orochimaru was there to drip his poison into their ears and claim me for himself. One can dress it up however one wants though. The fact of the matter is that I was abandoned to Orochimaru by my family. Under the most understandable of circumstances perhaps yet still.”
“Why are you telling me this?” Sakura asked now and Naruto supposed she had a point. This was pretty much his entire past laid out for the girl. Considering that he hadn't really been that frank with her about his past it did come across as curious that he was spilling it all now.
“Because in order to understand why things happen as they do we must know what lies behind it,” he said “Look beneath the surface of things and seek the explanation for the present in the past. I have no shame about what I am. I have no reason to be. Do you?” Now he switched track “What is that boy Chojuro to you?” Sakura's face told Naruto much more than he needed to know as it turned beet red in an instant. Sighing, Naruto idly thought to himself that he probably was the worst possible person to give Sakura the little speech he would have to give now. The accusations of hypocrisy could have been made by Kimiko so obvious it was.
Still they should have time before Chojuro came back. That which he had sent the boy to chase after was the full name for H2O, water. Knowing the general lack of science understanding in Kiri the boy would be away chasing it for hours.
____________________________________
“Careful with the equipment you fools!” Naruto snapped as several of the lab assistants were busily bringing said machines into the large office that would become the main computer hub in the labs. One of them had stumbled and almost fallen with the machine in his hands. Naruto had already killed over a hundred people to secure these goods and was not going to tolerate anyone damaging them.
“How exciting Naruto-sama,” Harusame was standing right beside him being his usual calm and patient self. “This really will be the R&D departments rebirth.” The man looked around himself with a kindly smile.
“Unless these idiots end up breaking it all,” Naruto muttered to himself as much as he said it to Harusame. As if to tease him with the possibility one of the women carrying a tray of sensitive equipment stumbled a few metres away, coming to desperately fumble forwards before crashing into the floor. Naruto's eyes opened wide now and he raised his hands in a horrified gesture as he witnessed the whole thing. Then, just before the woman crashed into the ground she managed to tear the tray upwards and when she hit the ground chest first the equipment on it remained on said tray.
“Safe!” she yelled out desperately and for a while everything was silent in the room as every eye there was turned on her. After a few seconds everyone began to slowly applaud the woman's quick thinking, Harusame amongst them.
“Well done,” the man said and the woman blushed fiercely as she quickly got to her feet again, tray in hand.
“Please avoid tossing more of the equipment around,” Naruto groaned as he covered his face.
“Sorry sir,” the woman said quickly as she got to her feet. Naruto noticed that she had gotten tangled up in the power cables that criss-crossed the floor. The labs were a bloody mess as it stood but Naruto supposed that was to be expected.
“Should we see if we can get some genin in here to take care of cables and the likes?” Harusame asked and Naruto nodded. That would be a convenient solution. Getting some genin in here to do the menial labour would free up lab personnel for other tasks and it'd also give the young shinobi a chance to look at all the exciting new toys the R&D division had.
Things were looking up as it seemed. The Kiri science division would be decently capable after this. Sadly there was still years or work and millions of Ryo's worth of investment left until it reached anything even close to Konoha's level. Yet as it was they'd have a sufficient ground to build on. Within a year the first new assistants from the academy would begin to trickle in and give it perhaps... five years Naruto estimated, and they'd be well on their way to having an organisation that'd be world-class.
Naruto latched onto a small realization there. This was why he liked being in Kiri. Life was simple here. It had been a new start for him, one without the stigma of being Orochimaru's apprentice, without his messed up family situation or indeed any of these things. A researcher came into the room now with a stack of papers.
“Sir,” she said as she came up to Naruto, “Here's the first feedback from the chakragraphologic instruments.” Naruto took the papers from her quickly now and poured over the reports.
“You've already calibrated?” he asked after a second and the woman nodded.
“Yes sir,” she said, “we noticed the background chakra threw off our readings and I took the liberty to calibrate. The original readings are on the next page. Naruto turned to said page and nodded to himself.
“You are now acting head of chakragraphy until I find someone better or make it official.” Naruto was positively surprised. Said woman had when he arrived been a slacker whom he had taken into his office and made cry on a weekly basis. She really had risen to the challenge in the end it seemed. “Also just so you know,” he added, “If I find out you took the credit from someone else, which I will...”
“You'll reduce me to a sobbing little girl before throwing me out from the highest window we have,” the woman added with a cheeky smile, adding “Sir” after a tiny pause. Naruto looked dryly at her but couldn't help giving her a wry smile. She did indeed get it. This was the kind of attitude he wanted to see. He didn't mind some cheek from his subordinates as long as they remembered that they were as said his subordinates and did a good job. Cheek was something he felt people could earn.
Now however a new person came into the labs. This one did not belong in the labs Naruto saw. He was wearing a shinobi outfit and carried himself militarily, meaning a field shinobi. Said man came up to him and made a formal salute.
“Namikaze-san,” the man said and Naruto mentally sighed, “Mizukage-sama requests your presence immediately.” How could he have known that was exactly what the man wanted? Naruto gave the report back to his newly selected head of chakragraphy before turning to Harusame.
“You've got the labs until I return.” With that, he departed along with the man. It vexed him to leave but an order was an order. “Any details on what the matter concerns?” he asked as he and the shinobi both left the R&D department's building.
“A messenger just arrived from Konoha,” the man said, “I don't know the details but Mizukage-sama looked as if she wanted to kill someone when I was summoned. Naruto got a sinking feeling in his guts at this. Messenger from Konoha and an enraged Mei. The scenarios were many and few of them seemed even the least attractive. Thinking about the wave mission, Naruto wondered if it would be tied to that somehow. There were quite a few ways Minato could make a fuss here but he found himself praying that wasn't the case.
At the Mizukage's office Naruto could practically sense the anger emanating from it and rubbed the bridge of his nose. Something told him that he'd most probably find a corpse inside the office and he noticed that the man beside him seemed antsy as well. He opened the door and came inside with a bow.
“Namikaze Naruto-sama, Mizukage-sama,” the man introduced Naruto as the latter came into the room. Mei was present indeed and at the moment she was looking as furious as he could remember her looking. With her single visible eye as cold as ice she was at the moment drilling holes with her gaze into the messenger. Or rather messengers, there were two of them. Izumo and Kotetsu were both standing at attention in front of the woman and looked as if they would have very much preferred being elsewhere.
“Long time no see Naruto-san,” Izumo said when their eyes met. Both his voice and his smile was very forced indeed and Naruto felt a sting of anxiety. What exactly was going on here?
“Indeed,” he said before getting to the heart of the matter. “Judging from the mood in here someone will die soon. What is going on?”
“Yes,” Mei said with a frigid voice, “Why don't you tell him what you just told me?” Izumo cleared his throat awkwardly now and Kotetsu took a breath before speaking up.
“Hokage-sama...” he began, “Has put your mission on hold Naruto-san. You're going home as soon as possible.” Naruto felt it like he got cold inside and blinked. It took him a second before he was able to articulate a response.
“What?” he asked incredulously. This went beyond what he had expected. Sure enough, there had been the clash in Wave which had said quite a lot but that it would... Naruto found himself deeply worried about what this meant. And not only that, they wanted to take him back to Konoha, IE away from what he had spent months building here! He found himself wanting to yell “no” all of a sudden but kept his mouth shut. It came like a thunderbolt from a clear sky, the realization that he'd be forced to leave not only Kiri, but Mei as well, within days!
“The terms of the agreement made between Kiri and Konoha was contingent on Kiri being politically stable,” Kotetsu said, “There only recently was a large battle with over a hundred dead missing-nins, mostly Kiri, in Wave. Two shinobi swordsmen were present and one of them is still at large. Hokage-sama doesn't want to risk one of his premier assets.”
“So therefore he has thrown our agreement out of the window?” Mei asked with a small smile that was colder than the polar ice. Naruto became almost afraid at the sight. She was angry, she was as angry as could be.
“Not completely Mizukage-sama,” Izumo said quickly now, “He merely wishes to make sure his top researcher is as safe as can be.”
“And that couldn't be assured in Kiri?” Mei asked mildly.
“He... didn't give that impression to us,” Izumo coughed awkwardly. The mood inside the room was rapidly approaching absolute zero, the temperature where all atom-based movement ceased and time stopped. Mei did not scream, snarl or yell. She didn't even scowl but the implicit fury in her every move made Naruto wince. And why shouldn't she be enraged. Naruto hadn't expected this to come to pass at all. What it implicated almost left him with a sense of vertigo and he gritted his teeth. Damn it all to hell!
“A “premier asset” was it?” he asked the two icily and they looked towards him.
“Well, yes.” Kotetsu said now. Bless the two chuunin, they had absolutely no idea of the things going on behind the scenes and were now just try to complete their hardly enviable duty without stepping too hard on too many toes. They were landing with iron plated boots on Mei's toes however and Naruto hated his mission so much in this moment.
“Your mission is complete,” he told the two. “Leave, now.”
“But we...” Naruto took a step forward now, leaning in so he was only a few inches from Izumo's face which shut the man up instantly.
“I said,” Naruto told them as calmly as could be, “Leave.” Izumo and Kotetsu both halfway fled the room with only minuscule amounts of dignity and as the door shut behind them. Naruto was left looking at Mei, who still sat in her seat with an aura of restrained fury about her.
“What is that man thinking?” she asked after a couple of seconds. “Did he seriously not think this would come across as a massive insult?”
“I don't know what to say,” Naruto told her sincerely, as sincerely as he could. He couldn't comment on Minato's reasons however. He knew, he understood, and he hated it. “Damn it all to hell...” Naruto said. “I must speak with Harusame. We'll have to draw up a plan for how to handle this.”
“You're just going along with this?” Mei asked now all of a sudden, the emotions crawling into her voice.
“What do you want me to do?” Naruto asked, “he is my Kage, defying him equals treason.”
“This is...” Mei began with some fervour now, “I can't... that son of a!” eventually the steam left her and she deflated in her seat. Naruto hated Minato in this moment. Mei had put so much hope in the alliance, risked so much, and now it seemed as though it came around and shafted her massively. When he came back to Konoha he'd strangle the man until he made amendments for this insult. “Do what you have to,” she eventually said with an almost dead voice, “Let me know what your plans are soon.”
“I will,” Naruto said, leaving the Mizukage's office with rage in his heart again. He stormed through Kiri with gritted teeth and narrowed eyes yet at the same time with a mind working at high pace. He'd have to speed up the formation of the Kiri R&D hierarchy, today.
Damn it all to hell! Naruto stormed into the R&D division's building and headed for where Harusame had been when he left. The man thankfully was there still so Naruto called out without any further ado.
“Harusame!” he yelled and to his irritation he watched how the entire room startled in fright, “My office, now!” he turned around and left for the office.
Only some months he had been here but the office that had been his had become a home. He looked around at the small office, sighing irritably before he sat down in his office chair.
“Naruto-sama?” Harusame said as he came into the room.
“I'm leaving within the week,” Naruto told him brusquely, “I got a message from Konoha. Apparently Hokage-sama has recalled me for idiot reasons. We need to set up the final configurations for the division within the week. After that I am out of here and you will be the head of Kiri's R&D division. Understand?” Harusame blinked, shock evident on his face, yet in the end he nodded.
“I... understand,” he said almost breathlessly before clearing his throat.”Well yes... what are you planning?” he said as he sat down in front of Naruto's desk.
“I think Chakragraphy is taken care of,” Naruto began, “that woman seemed reliable. Same for Metallurgy, Theoretical Medicine will be taken care of if we convince Kiri to leave the medic nins. Any suggestions for Chemistry?” Harusame pursed his lips and slowly stroked his moustache. Naruto once again cursed the situation. He liked working with Harusame. And yet this was an order and Naruto would obey, no matter how much he hated it.
____________________________________
The days that followed ran by slowly but inexorably. A sudden return to Konoha he had neither planned for nor wanted slowly drew near and there seemed to be not a single person happy about the current state of affairs. Mei had been enraged. When Naruto had met Ao two days later the man had been irate about it as well. As for Sakura, she didn't know how to take it. Going home was a plus for the little girl evidently yet she still was in a very bad state from the retroviruses and returning home as a mutant frightened her. Harusame and R&D were not furious as much as devastated by the news. The progress they had made all of a sudden hung in a precarious balance as the only one who really knew how to build on it would vanish. Naruto had gathered his staff in the cafeteria the day after the news came and told them what would happen.
“This is not something anyone of us wanted,” he had finished his speech with, “Yet reality isn't one for playing fair. However even if I vanish I wish to make it clear to you this. When I came here words did not suffice to describe what I found. Now however, you have made significant progress and while the current state would not be acceptable in Konoha, having gotten this far in these few months is an impressive achievement I can only take partial credit for. My goal here was to ensure that within a few years the exchange between Konoha and Kiri would be one of equals and that can still happen. That responsibility however, will have to rest on your shoulders. Good luck, and thank you for this time.”
Naruto supposed it was his imminent departure that made people feel that they had to give a good last impression or something but during the days that followed he'd end up inundated with gratitude and well-wishes from the staff. How a man who had been such a demon to them could provoke such immense gratitude didn't pan out from him. Still, it was nice that they had at least understood why he had done it like he had.
Still, the big problem looming over his return to Konoha was Sakura. The girl was still in a very bad shape and ideally shouldn't travel anywhere at the moment. And yet there were few choices in the matter so Naruto therefore had taken a measured risk in performing acupuncture-treatment on her to minimize the symptoms of her condition. She'd be able to travel but Naruto made sure to prepare several doses of powerful sedatives for the nights where she'd be in immense pain. The girl had agreed obviously. She'd still take a kunai to the chest for him if he'd as much as hint about it. That didn't help Naruto's frustration over the sense that once again his apprentice was getting shafted.
And Mei... Mei had been furious ever since. She just couldn't accept what was going to happen and the nights for them became intense affairs. Not in the good way either. After their trysts she'd cling to him almost as if she tried to physically keep him from leaving. Naruto cursed himself for not having found another resolution to all of this as he held her. For how else could this have gone? He was here on a mission, two missions, and neither lasted forever. He honestly doubted that he could have shaken himself of this addiction to her and cursed himself for the fact. This weakness, this frailty, jeopardised everything and yet he could not see any way out of it. It was too intense, too fulfilling. He loved her immensely. Perhaps it would vanish in time but as it was his flames burned as brightly as they ever would for her. He was not the cold, calculating machine he had wanted to be, not when it came to her. And he hated the fact so much now that the dream came to a sudden, crashing end.
It was during their last night together, between desperate lovemaking and unspoken pain trying to create memories to last, that one of Naruto's greatest challenges came. Mei was holding him to her chest and ran her fingers slowly through his hair when she spoke the words.
“Stay with me,” she whispered to him. Naruto looked up at her seeing the sincerity in her eyes.
“I cannot,” he told her, “You know that. I would be a missing-nin, a traitor to Konoha.”
“To hell with Konoha,” Mei said through clenched teeth. “I more or less signed away Kiri's independence only to be spat in the face by that man. I trusted him!” Naruto gritted his teeth and felt the frustration boil up again.
“It's not...” he began, “Mei, it's not that easy. Kisame and Zabuza, they were wearing cloaks. Black cloaks with red clouds.”
“So?”
“The Akatsuki,” Naruto said, “I've only heard bits and pieces,” he did as he carefully skirted around the truth. “But they are dangerous, way more than the sum of their members. Konoha is doing this out of fear, not because they don't care for the treaty.”
“They are taking you from me!” Mei told him heatedly, Naruto closing his eyes.
“I know,” he said, “And yet... Damn it. I can't do anything about that. I just... all I can do is do everything I can for Kiri. I will hound the Hokage until he makes amendments for this.”
“And me?” Mei asked, driving home the point that pained Naruto the most. It wasn't about the Mizukage, it was about Terumi Mei, the woman. And what the hell was he going to do there? What kind of reassurances or comfort could he give her?
“I don't know,” he said, meeting her eyes and seeing the pain in there before he moved in for another kiss. One last night. It seemed like that was all that would come out of this. Almost as suddenly as it had come to be it would end. Minato would have a lot to answer for. If there was one thing Naruto looked forward to it'd be raking the man across the coals for this. For now though, he just held the woman he irrationally loved so much, held her as he built memories to last him after this, memories where he tried not to include her tears.