Eroninja

Important Please Read: The below contains a spoiler so if you don’t want to know skip ahead. But Please be aware of the warning that was added to this chapter.

*Spoiler Contained in below note***

Author’s Note: Hello everyone well for most people that have followed this far they know an Author’s note usually means something. If you checked the warnings tag you’ll also have noticed a new one for this chapter. For those that didn’t there is going to be a scene where a character is taken against her will. It is the one that starts off the chapter if you must know. The reason for this note is to warn people as I said I would back when people were stating that Eroninja was getting too dark. I said there was a chapter where it would seem even darker and this is it. I’ll admit to being rather uncomfortable with this scene, but in the end still felt it necessary to add for various reasons. I’ll go into them in an author’s note at the end.

***Spoiler Ends**

Taji was breathing hard as she leapt through the trees located on the ANBU Black Op exam course. The sun had long since set, and most of the other hopefuls that had been getting in some last minute training had gone home in order to rest before the exam that was scheduled to last two days due to the number of hopefuls, and was being held over the weekend. She however was continuing to push herself since her group’s timeslot to take the exam was rather late in the afternoon. She saw the final section of the course and prepared her kunai to hit the targets spread about the area. Despite the darkness, she let them fly having done the course so many times that she almost didn’t need to see the targets anymore, but would do her little good tomorrow as the targets would be changed and booby traps added.

She didn’t spend time to look if she hit them since she was confident that during the day it wouldn’t be an issue, and because she had only a handful of moments left before the time she needed to complete the course in would end. The timer on her watch went off causing her to curse under her breath since until she finished the points she had already accrued would be subtracted. She put on a final burst of speed finding that her tank was just about empty considering the number of attempts she had already made.

She cleared her mind to ignore the burning feeling in her legs, but despite her success in disregarding her physical pain. She couldn’t stop herself from fearing that much like had been the case since awakening from the coma that she had been in since being attacked by Tobi. She would fall just short of succeeding in the ANBU exams as she had in every exam since awakening as a result of the Chakra Pulse that had appeared. In her first attempt, she had fallen well short as she had refused to wait to take the test, and while in the second she had improved quite a bit, the subsequent attempts failed to yield much better results, but were close enough to passing to keep her motivated.

Taji heard the second beep of her watch which told her that based on her score in the previous run-through she would have failed. She didn’t let it get her down too much, aware that even an ANBU in peak condition should have had difficulty completing the course in time not to be penalized on one attempt. Being on her third, she felt a bad time could be excused.

She knew she probably shouldn’t be pushing herself so hard the day before, but couldn’t help it as it had become the one goal that she almost needed to attain. As while she had easily regained her rank as a Jounin, it hadn’t been enough to fill the emptiness she had felt since coming out of her coma. For Taji, becoming ANBU again was important because it was the one thing from her life before her coma that she could actually reclaim. Before that horrible day, she had been a young woman of twenty-three with a finance that she was madly in love with and her whole life ahead of her. Then in the course of a second everything went dark and she awoke sixteen years later with nothing. The man she had loved naturally had moved on with his life and had married Taji’s best friend. They had said what had happened to her was what brought them together, yet sometimes she couldn’t help but wonder was if it had just cleared the way for them. She knew it was wrong to suspect as much since she had no proof. But she couldn’t help feeling bitter, since she had checked the visitor logs of the coma ward that she had been kept in and found that within a few months both had stopped visiting. She had never brought it up; mainly as she was sure they would already have some sort of excuse ready. Besides which, it was abundantly clear to her that her presence made them both uncomfortable. Whether it was guilt or just a difficultly to reconnect, Taji wasn’t able to say as shortly after awakening she had stopped visiting something which both her former fiancé and friend seemed fine with as they made no effort to contact her.

That was why she needed to regain the title of ANBU. It was the only thing left that she could have back from her youth that had made her content. Although, if she was honest with herself she doubted that even that would fill the empty feeling she had been left with since finding out the love of her life had waited a few months before moving on. Still, she figured it was better than living as a forty-one year old woman who had missed her peak.

Landing on the branch of the last tree before the goal line, she wobbled a little as her foot hit what felt like some kind of vine. She frowned, not remembering such a thing from her numerous times running the course. She didn’t even have time to ponder what it could be before it wrapped around her ankle pulling her back. Before she fell to the ground though more vines wrapped around her wrists and remaining ankles. Being held suspended in the air, she tried to catch sight of what the vines were attached to. She looked over her shoulder as she felt it was behind her, but all she could see was the vines leading into the darkness. She saw a fifth appear and began to struggle against the thick plant like tendrils wrapped around her wrists and ankles, yet suspended as she was couldn’t gain enough leverage to pull free of one.

She began to panic and looked back to see the progress of the new vine-like tendril, but could simply see that it had reached her having lost sight of the tip. She then felt it slid between her legs causing her to try and close them but the vines easily held her open. She looked down and saw the tip of the dark green tendril appear between her legs. It then angled up almost like a snake would while climbing up her body as it slipped beneath her shirt. She could feel the plant like texture of it as it moved over her skin leaving her with a sense of revulsion, especially as it passed between the valley of her breasts by slipping under her sports bra.

She felt the tip touch the bottom of her chin as it appeared through the high collar of the Jounin Uniform that she wore, but then it pulled away from her body. The vine ripped open her vest, shirt, and bra leaving her naked front exposed to the night sky. Out of instinct she fought against the other vines’ grip to cover herself, but they easily held her in place as the fifth angled towards her face. She focused on it wearily like it was a viper that was about to strike and could see a slit on the tip making the end of the vine appear almost like the end of a man’s phallus. She then saw a clear liquid begin to appear at the tip like some pre-ejaculate causing her eyes to go wide as she felt a sense of horror at what she suspected was about to happen.

“No!” she shouted in revulsion, “Someone…gak…”

Her cry was silenced as the tendril buried itself in her mouth and without any sense of consideration halfway down her throat. She gagged as the vine roughly abused her throat working itself back and forth. She tried to bite down but couldn’t due to its girth. The breath burned in her lungs as she couldn’t breathe due to the assault until the vine began to pull back. When it exited her throat, she gasped in air but began sputtering as it released some fluid inside her mouth. She spit out the fluid as best she could as the head of it was still buried past her lips, as a result she did end up swallowing some of it.

To Taji’s shock as her brain began to process the flavor it quickly concluded that she had never tasted anything as good, as whatever the vine had released had an extremely sweet flavor to it. It also she found caused her to feel a sense of euphoria as it created a powerful sense of desire in her. Her medical training immediately informed her that she had been slipped a powerful aphrodisiac as the vines release caused her body to display signs of arousal. She tried to fight it telling herself that it was being medically induced, but despite that she couldn’t help desiring to taste more of the sweet nectar.

The Vine remained motionless in her mouth almost as if it could sense her dilemma. She prepared to bite down on it aware that doing so might release more of the nectar, but she wanted to hurt the creature that had already violated her. But before she could act, she suddenly moaned as the body of the vine still between her legs pressed firmly into her pubic mound. The tentacle slipped free of her lips as it then retracted. It slid down her body and then hooked the front of her pants as it retreated ripping them away as well.

Taji began moving in earnest as she knew what to expect next, and began yelling for someone to help. She stiffened as she felt the head of the vine press against her pussy which despite her feelings on what was happening to her, was wet and inviting for the invasion of the plant like phallus. She yelled out which ended in a strangled sounding moan as the vine penetrated her. Just as before it paid little heed to her comfort as it violated her pumping itself inside roughly.

Taji’s screams were silenced as a new vine appeared in front of her face from overhead and buried itself down her throat. Her world exploded into another sense of euphoria as the vine attacking her womb released more nectar inside of her. Her body betrayed her wishes as it exploded into a powerful orgasm which grew stronger as the vine roughly fucking her mouth exploded as well. Taji swallowed it down getting carried away on a liquid high that she could only equate to a powerful opium. In order to experience more, if only to escape the reality of her situation her tongue began to circle around the vine that had ceased abusing her throat as it felt her pink muscles running around.

She felt a third vine press against her anus, but lost to the world as she was she barely tensed as it pushed inside and began pumping in tandem with the one working her pussy. No longer fighting, she moaned around the plant-like tentacle in her mouth as her womb received more of the nectar even as her ass also received an injection of it. The vine in her mouth retracted before spraying her face as she wailed from the powerful explosion of pleasure that was being forced upon her over and over again. It quickly retook its place in her mouth as it joined its fellows in violating the woman.

Taji, despite having never known such heights of pleasure and retreating from the world as a part of her simply prayed it was all a bad dream brought about from watching too many horror movies, showed her emotional pain as a continuous stream of tears that leaked from her eyes. The vines that had been holding her arms and wrists sensing her lack of resistance let go and instead began to further have their way with her as they squeezed her breasts or switched with the ones that had already enjoyed one of her orifices. She hung in the air limply as the assault went on for ages as far as Taji knew, not that she was truly aware.

The vines eventually set her down in the grass almost gently like a lover would. Not that she could tell the difference as she shivered while covered in the nectar and her own essence like a junkie going through withdrawal. Taji barely aware watched the vines hover over her, but sensing the creature they were connected to was approaching, she turned her head towards where they extended from the darkness.

The monster didn’t live up to what her imagination had conjured as a naked woman walked towards her. Taji could see the vines all joined together upon reaching the woman as their point of origin which was the woman’s quim. The vines began retracting inside of her as she slowly stepped closer to reveal a face that everyone in the village would recognize as it bore an almost identical appearance to the Hokage. Her skin though was a pale white with a green tinge that was also seen in her blonde hair.

Taji could tell from the woman’s dark eyes though that it wasn’t the woman that most people claimed was the most powerful kunoichi to ever take up the profession. The ones watching her now held none of the genuine care that were often reflected in the Hokage’s honey brown eyes as she worked diligently in the hospital even while performing her duties as Hokage. It was further reflected as the woman said coldly, “Now that you’ve experienced some release my dear. Perhaps you can help me to feel the same?”

After what she had just suffered through and witnessed, Taji couldn’t imagine things becoming much worse. However, her eyes were pulled to the woman’s groin as a slight movement caused her gaze to focus there. She couldn’t understand why at first, but then she noticed how the woman’s clit seemed to be pulsing as if growing. It then suddenly shot forth growing until she had a large erection standing proudly from her body. The woman moaned as she reached down to give her engorged cock a light stroking as she approached.

Taji tried to force her legs closed as the woman knelt between them, but she was still too weak to move. The woman sensing her desire to resist said in a soothing voice that was no reflected in her eyes, “Just relax. I’m going to give you a gift, and all you need to do is accept me into you.”

“N…no…ahhhh” Taji moaned before the woman pushed her phallus inside of her regardless.

Still overly sensitive, and under the effects of the nectar that was already inside her, Taji couldn’t stop herself from moaning as the woman slid her appendage within her. She tried to push her off, but the former Anbu couldn’t muster the strength as she also had to fight her bodies desire to clutch onto her as she continued to feel pleasure from the woman’s actions. Taji could see her attacker was enjoying her act of violation as she continued to force-feed her cock into the medic’s passage.

Taji’s cries mixed with the pleasure filled ones of her attackers. This left her with a sense of disgust in her body’s reaction to what was happening which she knew a consoler would tell her she didn’t deserve. The woman placed her hands on Taji’s breasts to push her torso away in order to try and push her appendage deeper against the entrance of the medic’s womb. Taji felt the woman swell inside her, but no longer could muster the strength to resist.

She let out a weak sounding, “no…” moments before she felt her core get pumped full of a warm liquid. It forced Taji to experience another orgasm against her will causing her to shiver and sob as the woman pulled out of her.

“Shh, it’s alright,” the woman said the soothing tone being far more insulting then if she had openly mocked her. “You’ll be thanking me soon enough. But, you’ve gone and dirtied my little addition so why don’t you use your mouth to clean it.”

To Taji’s surprise she climbed up to her knees almost immediately. She placed her mouth against the tip of the phallus that had violated her and then swallowed it in order to fulfil the command she had been given. The woman tried to understand what was happening to her as she began to eagerly take to her task feeling a sense of pleasure that she believed was stemming from the woman she was servicing. The woman buried her hands into Taji’s hair bunching it up roughly as she began to forcibly fuck her mouth.

Taji, despite the pleasure coursing through her and the appearances to the contrary, only wished for the horror that had befallen her to end. She felt the woman swell in her mouth, and then was forced to swallow her release. It didn’t taste anywhere near as flavorful as the nectar that she had been forced to swallow earlier. After Taji had swallowed her load the woman let go of her head causing Taji to turn away and begin coughing it up, but she tensed as she heard the woman say, “Now, I think I will help myself to that cute little asshole.” To Taji’s shock, she simply presented her ass to the woman who then crouched behind her. She felt the woman begin pressing the head of her phallus against her rosebud and tensed as she felt it begin to part in order to allow her back inside…

*****

Taji sat up in her bed with her skin covered in a cold sweat. She felt a sense of confusion as she began to wonder if everything had just been a dream. She frowned as it had felt extremely real, but she didn’t feel any of the telltale signs that she had been attacked, nor used against her will. In fact, Taji felt much better than she had in a long while. She did find it strange that she had gone to sleep in the nude, but figured that perhaps she had just been too tired to bother with getting redressed as she could tell she had recently showered.

Looking at the clock she saw that she was up before even the extremely early time that she had set for her alarm and couldn’t remember the last time she had done so. In fact, most days it was a struggle for her to bother getting out of bed. Having a good feeling about the day’s exam, she stood to get ready. She headed for the bathroom and began brushing her teeth. But as she looked in the mirror, she saw that despite how good she felt something was amiss as her eyes still appeared red and bloodshot as if she had been crying. She again wondered if her dream had been more than it had seemed, but found that the details were fading as one would normal expect.

She shrugged confident it was just her nerves getting the best of her, but by the time she finished the gesture she couldn’t recall what had been bothering her. Instead, she simply felt excited and confident the proctors would be surprised at how well she performed in the ANBU exam.

****

Mai walked down the stairs from her room to the living room of the villa. Despite having heard the sounds that let her know that she would once more be coming upon the sight of Naruto in the midst of making love, she pressed on. This time though she felt a sense of curiosity about who it was moaning contently due to what she had learned about how the blond man had relationships with a considerable number of women who were spread throughout the Shinobi World. Still, that had hardly been the most shocking revelation that Konan had revealed to her. That honor belonged to it being Bora that had murdered her grandfather who had been the previous village leader.

Mai had quickly dismissed the accusation, finding it easy to believe that Konan had made it up in order to cause her to turn against her village leader. But, due to how the blue haired woman had simply shrugged before moving on, it had forced the brunette to consider the idea further rather than dig in her heels in and argue against the idea. She therefore admitted to herself that just as she could see it clearly that Bora would cut her loose to protect himself and his information gathering operation, she could see him removing obstacles to his rise in power by any means necessary. Her grandfather had refused to accept the idea that had been floating around prior to his death that they abandon their shinobi heritage to take advantage of how people wanted to visit their village in droves. Naturally, Mai had been suspicious about the details of his death, particularly as shortly after it, Bora had announced that they would be opening their village up to tourists. However, she had come to accept that she might have been wrong as her grandfather and his advisors had been killed on his way to visit the Daimyo, a person that had been a good friend. That suspicion had returned when the Daimyo had stepped down in favor of Bora, but by then Yugakure’s economy had been booming so the Daimyo claiming he believed Yugakure’s leader could do the same for the country was easy to believe. Not to mention the immediate reaction by the neighboring countries that had nearly resulted in a war made it easy for Bora to distract people from the truth.

For Mai, although she had heard the rumors that Bora had likely blackmailed his predecessor, she had not wanted to believe them since her grandfather had seen the man almost as family so didn’t want to believe he could have secrets which could be exploited. But hearing Konan explain how she had overheard Bora admitting to killing her grandfather, had again forced her to accept the idea that her grandfather’s friend has likely been blackmailed into luring him and those opposed to Bora out of the village in order to eliminate them.

Mai had wondered why it was that everything appeared so clear to her now, which was when Konan had explained that was the power of people who were good at corrupting those around them. She had explained her own history in regards to Akatsuki’s slow decent into darkness, and how before she knew it they had lost their way. How it had been like a shinobi who would sit in darkness to let their eyes adjust to it, but in time they had lost their perspective of that darkness. She had then told her how it had been Naruto that had been the light that had illuminated the darkness surrounding her, and thus exposing it to her gaze again.

Konan having said her piece stood and had handed over the recorder. Mai immediately had opened it to destroy the tape, but found it empty. She had then demanded that they honor their bargain which had caused the woman to smile as she had informed her that there never had been a tape. Konan had explained that Naruto never intended to blackmail her. He had just wanted to expose her to the feeling of helplessness that the victims of her village also likely felt while being under Bora’s thumb.

Konan had then left the room, and Mai imagined that she had likely joined Naruto and Chun-li in the room downstairs. Mai hadn’t budged from where she had sat after finding Konan in her room as she reflected on her having slowly abandoned the principles that her grandfather had instilled in her. She reached up to the necklace that she had worn and had been one of the lavish gifts that Bora had favored her with. She ripped it free of her chest as the gold felt like it was burning her skin now, and tossed it into a corner. That was when the tears began to fall as she was hit with the realization that she had sold something far more valuable than her body to Bora’s ambition, her warrior’s soul. Eventually, she had slumped on her bed as the sense of guilt and revulsion she held for herself had drained her. She had just awoken with the time being close to noon and felt no better than when she had fallen asleep and so had decided to join the other occupants of the house.

Stepping into the living room her eyes had grown wide despite having expected the sight that had greeted her. This was because the normally reserved Chun-li was riding Naruto’s cock as they sat in the center of a large couch. Chun-li was wearing a robe, with her long hair out of her typically buns. She was clutching to him tightly as she rolled her hips back and forth quickly as she moaned softly into his ear which she kissed and nibbled on. Naruto’s hands were gripping Chun-li’s butt as she glided over his lap.

The scene seemed even more unreal as Konan was siting calmly drinking a cup of tea dressed only in a robe as well, while Ayame was humming contently as she cooked lunch dressed only in an apron. Konan noticing Mai’s presence looked away from the attached couple to smile softly while she said, “Good afternoon Mai. Although, I don’t imagine you enjoyed a restful night.”

Mai tried to ignore the fact that her fellow Yugakure kunoichi was riding a man like her life depended on it just a few feet away as she replied, “That’s putting it mildly.”

“Cumming!!!”

Mai looked over surprised by the sudden outburst as Chun-li leaned back as far as the arms wrapped around Naruto’s neck would let her as she climaxed. Naruto’s face mirrored the ecstasy on his newest lover’s face making it apparent that he was pumping her full of the seed which Konan had informed her had bound her friend to the man. Chun-li pulled herself back against him as she began smothering his face in quick and light kisses. She then placed one on his lips that quickly deepened to the point where Mai suspected that they would start up again.

Konan apparently thought the same as she cleared her throat before suggesting, “Now that we’ve been joined by Mai perhaps it would be best if we discuss how to proceed from here.”

Chun-li let out a disappointed sigh, but rather than remove herself from her lover, she simply spun on his lap. She then leaned back while draping her arm around Naruto’s neck. Mai blushed as although her fellow Yugakure kunoichi’s robe was preventing her from seeing where they were connected, the kunoichi’s top was hanging open showing off her glistening sweat covered breasts and hardened nipples. Chun-li made no move to cover them while Mai took a seat in the remaining chair.

Ayame continued to cook while as the remaining occupants of the room sat in an awkward silence as they searched for a way to begin. Konan was the first as she stated to Mai, “I suggest we start with you airing any questions or doubts you might have about what I explained last night.”

Mai’s gaze drifted to two the connected lovers and having a hard time picturing her friend acting in such an unreserved manner, although she wasn’t sure if Chun-li still thought of her in such terms, asked with a note of concern for her fellow kunoichi, “How can I know that Chun-li wasn’t already under your sway before she returned? You’ve proven that you’re rather adapt at creating scenes to make people act as you wish.”

Naruto smiled as he heard the concern for Chun-li’s wellbeing before asking, “I’m not sure why that matters.”

Chun-li smirked as she asked, “She was spying on us as I gave myself to you. She likely thinks it might be a ploy to make her consider the same.”

Mai blushed as among some of the dreams that she had experienced the night before. The few that were pleasant did feature her enjoying the cock her fellow Yugakure kunoichi had. Her cheeks colored further as Naruto gave her an appraising look as if he was wondering if she was some kind of voyeur. Deciding it didn’t matter he replied, “You don’t have any assurances. As Konan has explained to you, the Binding gives me the ability to control her. But, if I was going to go such a route wouldn’t it be better for me to make you believe we haven’t formed such a bond. That way when we entrapped you, you very likely would have turned to her unaware that she was already under my sway. Of course, I would like to point out that this avenue is one that requires a lot of effort on my part when I could have just continued to hold out on giving you information until Bora suggested you give me a happy ending. I could have then tried to seduce you into sleeping with me and bound you to me that way.”

Mai inclined her head stating, “Point taken.” Looking down from the shame she now felt, she asked, “So then why not let me bind myself to you? It would have been a fate of my own making.”

She kept her gaze averted as he answered, “Well because I don’t really know you. I can’t say I would be willing to share my life and ambition with a person that I don’t know. Furthermore, if I bind you to me against your will, then I would be no different than Kanji. All he did was bind women to him against their wills. He also gave me just enough information to hang myself with. He wanted me to become just like him. The women that are with me are my partners, not just items I’ve collected to expedite my ambition along.”

Mai looked up to see similar looks of contentment adorning the faces of the women connected to Naruto, due to his words. She could easily understand why such a man would attract Chun-li’s devotion as she knew most shinobi while they might be attracted to the strengths of the kunoichi they were interested in. Most simply saw that strength as something that would be passed onto their children, which was why most kunoichi were pressured to retire after starting a family. She could hear the sincerity in Naruto’s voice as he described his lovers as being equal partners, which she imagined was why they wholeheartedly supported him in his ambition.

“Aren’t you afraid that without binding me. that I might at some point betray you?”

“No,” Naruto said quickly.

“Why not?”

“Mainly because how Bora went about recruiting you to his side,” Naruto answered. He paused as his face scrunched up for a moment, which coupled with the pleased look of the woman sitting on his lap made Mai suspect her friend was giving him a massage of her own. She began to squirm a little in his lap, prompting Naruto to put his hands on her thighs to make her settle down. He then explained, “If you were in it simply for money or power then Bora wouldn’t have gone to such great lengths to hide the truth from you. Also, you seemed rather hesitant when you gave me that… happy ending. It felt more like something you had convinced yourself needed to be done for the good of your village, rather than for personal enrichment.” Mai’s gaze focused on Naruto’s blue eyes which shown only with kindness as he continued, “Lots of good people have been led astray of their beliefs through committing actions they might find personally detestable, but convinced themselves that they are necessary for some greater good. Bora used that while pointing to all the good that his way of doing things have brought about. Our trick with the recorder was just to remind you of the reasons why you were against it originally. Yugakure might be benefitting now, but your actions are creating fear and hatred that might eventually consume the village.”

“Not to mention the personal costs to our pride as shinobi of the village,” Chun-li added with a slightly breathless voice.

“I’ve sold my pride,” Mai said bitterly ashamed of herself.

“No,” Naruto said quickly, “Your pride in your village is what he used to trick you into doing his bidding. Without it, he would simply have brought you over to his side. You ask me why I can trust you with my secrets without binding you, well it is simple. I know you are a good person. Your first question for me was to ascertain whether your friend was truly herself. Even now I can see the disappointment that you are feeling in yourself for being roped into Bora’s scheme. That pride which he relied on to trick you is going to be the thing that causes him to lose his grip on this village.”

“What makes you so sure?”

Naruto chuckled before letting out a small groan as Chun-li’s inner muscles massaged his pole buried inside her. He smirked up at his newest lover before answering, “Because I think of Bora as being a bit like a magician. Now that you see the illusion he cast he is powerless. Moreover, he has no idea that it has been dispelled leaving you in a position to be the kunai pressed against his neck.”

“To what benefit of yours?” Mai asked skeptically, and was surprised when the blond man smiled at her. It prompted her to ask, “What’s so amusing?”

Naruto shook his head as he replied, “Nothing, it’s just that I’m glad to see you’ve grown. It would be rather easy I imagine accepting any deal that hurt Bora considering what you’ve learned. Yet, you now realize that just because someone presents you with what appears to be a good deal it doesn’t mean there aren’t ulterior motives behind it.”

Mai wasn’t sure why Naruto’s words made her happy in the same way she would have felt had it come from her grandfather. Yet, she quickly put a lid on those feelings as she said, “You didn’t answer my question though.”

“I suppose I didn’t,” Naruto said his voice sounding strained. She noticed that Chun-li’s brow was also furrowed as if she was in deep concentration, but Mai suspected it was to stop from moaning as she doubted she was as idle as she appeared, and was still massaging Naruto’s cock using her inner muscles. “The most obvious benefit would be to remove a threat to my Family’s ambition. I’m sure Konan explained what those are to you.” Mai nodded, but she doubted Naruto noticed as his attention was quickly growing divided. “Well… it should be fairly obvious how a village that is blackmailing people into acting against their better character could pose a problem for our goals to move forward. For example, what if agents tied to my ambition are negotiating a treaty we believe will bring people closer together with a person Bora is blackmailing. And let’s say Bora offers up to a group that opposes the treaty a means to ensure it fails. Well even if the person being blackmailed wants to sign the treaty more often than not they are probably going to succumb to the blackmail.”

“You can’t know that,” Mai said quickly. “If what you are offering is such a better deal this fictional example might choose what is for the good of all concerned, not just for him or herself.”

“Very true,” Naruto said now eyeing Chun-li’s exposed breasts like he wanted to fondle them. But he tore his gaze away to counter, “There are after all many factors we would have to consider. The example I gave only contained one possible outcome. Let’s just say for arguments sake that our blackmail victim does decide to go along with the treaty regardless of personal cost. Then all Bora would need to do is reveal what he has on the person to call his character into question. People will begin to question whether the treaty he signed is really for their wellbeing or not. In that scenario everything the person being blackmailed touches is called into question. Not to mention, for my example I would be willing to bet that before Bora even offered to step in he would have insured that the person he was going to lean on had already buckled before. Perhaps by giving them a task that might on the surface seems rather benign, but can have larger consequences down the road. For instance, an executive of a powerful food supplier being blackmailed into giving Hot Spring Country sweetheart deals on the food Yugakure uses to make some of the extravagant meals it serves its guests.”

A look of surprise appeared on Mai’s face as she wondered how Naruto knew of her involvement in that particular instance. But, she quickly realized he hadn’t as he noticed her look of guilt despite the pussy massage he was receiving from her fellow Yugakure kunoichi. Her gaze had shifted to Konan to see that she had noticed it as well. She expected them to call her out on it, but to her surprise neither did. “I’m sure the idea of targeting him was presented as a way to improve the lives of Hot Spring Country’s citizens. It has also likely done exactly that as I’ve heard how many of the newest and most talented chefs call Hot Spring home. But in this case it has also made life harder for other countries as they have to pay more for normal goods to offset the costs of the discounted items this country receives.”

Mai aware of that fact nevertheless countered, “So what are you saying that we should suffer so others can live better lives in our place?”

“No, but did Hot Spring truly earn its right to this deal?” Mai frowned from Naruto’s words as she was quite aware of the methods that had been used to gain the advantage her home was currently enjoying. “I heard about this particular case as a person close to me has been stepping into the various trade markets. She noticed how in certain markets food prices were being gouged, particularly nations similar to Hot Spring Country. The Land of Water for example has to import most of its food stuffs. For a bushel of rice they tend to have to pay three times as much as Hot Springs when in the past the price your two lands would have paid were similar. Hot Spring’s still paid slightly less, but that was mainly due to the transportation costs. We were able to trace the sudden dramatic price shift to just after a particular CEO visited here. It didn’t take a huge stretch of the imagination for us to figure out why.”

Mai look downcast as she asked, “If it was so easy for you, then why has no one else issued such a charge against us?”

“Well for one,” Naruto said leaning back in the couch as he resisted the urge to start pumping his hips into the woman still wrapped around his dick, “They don’t have the knowledge of the Enticement touch that we do. While more than one slip up can be contributed to people staying here, I doubt anyone realizes just how effective that jutsu would be at extracting information. Plus, I doubt Bora blackmails every high level person he has gained dirt on. It’s probably sitting in a file somewhere waiting for the right moment to use it. As for more tactical information, well he probably disseminates that through various sources that are difficult to trace back to him. Certain high powered groups might know he is the spider at the center of this information web, but they are likely using him as a source of information for their own purposes so would not wish to see him removed.”

Naruto couldn’t resist so flexed his cock inside his newest lover causing her to moan. Mai looked away as her cheeks colored from the sound as the man said, “But, the other reason is because a lot of companies followed this CEO’s example. They saw he was getting that higher rate so they raised their prices on the Land of Water and similar countries as well. As such the other reason people might not have noticed this CEO’s strange actions was because it appeared he was just leading the charge. However, it is becoming apparent as now his company is being hurt by this marketing strategy.”

What do you mean?” Mai asked as she noticed Chun-li squirming on Naruto’s lap with the blond no longer stopping her. Figuring that Naruto hadn’t heard her as he was getting lost in the feeling of his lover’s subtle movements, she rephrased it her question, “If other companies were following his examples why would it be hurt now?”

“Well…um…” Naruto said trying to remember his place as Chun-li began sliding back and forth on his lap.

Luckily Konan stepped in stating, “Recently, in an effort to move our ambition into the Land of Water we’ve progressed to the point where we are competing against some of these companies. We were coming in with pricing much closer to and less than what they were original paying. As you can imagine, this has steered quite a bit of business to us. It forced a lot of our competition to drop their prices as well, but one company stubbornly refuses to do so. Thus they are losing market share there and in similar markets. I don’t think I need to explain to you which company.”

Mai shook her head so asked, “Still, how can we compete against Bora? All those of us that would stand against him have to offer is returning Yugakure to being a poor minor shinobi village. There are very few people that would willingly trade in the riches that they’ve amassed under him to return to that.”

Naruto groaned in pleasure, but focused his full attention on Mai to state, “That’s something you’ll have to determine. Bora took the easy path and lined people’s pockets while stating that his path was benefiting Yugakure. It’s up to you to try and show your people that this path is a destructive one and not just from a moral perspective.”

“How so?”

It was Chun-li that answered in a pleasure filled breathless tone as she stated, “T…think about it…Mai. One day Bora might blackmail the wrong person, or learn a secret that someone would destroy the village rather than chance it getting out. Who would… mmm… we be able to turn to in such a situation if we alienate all our neighbors? How many people are plotting against us now to get from under….oh…Bora’s thumb?”

Mai bit her lips as she did realize that in a lot of cases eventually the Blackmailer ended up being dealt with as the fear that kept a person in line turned to anger and desperation. “But honestly what can we do? Even if we get a majority of the village behind us do you really think Bora will just hand over control? It’s probably going to come down to a fight one way or the other so why not just settle it now?”

Naruto responded as he said, “Because what is at stake is more than about who is calling the shots. It’s about changing people’s minds so they want to follow you. With the power of my lovers at my side, I have little doubt we could seize control of this village. But all that would do is create hatred and resentment. They would view it as us imposing our standards onto Yugakure. They might act as we dictate that they should, but they would use the first chance they had to remove us. If you want to change the village then you and your allies need to inspire them to want to follow. That is the only true way to return your home to a right and proper path.”

“B…but where do we begin?”

Naruto smiled before replying, “That I don’t know. However, for now since today is my last day here. Let’s just use it to relax and enjoy ourselves. Yugakure didn’t lose sight of itself in a single day and we aren’t going to solve the problem in one either.”

Mai stood as she said, “I don’t imagine you’ll be needing my services then. Would you mind if I spent the time alone?”

Naruto frowned as he said, “Actually I would. I don’t intend for you to face the task before you alone. You can count my Family and I as your allies. We’ll definitely find a way to remind your village of the pride they felt as shinobi. J…just give me…a minute and…”

Chun-li raised her legs and put her feet on the couch as she began rising and lowering her pussy over the cock buried inside her. “It’ll take much longer than a minute I hope,” she moaned.

Konan smiled at the display as Naruto reached up to begin fondling the woman’s breasts as he began pumping his rod inside her to meet her movements. Focusing on Mai, who was blushing madly now she said, “What Naruto was trying to say is that, you are not alone so we should spend the day getting to know each other better. Our lives are now in each other hands. Perhaps, while Naruto and Chun-li continue to express their feelings for each other you and I can help Ayame finish preparing lunch.”

Mai looked at the woman cooking and nodded. She followed Konan to the kitchen area walking in front of the couch where her friend and her lover were fucking wildly. She paused for a moment feeling her pussy begin to moisten as she watched his long shaft repeatedly slam into Chun-li to her fellow brunette’s delight. Getting ahold of herself, she quickly joined the other two women in preparing lunch while trying to ignore the contented moans coming from a few feet away. It was difficult to do especially as Chun-li screamed in release before sagging against her lover just before they finished setting the table. Mai watched as after being called to eat, her friend stood and approached with her robe in disarray and with an extremely pleased smile on her lips. The only unbound woman also had a difficult time ignoring the semen leaking from her freshly fuck snatch as her friend walked almost drunkenly to the table. She sat with them letting out a gratified sigh before stating, “I’m starving.”

Mai began laughing along with the other two women as Naruto on the other hand spent a few moments adjusting his robe before joining them at the table. When he did, he smiled warmly at all present while he waited for the laughter to die down. It did eventually, but after filling up their plates there was more to be had causing the burden Mai felt at trying to take back Yugakure’s soul to lessen as she recalled how the friendly atmosphere she was currently enjoying was similar to how she used to remember the village. From that feeling, and much like how a taste of a particular food could bring back strong memories, she was confident that if she could make her fellow villagers remember those warm feelings of her grandfather’s era. It would help remind them that although they had been poorer back then, their existence hadn’t seemed as meaningless as they currently did.

She watched Naruto interact with his three lovers and could begin to see what it was that had drawn them to him. Recalling Konan stating how Naruto had served to illuminate the darkness that had surrounded her, she also likened his presence as being that of a warm fire on a cold night as she felt drawn to warm herself with the same fire that Chun-li had. She felt her body flush as she pictured herself entangled with the man in a similar manner, but quickly got ahold of herself. But as the day progressed and her troubles began to fade for the time being, she found that the fire of desire that had been lit for the blond simply grew hotter.

*****

Kushina landed on the ground after leaping from the tree branch she had landed on moments before. She rolled forward so as not to lose any forward moment and was smoothly back on her feet seconds later. She frowned seeing the backs of several men in front of her so began to push herself harder to catch up. Her eyes caught the glint of a wire seconds before the leader of the pack that she was chasing stepped on it. Moments later the area was peppered with senbon that most of the men managed to avoid, but several took hits and almost immediately began to move as if they were drugged.

She slowed down as the sight was a reminder that the Anbu exam wasn’t just meant to be finished quickly, but required a shinobi’s full attention to even complete it. Being careful not to step on any of the senbon now imbedded in the ground, she leapt to the trees as soon as the foliage permitted her to.

She smiled as she saw one of the men look back and his eyes widened as he saw her gaining ground. She let her smile take on a slightly more menacing air as the ANBU hopeful had made the mistake of suggesting that she was too old to be participating, since as he put it, the ANBU division only accepted the best of the best. Kushina had refrained from beating the man into a bloody pulp as she would have done in her youth, but only because she wanted to have the privilege of seeing his face when she beat him to the finish. In fact, she had deliberately kept pace with him just so she could pour it on at the last moment as she barely felt winded. Then she might just beat him to a pulp for good measure.

In truth though, Kushina had no plans to accept an ANBU position as she had come around to the idea of joining Akatsuki. She had just wanted to take the exams to prove that she could have joined if she wanted. She reached an area where targets where scattered around so reaching into the pouch that she had been given to take the test and let the kunai she had fly. They were marked with the number that she had been assigned so she was sure that after they passed through the ANBU proctors scattered throughout the area would collect them and mark down her score. They also had the added duty of resetting the traps for the other groups that would be passing through the area after hers.

Kushina frowned as the person she had marked as her rival for the test didn’t look like he would be finishing at all as a tree branch sprung out and hit him across the midsection. He was knocked from the tree, but before he hit the ground a blur flew out to catch him. The proctor would likely ascertain that he was okay, but she doubted that he would be in any condition to finish the exam in the time required. With her temporary rival removed Kushina decided there was no reason to hold back any longer. She began pushing her legs harder and avoided the other traps spread throughout the area. She saw several other hopefuls get eliminated by them with one deciding the treetops were too risky so dropped to the ground only to fall into a pit filled with water. Since in most cases the bottom would have been filled with spikes she figured the person was as good as eliminated as well.

She caught up to the man that had been leading the group, but as they approached the last branch she purposefully aimed her jump lower than it. The man she had been neck and neck with didn’t and as she caught the bottom of the branch to spin forward and land on the ground, he triggered a trap that caused a ram to spring out from the trunk of the tree, and would have taken her out along with him as she had been the closer to it.

Kushina landed effortlessly with a few of the group leaping over her due to their using the sprung trap as a jumping point. Kushina could see the finish line so began running at a flat out pace to reach the end easily outpacing the supposedly best of the best hopefuls due to her stamina. Still the course wasn’t done with them yet as walls of earth began to spring out all over the place as the earth jutsu were cast by proctors. She heard an explosion behind her and figured one of the test takers had used an exploding tag to blow a hole in a dome of earth that had begun to appear as well.

Kushina easily avoid most of the obstacles but one proctor appeared to single her out as he got her timing down causing a wall to appear in front of her with almost no time to avoid it. She knew she could begin to race up it at which point she imagined the man casting it would continue to grow it in order to delay her, so instead she simply leapt straight at it. Her chakra chains appeared from her back and the sharp ends came to a point before her, she then spun similar to how an Inuzuka would causing the makeshift drill to burrow through the rock. The rock gave way effortlessly against the diamond-like hardness of her chains so that she landed on the other side.

She then skidded the final few feet as she crossed the finish line. Standing up right, she smirked triumphantly as she saw that she was the first of her group to finish the course. Yuugao stepped up to her stating, “Not bad for an old woman. You didn’t happen to catch up to the moron that called you that at some point and show him why people called you the bloody habanero did you?”

Kushina sighed vowing to get even with Mikoto for sharing her old nickname with the Family. “It turns out I didn’t need to,” Kushina said amused.

Yuugao smiled as she said, “Well I’m sure he got off lucky then. It’s a shame you don’t wish to join. Something tells me you could have done much better if you had wanted to.”

Kushina smiled before asking, “What makes you say that?”

Yuugao looked towards some of the other groups that had already run the course and passed. Kushina followed her gaze and could tell that most of them were exhausted unlike her. As if to add to the image, another group of would be ANBU crossed the finish line with one of the contenders falling to his knees as he panted for air. Commenting on her lack of exhaustion, Kushina said, “Well you know about us Uzumaki and our stamina.”

“So I’ve heard,” the ANBU captain replied. The amusement drained from her face as she asked, “But I wonder what her story is.”

Kushina’s gaze tracked where her fellow Family member was looking before landing on a woman that had crossed the finish line along with the last group. Although, she had finished around the middle of the pack, much like she figured Yuugao had seen in her, it was apparent that she could have likely done better. It took Kushina a moment to place the woman due to her appearing older than when she had last seen her, not to mention having been in the middle of giving birth to Naruto. “Taji,” she said happily, “you’re alive. I’m so happy to see you.”

Taji looked over at the red-head and smiled as she said politely, “I could say the same. I’m honored that you remember me.”

“How could I not?” the Uzumaki said a little taken aback by the distant tone the woman was using. “You helped bring my son into the world.”

Taji nodded replying, “Despite all that I lost on that night. Knowing the good that he has done does make the sacrifice easier.”

“W… what do you mean?” Kushina said taken aback. Having looked back on the records kept of the night she had read that all the members of the ANBU squad that had been tasked with protecting her as she gave birth had perished, as did Biwako Sarutobi. She had therefore assumed that Taji had simply been an oversight upon seeing her, and had figured that she was simply taking the test for fun like she was, as a lot of ex-ANBU often took part in the exams to see if they still had the skills.

Yuugao filled her in stating, “Taji survived the attack by Tobi and the explosion that he set off to lure the Fourth Hokage away from you. But she spent the following sixteen years in the coma ward. She was awakened during the first Chakra Wave that passed through the village.”

Taji smiled softly as she said, “It was quite jarring to wake up and find I had spent so much time bedridden. The world after all had moved on without me so there wasn’t much remaining of the life I had before. That’s why I’ve been training so hard to at least regain my ANBU position.”

“I’m so sorry for all that…”

“It is fine Lady Kushina,” Taji stated, “None of us could foresee the danger lurking in the shadows. It must have been equally hard on you to find out you had missed out on raising your son.”

“Yes…” Kushina admitted, but couldn’t help feeling sad for the woman since unlike her, the ANBU hopeful didn’t appear to have the same joy that she did due to the relationship she did have with Naruto as both a mother and a lover.

Yuugao stepped in stating, “Well, it is still too early to say since we still have a day of exam takers tomorrow to get through. But based on past experience I would say that based on your time alone you stand an excellent chance of making the cut. The test results will be posted in the usual place by Monday afternoon”

Taji did seem to take a small measure in satisfaction from Yuugao’s words before replying, “I hope you are right. If you’ll excuse me now I think I’ll freshen up.”

Kushina watched the woman and noticed the frown on Yuugao’s face deepen so asked, “What’s wrong? You don’t appear happy for her.”

The purple-haired woman watched the retreating medic for several more moments before answering, “She has taken the exam at every opportunity since first awakening from her coma. There was some marked improvement naturally in the beginning. But the last several times her score has been rather consistent with her just missing the cut. Either she would pass on the time required, but fail because she rushed through missing key targets. Or, she’d take her time and loss points from taking too long.”

“Well perhaps she just found the happy medium,” Kushina said. “Her time was about middle of the pack as you said, and we don’t know how well she did with the other skill assessments encountered on the course.”

Yuugao nodded, but still said feeling uneasy, “That could be the case, but every time she finished in the past you could see the exhaustion that she was feeling. This time… it almost feels like she deliberately finished where she did.”

Kushina frowned asking, “What are you suggesting?”

“Nothing at the moment,” Yuugao said, “The before and after blood samples will tell us if she took something along the lines of a food pill. If she did then she’d be disqualified. I guess I’m just worried that with regaining her ANBU position being so important to her, she might have decided to attain it by any means necessary.”

Kushina could see why Yuugao was concerned since being caught cheating in such a way would not only destroy Taji’s dream, but would also disqualify her from any future attempts at making it a reality. “She is a medic so would know that using such methods would be exposed.”

“Or how to cover up the signs,” Yuugao countered, “But people using such methods often are exposed rather quickly. It sadly also tends to lead to the rest of a squad’s demise when it happens. I think Taji would know this, which makes me wonder if perhaps she isn’t hoping to use becoming ANBU as another means to commit suicide.”

Kushina wanted to deny it, but couldn’t help trusting that whatever was making Yuugao uneasy was something worth paying attention to. Unsure of how to help the woman, she nevertheless felt that it was something that she owed her; particularly as she was sure she could show the woman that the present had just as much to offer to her as the past.

****

Yuugao walked down a hall of an apartment building as she thought about how her work week was off to a horrible start. She could see various ANBU investigators asking questions of the victim’s neighbors who were standing in their doorways as she approached the room that was the cause of the commotion. She nodded to her men standing at attention on either side of the door before entering the apartment. She saw a young woman looking pale and distraught as she answered questions being asked of her by Komachi. Her lieutenant and fellow Family member upon noticing her presence turned the task over to the man that had been recording the woman’s responses.

When Komachi approached she answered the question Yuugao had been about to ask, “Her name is Inaho. She worked with the victim in the Intelligence Division. When he failed to show up after the weekend she volunteered to go rouse him and found him in the bedroom.”

Yuugao’s gaze turned from the brown-haired woman to the place she had been informed the corpse resided. She could see Ibiki watching as the crime scene investigators gathered evidence from the mummified remains of Tanzo. Approaching the man she said, “How are you holding up?”

Ibiki didn’t let the sadness she was sure the man felt at losing a subordinate show as he said sending a concerned look towards the woman that had found Tanzo, “Better than Inaho, I imagine. Rumor had it they were sweet on each other.”

Yuugao’s gaze returned to the woman as she began to analyze her in a different light, but this time as a potential suspect. However, judging the distress and sadness the woman was giving off as being genuine she figured they would quickly be dismissing her from that list after only a cursory glance. Looking over her shoulder at Komachi she asked, “Do we have a time of death?”

Oyone a female medic-nin with short black hair looked up from her examination of the corpse stating, “A least a few days based on liver temperature. I’m afraid the method used to kill him will make nailing it down further than that impossible without a more thorough autopsy.”

“Then do we at least know when the last time he was seen alive was?”

“It was on Friday,” Inaho stated.

Ibiki nodded as he said, “I took everyone out to celebrate Tanzo’s promotion. I left rather early so I’m afraid I can’t offer much more than that.” He focused on Inaho as he said with a slight tone of admonishment, “However, we can’t be sure that was the last time he was seen alive.”

With a tone filled with jealousy Inaho said, “It was that woman that he was talking to. I’m sure of it.”

Yuugao and Komachi shared a look as the Anbu Captain asked, “What makes you so sure?”

Inaho seemed to wilt as she admitted, “I…I guess I can be mistaken. I left shortly after he began ignoring me in favor of her.” Yuugao could see that Inaho appeared rather self-conscious as she added, “I guess I can’t blame him for desiring that woman… her body alone was rather stunning.”

“Can you describe her?” Komachi asked.

“Not really,” Inaho stated with a frown, “Tanzo had gone up to the bar to refresh his drink. From where I was sitting all I could see of her face was her hair, but her clothes didn’t leave much to the imagination and she was quite voluptuous. I could also see quite a few other men were taken with her. When it became apparent Tanzou had forgotten about me…us… I just left.”

“What bar did you all visit?”

Ibiki answered Komachi’s question stating, “Seventh Heaven in the entertainment district.”

Yuugao nodded as she looked towards Komachi who again seemed to know what she was going to say, “I’ll swing by there tonight to ask the staff if they can identify her. If she is the culprit though, I doubt she’ll be a regular.”

“Right now I’ll be happy with a description,” Yuugao said feeling nervous although she didn’t let it show. Recalling Fuka’s comments how the murderer was likely building up to something big; Yuugao was forced to agree that might be the case as it appeared she was becoming bolder in selecting her targets. Not sure what she gained from killing her targets, she nonetheless feared the woman was going to stop striking from the shadows to step into the light soon enough, and with no idea as to what her goal or objective was Yuugao couldn’t be sure if they would be able to stop her.

*****

“Please sign here,” Hinata said as she handed a sheet of paper to the woman that for the past week had been playing the role of Hokage.

“What am I signing?” the henged Shizune said trusting that Hinata had already read it if she wasn’t asking her to look over it.

The Hyuuga answered, “It looks like we are going to have to push back the Chunin Exams again due to a request from Kumo. The document is to state that Konoha is in agreement. Gaara has already signed it so there isn’t much reason not to agree.”

Shizune concurred but imagined their shared lover was going to be displeased. Easily forging Tsunade’s signature she said, “Did the Raikage give a reason?”

“He states that he isn’t pleased with the three test layout that was agreed upon by the three main proctors. He feels that it relies too much on a preliminary round to make the final cut. Considering the number of participants, he feels it isn’t proper to have a one on one fight to determine the winners twice.”

Shizune frowned as she stated, “Delaying again is just going to make the number of occupants even more. We’ll probably have to open it up to more recent graduates in order to come up with an entirely new testing standard.”

Hinata nodded, but countered, “True, but I can see where he is coming from. I believe Gaara can as well. If it did breakdown as it was during my first Chunin Exams then the preliminary really isn’t all that much different than the Final Round. Therefore, the setup all but guarantees only the strongest shinobi advance. But being a chunin is more than just about brute strength. It turns out that Karui already laid out an outline for the new test, and Temari liked it as well. I’ll leave it to you to decide who was standing in the way of implementing it, at least until the Raikage put his foot down on the matter.”

Shizune smiled as she could easily picture Shikamaru not wanting to come up with a new test from scratch due to all the extra work that it would entail, especially as he was so close to being finished with the troublesome task of organizing the exams. Handing the paper to Hinata while sending a mental apology to the Nara for making his life more difficult she said, “Is there anything else?”

“Nope, you’re finished,” Hinata said and giggled as Shizune sagged in her chair in a fair approximation of her teacher.

The Hyuuga gathered up the other papers she would need to file as she prepared to leave as a knock sounded at the door. Shizune straightened as she called, “Enter.”

Ibiki stepped into the room and held the door open for Hinata who inclined her head in thanks at the gesture. Walking to the desk, Shizune waited for him to come to a rest as she said, “How can I help you Ibiki?”

Ibiki gave a stiff smile as he said, “Actually, I’m not here to visit the woman you are pretending to be. I have a request of you, Shizune.”

The Hokage’s first apprentice dropped the henge asking in surprise, “What can I do for you?”

“Well first here are the files that you requested about the terrorist group, The Eternal Sunrise.” Ibiki handed over the large stack as he continued, “Is the Hokage due back from her little getaway with Naruto soon?”

“Today actually,” Shizune said with a smile as she thought of how happy Tsunade had been when Naruto after returning from Hot Spring had surprised her by taking her to Moon Country for her birthday. Shizune knew that Tsunade had longed to visit the country due to its many casinos and beautiful beaches. But naturally trouble had followed the two blondes in the form of a terrorist group that had attacked the Royal Family. The two had acted to stop them while wearing the black and more standard shinobi clothes that the Family usually wore when acting in a manner where their involvement was meant to be kept secret. Therefore, no one currently knew that it had been Naruto and Tsunade particularly since Shizune had been pretending to be her teacher, while their lover had used a K-clone.

A quick skimming of the file that she had been handed showed Shizune that the group that had attacked the island had an almost completely different agenda then the One King Movement. Where the One King Movement sought to destroy the Shinobi Villages so that only the Daimyo would be considered the powers of the lands they ruled. The Eternal Sunrise was a group that sought to eliminate the Daimyo. They saw the daimyo as not just the cause of all the wars, but also the very reason that hated continued to spread throughout the Elemental Nations. Members of the Eternal Sunrise believed that if the Daimyo were removed it would allow a war to end all wars to be truly fought. They believed that due to the early termination of the Three Shinobi World Wars before as the Daimyo would force the villages to sue for peace after a few years of bleeding each other, as such they were under the impression that it prevented any side from achieving an absolute victory.

The members of Eternal Sunrise wanted to kick off a war that would only be settled when the true victors remained on the battlefield. They felt it was the only way that a meaningful peace could be achieved, at least for a time.

The reason Shizune had asked for Ibiki to bring her the file was because she was confident that Tsunade would be requesting it as soon as she returned. Partially to find out more about the people that had tarnished her birthday week with Naruto, but also because Tsunade had sent word back that about one of the members she had encountered was a missing-nin from Kirigakure called Mikumo Kushinada. From some of her teacher’s war stories, she knew that the woman had been one of strongest kunoichi of the Second Shinobi War. She and Tsunade had been among a trio of women that Jiraiya had often referred to as the Three Diva’s. The third had been a bloodthirsty killer from Iwagakure that had still been active up till the Third Shinobi war were she had inexplicably dropped off the face of the earth after facing the Fourth Hokage in battle. But, Shizune figured that it could just be due to the fact that the war ended soon after and the general lack of information that came out of Earth Country. Nevertheless, Shizune felt a small shiver pass through her as she recalled the tales Tsunade had told her of the smile Yachiru Unohana had worn as she cut down the men and women that had the courage to face her.

Strangely enough while she found it easy to understand why Tsunade had always spoken of the Iwa kunoichi with a note of disgust. She had always seemed to have conveyed a sense of respect when talking about Mikumo. The way her teacher had described the woman was that while she had appeared to enjoy the fighting, it was without the same bloodlust as Yachiru. Furthermore, the stronger her opponent the more Mikumo seemed to enjoy it. Tsunade had often talked about how it was hard not to get caught up in the feelings that she felt from the woman, as she also enjoyed having an opponent that could stand equal with her.

Therefore, Shizune could picture that Tsunade was rather disappointed to learn that the woman wanted to walk down a path that only led to eternal bloodshed. Placing the file in front of her so her teacher would see it as soon as she retook her seat, Shizune focused on Ibiki to ask, “How can I be of assistance to you now?”

Ibiki quickly replied, “The team that performed the autopsy on Tanzo hasn’t found anything of use to track down his killer. I’m not saying that they missed anything, but I would feel better about the results knowing an apprentice of Tsunade double checked their findings.”

Shizune smiled at the compliment as she answered, “I’ll head over to there now to see if there is anything to find.”

“I appreciate it,” Ibiki said inclining his head politely before leaving the office.

Shizune waited a few moments straightening up the desk as the smile she had put in place fell. She sighed, feeling down as she stood to attend to Ibiki’s request. The reason for her drop in mood was partially due to exactly why Ibiki had sought her out. Namely being that in most instances people simply knew her in such terms. She wasn’t sure when it had begun to bother her, but felt it was likely tied to Sakura’s skill as a medic and chakra control abilities. After all, where Shizune was known as being an apprentice, Sakura was quickly becoming known as the woman that could rival Tsunade or possibly even surpass her. Shizune did find some of her cheer returning as she knew now that her teacher was young again she had no intentions of being surpassed. A legacy really didn’t have the same meaning when a person could possibly live forever. But that just made Shizune feel more depressed as she wondered what talent set her apart from the two women. Being Tsunade’s first apprentice really didn’t have as much meaning if everyone was talking about how skilled the second was.

Shizune didn’t feel any real jealousy towards her fellow apprentice. But, instead felt more like a minor footnote in regards to the women that had been trained by Tsunade, and that left her feeling rather useless in comparison.

The gloom settling over her didn’t last long as she loved and cherished both women, so knew her feelings had to do with what she viewed as her shortcomings. She also believed the reason she was feeling particularly down was due to her spending the week as Tsunade. It was hard to miss the genuine respect that her teacher’s mere presence seemed to command from everyone. As such, Shizune who more often than not felt more like a background character had come to find she had grown rather envious of the looks that had been directed towards her in Tsunade’s place. With her teacher taking back her position, Shizune would be returned to the shadows cast by the Hokage’s sun.

Shizune reached the autopsy room and the examination of Tanzo’s corpse proceeded rather quickly as she found that examiner to have been Sukui. Aware that the brown haired woman was rather competent; she wasn’t surprised to find that there didn’t appear to be some glaring piece of evidence that was missed. “So much for making a difference as Tsunade’s apprentice,” she said disappointed in not finding something that would lead to the killer.

Closing the refrigerator that contained Tanzo’s body, Shizune decided to head to the female nurses and doctors locker room to freshen up in anticipation of Naruto’s arrival. She imagined there would be quite the frenzy in the Hidden Eddy Inn to try and spend time with him. A part of Shizune wondered if she should even bother or if she should just wait for a calmer time to spend time with her lover. Imagining that he would prefer to be with one of his more dynamic lovers she could easily see herself getting lost in the shuffle. Reaching her locker, she found the rest of the room was deserted so quickly disrobed to quickly clean up to return home.

****

Shizune was unaware that she was being watched as she stepped into the communal shower area. She stepped under one of the shower heads and after letting the water run over her for several heartbeats began soaping up her body eliciting a lust in the being watching her. When she stepped under the water to begin wetting her hair and wash away the soap, her watcher saw the moment was right to strike. Moving stealthily towards the unaware woman, he wrapped her in his arms while pressing his naked flesh against hers while saying, “Did you miss me?”

Naruto had imagined several different responses to his question, but strangely none of them were the most obvious one. Which being that a woman, who thought she was alone in a shower upon being surprised, would let out an extremely loud scream.

Shizune despite recognizing the voice was already acting on instinct so when she felt the arms around her loosening their grip, she quickly spun in them and pushed him away. Naruto stumbled back before slipping as he fell hard on his back. Shizune’s heart was running a mile a minute before it finally settled on her that the naked man lying in front of her was her lover. She quickly rushed to his side stating, “Are you insane sneaking up on me in the hospital shower? What would possess you to do such a thing?”

Naruto groaned as he replied with a chuckle, “I wanted to surprise you. But in hindsight, I can see why it was a bad idea.”

Shizune giggled feeling the doubts and concerns she had been experiencing disappearing from her lover’s smile. However, her eyes took on a look of panic as a voice called, “Shizune, are you alright we heard a scream?”

Shizune began to panic wondering where she could stash Naruto, but she watched him flash through several hand signs before disappearing from sight. She stood to see one of the nurses on duty, Otoha running up along with the woman’s whose autopsy report she had just looked over. Otoha seemed relieved when she spotted Shizune again asking, “Are you alright? It sounded like you had the life scared out of you.”

“Um…yes…” Shizune said nervously noticing Naruto’s movements because of the steam from the shower. She lost him for a moment as he cleared the vapor but saw his discarded clothes begin floating in the air.

Sukui gaze began to turn towards him so she said, “It’s just a large mouse jumped at me from out of nowhere.”

Both women began scanning the ground for the fictional rodent with Sukui stating, “Honestly, how are we supposed to make people well if the maintenance staff can’t even keep vile little disease spreaders out of the hospital?”

Shizune laughed nervously stating, “Well I don’t think I’m going to wait around for it to startle me again. I’ll leave a request for the maintenance department to lay out some traps.”

Both women nodded at the suggestion while Shizune wrapped a towel around herself. She used her fox mark to sense Naruto’s presence and found that he was just outside the hospital. Quickly getting dressed, she left the locker room and conveniently “forgot” to stop by the maintenance office.

She stepped out to enjoy the nice summer night and smiled as she didn’t need to search out her lover as he loudly shouted, “Hey Shizune. Fancy running into you out here.”

Shizune rolled her eyes at her lover’s act for the people walking near the entrance as she said teasingly, “Yes, what a surprise to find me near the hospital.”

“Aw, don’t be like that,” Naruto said with a good natured chuckle, “I’m just saying it’s nice to see you.” Shizune nodded and felt like a young girl being courted as her lover said, “I’m heading home and was hoping you were as well. I’d like the company.”

“I’d like that as well.”

The two walked side by side with Shizune mainly speaking about her day since Naruto’s couldn’t exactly admit to being in another country for the past week. Finally, reaching a portion of their walk where they were alone she asked, “How exactly did you and Tsunade get to Moon Country? I felt you teleport but when did you have time to plant a kunai there?”

Naruto smiled as he said, “Oh, I just mailed one to the agency that I was renting the beach house from. Tsunade wasn’t exactly pleased with having to sneak out of the mail room with our luggage.”

Shizune giggled as she replied, “No, I could imagine she wouldn’t be.”

Naruto smiled a few moments longer before turning serious as he asked, “Hey Shizune, you know you can tell me if something is bothering you.”

“Of course,” she said quickly, “But what could be bothering me? I’m getting to spend time with my very in demand lover.”

Naruto appeared pleased with her words, but still pressed asking, “Then what was bothering you before my disastrous attempt at being spontaneous and romantic? You looked sad about something.”

“It’s not important,” the dark-haired medic stated quickly.

Naruto quickly scooped her up before Hiraishining to a kunai that Shizune kept in her room. He set her down before turning her to face him as he said, “It didn’t look like it wasn’t important. Please tell me.” Shizune was tempted to for a moment, but resisted in favor of leaning in to kiss her lover.

She was happy when he dropped the line of questioning to instead respond to her desire to be loved. Her mouth parted and she felt his tongue slip inside to begin dancing with as their kiss deepened. Eventually their lips separated as Naruto quickly removed his jacket and shirt while Shizune simply undid her kimono. She let it fall to the floor to reveal she hadn’t bothered to put any underwear on beneath. The look of desire that Naruto wore being all the confirmation she needed to banish any insecurities she harbored about her body not matching up to some of the other women attached to him.

She walked with a sway in her hips before kissing him again, enjoying the way her breasts felt smashed up against his chest. “Let me properly welcome you home now,” she said in a sultry whisper that he was the only man to have been privileged enough to hear it. She sank to her knees happy to see that his pants were already tented. She quickly set his manhood free by pulling both his pants and boxers down. After he stepped free of them, she gave the tip of his cock a kiss before beginning to lick it.

Naruto groaned as Shizune licked just the head of his cock for several moments before running her tongue along the underside of his shaft. She then lowered her mouth to his testicles and began to suck on them as well. He tried to remain motionless, but he wanted to taste her as well so reached down and picked her up so that her pussy was right in front of his face. Easily supporting her, he began to munch on her lower lips as she wrapped her arms around his midsection so as to help ease the burden of holding her while she began eagerly sucking his cock.

Shizune pleasured what she could comfortably fit inside her mouth while moaning around his manhood due to his driving her wild with his tongue probing her insides. She felt him begin moving, and eventually found herself planted on her bed where she moaned in disappointment as he pulled his lips from her pussy and his dick from her mouth. She was then quickly spun around as Naruto turned her towards him and took up a position between her legs. She let out a loud moan as with practiced ease, he slipped inside of her wet and inviting cunnie. They both took a moment to savior the feeling of being connected before Naruto began to move inside her.

Shizune let out the fierce woman inside her that only rarely came out in certain situations as she was an active participant in their love-making. Shizune raised her hips to meet Naruto powerful thrusts while moaning encouraging, “Naruto… more… fuck me harder.”

Her cries rose in volume as he eagerly complied with her requests. Shizune reached behind her to grip the sheets above her head as it felt like Naruto was driving her through the bed. She began to lose conscious thought of everything other than the cock slide along the nerve endings of her pussy. She began shaking her head back and forth feeling a powerful orgasm approaching but shouted out, “No!” as Naruto suddenly withdrew from her. “Don’t stop, please I’m so close.”

She tried to scramble to her feet to tackle her lover and bury him inside her once more. But Naruto held her in place by grabbing her thighs and folding her nearly in half. With her ankles resting by her head, she moaned as Naruto began sliding his cock along her drenched pussy before stating, “You’ve fallen into my trap, my sweet Shizune. I’m not going to let you cum until you tell me what’s bothering you.”

“T…that’s not fair,” Shizune said pleadingly, “I…It’s nothing…”

“Then tell me,” Naruto said worriedly, “Or else…”

Shizune groaned as his length slipped along her pussy lips. For a moment the head of his cock seemed to catch along the rim of her entrance where she felt with just a quick move of her hips he’d be inside her again. But it didn’t causing her to moan in frustration, finding her need for release to be far greater than keeping her concerns a secret she said, “Alright, I’ll tell you…but after please.”

“Okay,” Naruto said not bothering to make his lover promise as he knew he didn’t need such an assurance. “But, as punishment for holding out on me, I’m going to make you cum with this hole instead.”

Shizune groaned as she felt Naruto press his cock against her asshole. Due to how slippery his cock was and the fluids she had been leaking her backdoor was well greased for his entrance. They both moaned as he slipped inside and he fed his length into her slowly. Naruto wanted to savor the feeling a bit longer but Shizune had other ideas as she began rolling her hips to get him moving. Leaning forward he sealed his lips to hers as he began pumping his manhood inside her rear.

Shizune moaned into his mouth as she began to rub her pussy with one hand while the other traced along her lover’s back. Shizune buried two of her fingers inside her and pressed along the back of her love tunnel causing her to groan pleasantly as she could feel Naruto cock moving in the passage just below. She felt him swell so knew that soon he would be filling her with his seed so shouted, “You’re going to cum aren’t you…go on…cum…fill my ass with your hot spunk.” When a moment later she received the semen enema that she had requested she came hard giving voice to the pleasure wracking her body in the cute way Naruto loved, “Aaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!”

Naruto removed his hands from the back of her thighs allowing Shizune’s legs to wrap around him so as to discourage him from pulling out. As both their orgasms ended Naruto collapsed on top of her allowing her to wrap her arms around him and bask in the comfortable weight of his presence. She stroked his back tenderly before Naruto slipped free of her anus and then rolled to the side. He rested his head on his hand as he studied her with a warm gaze.

Shizune sighed happily, but knowing it was time to come clean said, “It really is nothing Naruto. I was just feeling a little down because… I found it was nice to be looked at with the admiration that people have for Tsunade.”

Naruto frowned as he quickly stated, “Shizune, people look at you in the same way.”

“I know,” she admitted, “That’s true when I’m with you. But outside of that… I’m just plain old Shizune, the somewhat talented first apprentice of Shizune.”

Naruto tenderly caressed her face stating, “No one thinks that.”

“Maybe not in those words,” Shizune said with a good dose of melancholy, “but no one ever says there goes Shizune the woman that’s going to surpass her teacher.”

Naruto frowned as he could understand where his lover was coming from. Having heard many people state as much about Sakura, he could understand why such praise made her feel inadequate, especially as she had been Tsunade’s apprentice for a far longer period of time. But, he also knew it was simply a matter that Shizune had just not been born with the degree of control that would allow her to reach the same heights. Furthermore, it wasn’t something that even training couldn’t change as he was sure otherwise Shizune would easily have mastered it.

He smiled lovingly as he stroked her cheek and said, “That isn’t nothing Shizune, especially if it’s enough to make you frown. But you know there’s another side to that coin.”

“What’s that?”

“Well can you imagine how it feels for Sakura to constantly be considered in standing to your teacher? I mean, sometimes mirroring someone so closely can also tend to make a person feel as if they aren’t being recognized for their accomplishments. I’m sure sometimes Sakura must get tired of having her contributions at the hospital being compared to Tsunade’s too.” Shizune was forced to agree that she hadn’t considered as much and giggled as Naruto added, “Plus, don’t think Tsunade is just going to let those comparisons stand. She’s getting pretty competitive in her old age.”

“Well she does have to keep up with us much younger women, doesn’t she?” Shizune said hugging herself to Naruto.

He wrapped his arms around her adding, “Yes, she does. But you know, if what’s really bothering you is not living up to your potential. Then maybe you should find a path that you alone excel at.”

Shizune frowned as she replied, “I did that once.”

“And?”

“Why do you think I fight using poisons?”

“Still you don’t sound very pleased by it.”

Shizune shrugged as she buried her face against his chest. “I was never really proud of it. It just seems wrong to train in a method to take lives while also being tasked with saving them.”

“I guess, but if you ask me, you should pursue whatever paths you find your talents lay. That way maybe people will be mentioning your name in the same way they say Tsunade’s. If Tsunade had pursued a different training path that didn’t mesh with her talents then she would never have reached the heights that she has. People notice how Sakura’s skills match so closely to your shared teacher’s simply because they are so similar. Trying to mirror them might not be possible for you, but that doesn’t mean you can’t reach the same pinnacle of talent that they have through some other means. If your talent is taking you in a different direction, then you owe it to yourself to see where it leads.”

Shizune felt something shift inside her as Naruto’s words filled her with confidence. She looked up into his eyes which almost glowed softly due to the internal light that they held. She leaned up and kissed him tenderly and lovingly as she said, “Thank you Naruto. It means so much to know you believe in me.”

“Always,” Naruto said lovingly before kissing her gently.

Shizune smiled as she rested her head against his chest, and felt the warmth from her lover’ body seep into her like the rays of the sun. She closed her eyes and wasn’t surprised that she soon fell asleep, although she wouldn’t remain in such a state long.

*****

Kurenai let her mind wander as she jogged through the village using the route that she took almost every night. Despite how those she shared a roof with at the Hidden Eddy Inn might view it as her trying to prevent interacting with new people, although she did acknowledge there was more than a little truth to it, she also found that she enjoyed being able to travel through portions of the village that would be too congested during the day. The shopping district that she was currently traveling through would often be packed with people making it nearly impossible to traverse. Occasionally on her runs, she’d find herself stopping at some display to window shop. Something which she found that she was doing more often than not lately. Naturally, some of the outfits that she pictured herself in caused her to imagine the scenario that she would possibly be wearing them for, and for the ones that required a handsome man to wine and dine her. The man that her imagination provided for her was Naruto.

There was a brief period when she had resisted the idea, as she felt her age was a barrier. But, knowing that she would never act on her dreams, she didn’t let her hang-ups stand in the way of her fantasies. Still, at times she wished she had as the desire to act on her imaginations sometimes felt overwhelming, especially as the satisfaction that she felt from taking care of her sexual urges became less and less gratifying. More so as she had recently purchased a new aid called the Hero which was a large dildo that from the particular shade of orange heavily seemed to suggest that it had been modeled after Naruto. At least that was who Kurenai pictured whenever she used it, which was becoming more and more a nightly occurrence.

She felt an urge to find some good looking man and just rock his world, but she had never really cared for how she felt afterwards. She supposed the hang-up could have been due to how they had always occurred during the off portions of her on and off again relationship with Asuma. She guessed that she just preferred not having to sneak out of the person’s apartment or hoping the man would sneak out of hers on the rare occasion when she would bring them home. Mainly because she almost always knew that she would be getting back with Asuma at some point so didn’t want to complicate matters. It was a feeling that remained now which was why she hadn’t picked up some stranger to satisfy her desires for physical comfort.

Kurenai was passing an alley on her way to the next section of her jog when something wrapped around her ankle. She fell forward due to whatever had entangled here completely stopping her. She hissed as she pushed on her skinned palms and looked to see what had grabbed her. At first she wasn’t sure what she was looking at imagining it was some sort of cable that she hadn’t noticed. But then she noticed that the portion that wasn’t wrapped around her ankle seemed to be moving under its own power. She followed the tendril and saw that whatever it was connected to was hidden in the darkness of the alley.

But then she saw the tips of two more appearing from the darkness. Her eyes grew wide in shock as they seemed to slither through the air like a snake would move as they approached. “What…” Her question was cut off as one of the tentacles shot forward as soon as she opened her mouth, but Kurenai managed to catch it stopping it. “N…no…stop…” she said struggling as the tendril tried to push itself into her mouth.

She screamed in revulsion as the third tendril wrapped itself around her wrists before pulling her arms over her head. The freed tendril she had been holding tried to push itself past her lips but she kept them tightly sealed. She began to whimper as the slimy end of the one trying to push into her mouth left trails of the fluids it was leaking on her skin. But more concerning was the one that had first wrapped around her ankle was climbing up her leg. She tried to pull it free especially as the end slipped underneath her tight shorts. She felt hopeless and helpless as she watched it slide further and further up her thigh as it angled to violate her.

However before the tentacle could reach its goal a red flash appeared before her and she heard a woman’s scream from the alley. The tentacles wrapped around her began to flay about as their grip loosened. Kurenai’s vision adjusted from the flash and she saw a shirtless Naruto standing with his back towards her. His arm was outstretched showing the chakra blade that he was pumping full of his wind natured chakra and had used to cut the tentacles binding her.

Naruto quickly turned towards her and easily scooped her up into his arms, and after creating a pair of clones, he teleported to the entry way of the Hidden Eddy Inn. Kurenai wondered for a moment how Naruto had appeared to save her, but then she noticed a hastily dressed Shizune hurrying down the steps to meet them. Despite what had just happened, she found it strange that that it appeared that both of them looked like they were glistening as if they had been sweating.

“Shit!” Naruto said as Shizune began to check Kurenai for injuries.

“What is it?” the medic-nin asked while pulling the tentacle from her fellow Jounin’s leg, although she heard the sound of an explosion going off in the distance.

“Whatever it was that attacked her ducked into the sewers,” Naruto reported moving to head up the stairs, “but it placed some sort of trap with exploding tags that went off when they chased after. I’m going to get Yuugao.”

Kurenai watched as Naruto bound up the stairs and also heard doors being opened likely in response to the explosion that had gone off. She watched Shizune for a moment also noticing how after having been pressed against Naruto’s skin, she could still pickup his earth scent. A scent that she was confident was also coming from the medic, who despite the worry that she was wearing on her face seemed to give off a sense of sexual contentment.

*****

“So how did Kurenai-sensei take finding out that you had marked her with one of your seals?” Kiba asked as he sat across from Naruto in the bar Seventh Heaven.

“About as well as you would expect a fully capable jounin to react when you tell her that you marked her with a tracking seal because you were worried about her,” Naruto replied remembering how after leaving with Yuugao to return to the scene of the incident. He had come home to find Kurenai waiting with questions about how he had known she was in trouble. He had suspected she had others, but his response about how it was so he could protect her if needed because he viewed her as part of his extended family had not gone over all that well. She had grown rather angry especially as he hadn’t lied about how the other women in the Hidden Eddy Inn had similar seals, but had known about them. Naturally, she had felt as if he was patronizing her, but luckily Yuugao had been present to point out what might have happened if he hadn’t. The ANBU Captain had also added that Naruto hadn’t told her as he had likely feared that she would reject the offer precisely because she would have though he was belittling her abilities. Or, that the jounin would have felt he was worried about her due to the depression she had fallen into after the death of her husband and child, which might have prompted her to turn down being marked with the seal out of pride.

Kiba chuckled as he sat between Aeris and Yuffie, although there was a noticeable gap between him and the dark-haired woman, before saying, “Why didn’t you come clean and just admit that you put the seal on her because you didn’t want her stumbling on you messing around with your girls?”

Naruto felt a little uncomfortable about discussing his love life in such a public place. But, despite having his back to the crowd of revelers was confident their conversation couldn’t be overheard due to a seal Mito had taught him which he had drawn on the table and activated. He shrugged as he replied, “I don’t know. I guess I didn’t want to make her uncomfortable.”

“How’d that work out for you?”

“She didn’t ask me to remove it,” Naruto answered, “I guess considering what almost happened she saw the benefit of it.”

Kiba’s face darkened as he said, “When I catch the fucker that attacked her, they are going to wish they have never been born.”

Naruto raised his glass to Kiba stating, “Only if you get to them first.”

Kiba clinked his mug against Naruto’s, before taking a healthy gulp of it and sitting back placed an arm over Aeris’s shoulder stating, “Are there any clues about what or who it was?”

“A few,” Naruto said looking over his shoulder to see Tifa chatting with a customer. She took the order and quickly went to fulfill it as she moved efficiently through the crowd seeing it there were any other customers she could help as she was in charge of the bar for the evening. She noticed him watching her so gave him a wink as she passed by causing him to smile. Naruto then turned back to Kiba to inform him of some of the facts. “Unfortunately the explosion covered up the attacker’s tracks so we don’t know if or were they would have exited the sewer. But from the vine-tentacle thingy, we learned that the attacker seems to be some sort of plant-human hybrid. Furthermore, from some of the samples collected from it and which had coated Kurenai’s skin whatever it is seems capable of creating a powerful natural narcotic-grade aphrodisiac.”

“Was Kurenai… you know…”

“Why are you asking Perv?” Yuffie said with a slight glare, “Hoping to know if your buddy scored with your teach?”

“Yuffie,” Aeris said gently, “He’s obviously only concerned his teacher might have been affected by the chemicals. Are you perhaps jealous that Kiba might want to add another woman to our relationship?”

“What… no… you really should stop drinking if you’re already spouting such nonsense,” Yuffie quickly said before raising her glass to sip her drink and hide her reddening cheeks.

Naruto chuckled, before addressing Kiba’s concern. “Luckily, the compound seems to need to be ingested, or absorbed internally. It appears that a person’s skin is too much of a barrier. But that still leaves us a ton of questions that we don’t have answers too.”

“Yeah, but do you think it is possible that Tobi has created some new kind of plant-creature like the white Zetsu?”

“That’s one theory,” Naruto answered, “The tentacle was a mixture of human and plant DNA. But while it seems likely this creature might be connected to the White Zetsu, we are baffled as to its motives.”

“What do you mean?” Aeris asked concerned.

“Well, if it was some creature created by Tobi then why is it in Konoha?”

“Obviously to cause chaos,” Yuffie replied quickly.

Naruto’s face showed he didn’t find that being the motive satisfying. His tone also conveyed as much as he replied, “But why on such a small scale? Not to mention, it likely attacked Kurenai because she was alone. Yet, it also cut and ran as soon as I appeared meaning it didn’t want to be discovered.”

“Then you’re saying it would have killed her,” Kiba said angrily.

“That we can’t know either,” Naruto replied concerned. “Unfortunately, we are dealing with too many unknowns here. Yuugao seems to think that what attacked Kurenai might be related to the case she is working.”

“You mean that serial killer case,” Aeris said surprising Naruto. Sounding amused she explained, “You’d be surprised at what a hot bed of gossip the Yamanaka flowershop is and what you hear as an employee. Ino’s mother seems to be in on all kinds of secrets. I know they’ve been keeping it off the front pages, but Kiku is convinced that it is a much bigger story than they are claiming.”

Naruto smiled at the flowergirl as he admitted, “Ino’s mom would be right. Yuugao seems to think that the attack on Kurenai might have been the killer escalating.”

“Escalating,” Kiba said confused, “What does that mean?” He quickly looked to Yuffie to say, “And I know what the word means.”

Yuffie frowned having just been about to question that fact, but changed course quickly to state, “He means that the serial killer has reached a point where they need to act more often as they can’t control their impulses. It also tends to be the point where most serial killers get caught.”

Naruto nodded in agreement as he added, “Yuugao stated as much. Then again, we can’t be sure there is an impulse driving this thing. Yuugao seems to believe Fuka’s idea that it might be a person with an axe to grind and is implementing some plan. The attack on Kurenai might just be the person entering the next stage.”

“Okay, then what can I do to help?”

“Just keep your eyes open,” Naruto stated with a tone of gratitude for his friend’s willingness to help.

Before Kiba could ask what he should be looking out for Tifa stepped up to the table asking, “Can I refresh your drinks?”

“Sure,” Naruto said handing his glass to his lover while Kiba shook his nearly empty mug indicating he’d like another.

Tifa smiled brightly before leaning down to whisper, “You know when I asked you to visit me at work, I wanted Ibara to be here as well.”

“She’s upstairs,” Naruto replied, “So technically she is here. But I don’t think it would be a good idea for me to be here while she’s still under the influence of my chakra. It might lead to an encounter that she regrets.”

Tifa sighed, but said, “Well I can’t say I’m pleased that you’re still testing Karin’s theories on her.”

Naruto nodded in agreement, but said, “I know, but she just wants to see if the activation range I put out is greater. For all we know, Ibara isn’t even feeling any effects from my being here. Hinata is monitoring her and reporting to Karin. But, I promise that we’ll straighten everything out soon.”

Tifa didn’t exactly seemed pleased which Naruto knew was because they were close to passing the time limit that Karin believed his chakra would remain active in the bar owner. Of course there was the possibility that due to Ibara sleeping with a clone and as a result the chakra that was making her aroused in an effort to drive her to sleep with Naruto and thus bind her to him would enter a dormant state, they really had no idea if it operated on the same principles as the Temptation’s Touch. From past experience and experimenting on Anko, the Family knew the effects of the Temptation’s Touch lasted for about a week. The time framed remained the same regardless of how long it was used per a session. However, after a number of doses it did reach a point where the target became desperate to become bound to the jutsu user. Anko had reached such a point although when Naruto stated his desire that she not give into it because he didn’t want to bind her to him for such a reason, the effects had subsided. Another thing that had been discovered was that the person being affected by the tainted chakra instinctually knew when the person they were to be bound to was near. This had been discovered when Anko had been crying out for Naruto to take her when she was fully being pushed to bind herself to him. Tsunade had henged herself as Naruto, but Anko had known it wasn’t him, but hadn’t even questioned it when he had actually appeared before her. Naruto guessed that was why Ibara had always seemed drawn to him when he had been disguised as the alias he used to date his lovers publicly and had come to the bar.

If Naruto had to guess why Tifa wasn’t happy about their decision to let the time limit pass, it was because she suspected that if it did, and Ibara was no longer troubled by being around his lovers then they might decide to let the matter drop. As such, he imagined the waitress didn’t like the idea that her boss and friend had suffered through some rather intense bouts of arousal and wouldn’t know why. Naruto would admit to be tempted to take such a course of action, but said, “Tifa, don’t worry. I will talk with Ibara. I have to keep my promise to you, but also let her know that her feelings about her change of heart did reach me.”

Tifa smiled brightly knowing how seriously Naruto kept his promises. She turned to go get their drinks, but paused upon noticing Komachi entering the bar. The ANBU scanned the crowd for a moment before moving to the various tables to ask the patrons questions. Tifa moved to fulfil the orders she had been given, figuring that Komachi was still looking for the woman that she had asked about several days earlier. Tifa had recalled the woman that had picked up Tanzo mainly because she had so closely resembled the Hokage. Guessing that Komachi still hadn’t found her potential witness or suspect, the waitress left her alone in order to concentrate on her own tasks.

Naruto also watched the former Root kunoichi aware that she was checking out the various bars for the mystery woman connected to Tanzo’s murder. He admitted that there was something that made him uneasy about hearing how the woman resembled Tsunade, especially since it was possible that she was behind the recent murders. However, while Yuugao seemed to believe that the resemblance tied into how it had been a way for the woman to overcome insecurities in her appearance, and to lure in victims. He wasn’t so sure. He believed there might have been a more personal angle involved, like the woman behind the murders wanted to spit in Tsunade’s face with each life she took. The fact that the same perpetrator might also be connected to the attack on Kurenai further made that seem like a possibility to him.

Naruto let Komachi work as he directed his attention back to Kiba to ask, “So what else is new?”

“Not much man,” Kiba said finishing off the rest of the beer he had been drinking. “I think Shino got lucky a few nights ago. Not that the bastard will go into any details.”

Naruto felt a wide smile appear as both of the Inuzuka’s mates turned their gazes to him. Even the normally kind Aeris’s tone carried a hint of retribution if he wasn’t careful with his next words as she asked, “Oh really, and are you going around giving your buddies the details on your times with us?”

The color drained from Kiba’s face as he looked down to his groin and from the way Yuffie was sitting Naruto could easily picture her holding something sharp and pointy against his manhood as she asked, “You better not be strutting around and bragging about nailing a couple of bitches or so help me…”

“What, no… that’s not what I meant,” Kiba said quickly, “I just meant he wouldn’t even confirm that he went home with her or anything. I swear…”

Naruto broke out into a laugh, but confirmed the Inuzuka’s story by stating, “He’s telling the truth. Kiba’s only ever talked about the two of you in the most respectful of ways. Hinata can also attest to his being annoyed with Shino for not being willing to at least discuss what happened that night.”

Naruto guessed it was enough for the two women as Yuffie sat back while saying, “Why do you even care?”

“Because Shino’s always going on about how no one pays attention to him and shit,” Kiba said feeling annoyed with the way his teammate had refused to directly answer if he had gotten lucky with the blonde woman that had approached him as they had visited a bar together. “Heck he was complaining about it that night as well.”

“Well maybe Shino would like it if you were more interested in him outside of when you suspect he is sleeping with someone,” Aeris said with a soft smile.

“Hey,” Kiba said defensively, “I’m interested in some of the stuff he does like…uh.”

“Wow, that’s really convincing,” Yuffie said rolling her eyes.

Kiba sighed before admitting, “Alright fine, I don’t like a lot of the same things he does. But we’re still comrades and friends so I at least listen as he goes on and on about insects. I just don’t retain a lot of it. I’m sure it’s the he feels the same way about me and dogs. I just thought if something happened with this woman that maybe we’d be able to have something we could both talk about in interest. But he wouldn’t even confirm he went…”

Naruto frowned when Kiba trailed off especially as a look of concern appeared on his face. Following the Inuzuka’s gaze he saw that he was focused on Komachi, but more specifically the drawing that she was holding as she asked the people at the table if they had seen the woman depicted. Before Naruto could ask what was wrong, the chunin shouted, “Hey Lady, what are you asking about that woman for. Is she in some kind of trouble?”

Naruto didn’t know if Kiba realized that he was addressing one of his lovers, so stated for her as she approached, “She’s asking about that woman because she might be tied to those serial killings. She was last seen with the latest victim after approaching him in a bar.”

“That is correct,” Komachi stated having heard the tail end of Naruto’s explanation, “Have you seen this woman?”

“Yeah, I saw her,” Kiba said concerned, “She’s the woman that Shino left with a few nights ago.”

Komachi’s mask hid her reaction but those at the table could hear the urgency in her voice as she asked, “Then your friend might be in considerable danger. Can you take me to him?”

“Yeah let’s go,” Kiba said standing as Aeris let him out, “Aeris, Yuffie, I’ll see you two at home.” He then quickly headed for the exit with both Komachi and Naruto in tow as they headed to the section of the village the Aburame called home.

*****

Yuugao landed near the outpost she had her ANBU build near the remains of Furofuki’s lab. She frowned as she shouldn’t have been able to approach the building without one of the four ANBU she had stationed there stopping and asking for her to identify herself. Yuugao feared her hunch about what might be behind the murders was correct especially as she found signs that the ANBU she had stationed to guard the cave had abandoned their post. She frowned behind her mask since it didn’t make sense to her as she knew the three men and one woman squad were true professionals. Yet, she couldn’t find any signs of an obvious struggle. Moreover, she had been receiving regular reports from the outpost, but from what she could see there were few signs the place was still occupied.

Yuugao looked towards the forest in the direction she had arrived from. She didn’t see any signs of Fuka, who she had requested join her. She wasn’t overly surprised as she had asked the woman to remain back and hidden. Yuugao wanted to laugh at the fact that she was trusting a known criminal and murderer over her own squad to back her up. When Fuka had asked why she was requesting her help, Yuugao had responded that she figured since Fuka’s insights had been so valuable before, that if the cave was the home of what had attacked Kurenai and was behind the murders, then by having her examine it, she might be able to gain some insights in how to capture it.

Yuugao could tell her trusting the woman had meant a great deal to the disgraced Uzumaki. But the other reason for her reaching out to Fuka was because she wasn’t sure she could trust her squad at the moment. Obviously, she still trusted Komachi, but after the ANBU exams Yuugao had assigned Taji to it as well. The primary reason being that she hadn’t felt comfortable with the woman’s sudden improvement. Yet, in the several weeks since the ANBU head captain had added the medic to her team she was beginning to think she had just been paranoid. Still, her hunch told her that something wasn’t right about the woman so she had decided to trust that feeling.

She reached the entrance of the outpost and kicked the door in before quickly entering with her sword drawn. She frowned as there were a few signs that a person might still be occupying the place, such as half eaten rations that were then carelessly discarded. She heard something move on the second level of the outpost where a lookout tower resided as well as where the birds used to communicate with the village were kept.

She moved silently up the ladder until she reached the hatch in the floor. She pushed it open just a crack and saw one of her ANBU sitting rocking back and forth. The woman’s bat like masked was cracked around her mouth and her clothes were ripped to tatters. Forgetting her suspicions for a moment she pushed open the hatch calling out as she climbed through, “Bat, my gods what happened.”

“Captain,” the woman said sounding unaware of her current condition, “You shouldn’t have come here. Now I have to kill you.”

“What!” Yuugao said as the woman was quickly on her feet in a moment and had crossed the distance in a blink of an eye. The purple-haired woman brought her sword up to block the one her subordinate had grabbed from where it laid against the wall. Yuugao grunted as blocking the blow caused her arms to feel as if they would be ripped from her body. Yuugao didn’t even try to block the next attack as she instead leapt back while pulling some smoke pellets from her pouch and tossed them at the semi-nude woman.

The pellets exploded so Yuugao leapt through one of the wide lookout windows to the ground below. Bat followed her through but crashed through the wall as well like it was paper, and landed heavily in front of her. The woman straightened as Yuugao asked, “Dammit Bat, what happened. Where are Goat, Turtle, and Hawk?”

“They’re dead Captain,” Bat answered, “The flowers called to them while we slept and they let her loose.”

“What?”

“Then she came for me…” Yuugao noticed tears begin to appear from where her masked was cracked. Yuugao imagined that the indignities that had nearly happened to Kurenai had been forced upon the poor woman. Yuugao tensed as Bat suddenly charged again as she screamed, “She commanded me to keep communicating with the village and to kill anyone that comes to investigate.”

Yuugao couldn’t avoid the blow so was forced to block it, but simply used her sword to prevent her opponents from cutting her. She allowed her opponent’s strength to toss her away. She landed roughly but managed to roll back to her feet. Still, Bat didn’t give her a moments respite as she quickly closed the distance between them. Yuugao slid under the swing at her neck and lashed out with her sword cutting into Bat’s thigh. She didn’t do it deeply as she didn’t want to permanently harm her, but wanted to slow her down.

Bat didn’t even cry out in pain as she quickly spun and managed to catch Yuugao’s ankle. She spun and tossed her into the side of the outpost causing the ANBU captain to hit it hard enough to crack the plaster coating. Yuugao tried to get to her feet, but Bat didn’t stand around to allow that as she charged with sword outstretched intent on jamming it into her. The ANBU’s aim was thrown off though as someone landed on her back causing her to smash into the wall which Bat easily crashed through.

Yuugao scrambled to her feet as she heard Fuka say, “Now then, what kind of kiss do you prefer?”

“No, don’t,” the purpled-haired Anbu said moving towards the hole to stop Fuka from killing her subordinate.

She stumbled a little due to her still feeling woozy from the blow she had just taken and so as she reached the hole was Fuka stepping out. Fearing her subordinate was dead; she grabbed her by the shirt and slammed her against the wall shouting, “You bitch! You didn’t need to kill her! She was being controlled somehow!”

Fuka remained calm as she coolly stated, “A little gratitude wouldn’t hurt you know. Besides, I didn’t kill her. I just drained away enough chakra to put her down for a few hours.”

Yuugao looked into the outpost to see Bat lying unconscious in the rubble of her crash through the wall. But she could see the woman’s chest was steadily moving. She let Fuka go as she quickly said, “I’m sorry. I just assumed that…”

“It’s fine,” Fuka said stepping away from the wall. “A few months ago you wouldn’t have been wrong. Let’s go, you’re going to want to see this.”

Yuugao first affixed several seals to Bat and made sure to secure her before following after Fuka. When she arrived she found all the Jofuku that had been outside the cave were brown and dead. Lying among them were the three male Anbu squad members. Fuka was kneeling among them while looking at the opening of the cave which looked like it had been smashed open from inside once the seals had been removed. The Anbu captain frowned as Fuka upon noticing the three men were naked said, “Looks like they decided to let something out of that cave and it let them have some fun before killing them. It looks like you were right and this is where the killer came from.”

Yuugao nodded but asked, “But why did they let it out?”

Fuka ran her fingers along one of the dead men’s skin and pulling them away found the coated with a thin layer of pollen. Rubbing her fingers together Fuka replied, “On the way here you said these flowers were linked with the bigger ones inside the cave in some kind of root network.”

Yuugao moved to the cave’s entrance and found the flowers inside were dead as well. Her eyes focused on the once blue bulb in back that was spread apart now, with a long limp stem at the center like an umbilical cord. “That’s correct. We had hoped that by cutting the bigger flowers in the cave off from sunlight it would kill off what was in there.”

“If I’m not mistaken the Jofuku flower is known for spreading a pollen that takes the form of strong adversaries the person that breathes it in imagines. I think whoever created this creature might have modified some of the flowers to spread a pollen that attracted the men to the cave, and compelled them to free it. It then drained them of their fluids before attacking that woman. It’s possible that whatever the creature is that escaped from this cave uses the fluids it takes in and changes them in order to control women that it attacks.”

“Why do you say that?” Yuugao asked feeling sick as she suspected she knew why Taji had improved so much.

“Because it makes sense,” Fuka said standing, “In the time it was in the village this creature had time to kill seven people, but we hadn’t heard about a single attack on a woman until the one Naruto stopped. Yet here we stand with three dead men and one woman following the creature’s commands. I think it stands to reason that we didn’t hear about the other attacks was because the creature was better able to command its victims.”

“No,” Yuugao said about to call to Naruto so he could teleport them back, “She just took the time to cover her tracks in the village.”

“She,” Fuka said confused, “You sound like it isn’t some experiment gone wrong but a person.”

“That’s because it is,” Yuugao said cursing as she felt a sense of confusion, panic, and tension rising in the foxmark network from the women in Konoha. “Shit, it looks like whatever she had planned is beginning.”

“Who?”

Fuka frowned as the ANBU captain appeared not to have heard the question as she began running back to Konoha. However, she figured she’d get that answer soon enough as she took off after her, and wondered just what was happening in the village that was causing Yuugao to run so quickly.

****

Tsunade hummed as she finished the last of her paperwork still feeling content from the weeklong vacation she had taken with Naruto for her birthday. While coming back home to find out that a killer might be using her face to lure in her victims, as well as the fact that the Chunin Exams would be delayed again were headaches she could live without, they still couldn’t drain away the overall happiness she currently was experiencing in her life. Although, she did imagine it would be hard to remain in such a state as she had a meeting in the morning with the recently elected Speaker of the Civilian Council. From the way the woman had scheduled the meeting almost as soon as the announcement had been made about the Chunin Exams, Tsunade had little trouble imagining the woman was going to make her displeasure known about the decision.

She couldn’t exactly fault Tsubaki since she knew a lot of businesses had looked forward to the Chunin Exams like beach resorts looked forward to the summer. But, Tsunade imagined that a majority of the woman’s ire was related to how her daughters were still only genin, and her belief that she was putting the exams off for Naruto’s benefit. She smiled remembering her lover’s pouting face when he had learned about the delay. But he had come around especially upon understanding that Raikage wouldn’t budge on the issue of adding a fourth test. Something told her that it wouldn’t be nearly as easy to convince Tsubaki, although Shizune had softened the blow for Naruto by sucking a load of cum from him. Tsunade considered having Naruto attend the meeting to perhaps pacify the woman in a similar manner, but knew the fact that she was married would prevent him from acting in such a way. Still, she wondered if the rumors about her husband having an affair might change her lover’s mind as Tsunade did know the woman now wielded some considerable political sway.

However, for the moment Tsunade had decided to refrain from even truly considering such an action. For one, Tsubaki hadn’t yet made her intentions towards their ambition known. Another reason was exposing her husband’s possible infidelity would also affect their three children. That was ultimately what stayed Tsunade from trying to convince Naruto about Tsubaki being a viable target. Her final reason was she expected that soon Ibara would be made to see the light as it were and if so she could serve as a sort of advance warning if Tsubaki decided to position herself as a blockade to legislation that would move the villages closer. After all, while on the shinobi side of their ambition it appeared things between Kumo, Konoha, and Suna were going well. There were cracks forming in certain civilian sectors. Several businesses for example had thrived when the three villages had been at best friendly enemies. The embargo on Kumo made certain items from the Land of Lightning extremely rare, and so businesses that were able to secure steady supplies of the products were able to charge a premium for them. Those same businesses also guarded their supply lines diligently and did anything in their power to destroy the competition in order to keep prices high.

However, once the Alliance had come into being and trade between the three villages and by extension countries that housed them exploded, those supply lines became all but worthless. Many of those companies that had invested so heavily in their monopolies folded up like had been the case when Gato’s over Wave Country had been broken. Still, a few companies managed to hold on due to their having a few revenue streams in Lands not yet tied to the Alliance or Naruto’s ambition. Some of those companies though rather than try to compete fairly did what most groups too lazy to try and change did. They bought politicians and tried to have the laws changed in their favor through regulation. As such recently certain labor unions and businesses tied to them were backing councilors that might begin gumming up the works.

The new Uzumaki Shipping Company, for example, was finding it difficult to secure captains and sailors for their shipping vessels as the home base in Wave was what some considered a free enterprise zone. The difficulty came from several labor unions that for the most part controlled every port along the Land of Fire and the Land of Tea’s coast. There were also rumors that many of the higher ups in those unions were being backed by the more powerful criminal families and gangs. Tsunade also wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out quite a few of the politicians in those villages were getting their backing from the Fire Country Capital.

Karin was confident that she would find a way to succeed, but it would require her locating individuals that didn’t mind being blacklisted by the Unions, which wouldn’t be a problem in the short term. But if business did begin to take off, and shipments had to be diverted to Ports controlled by the unions then they might find it impossible to get their cargos unloaded due to work slowdowns and the like. For items with short shelf lives it could end up costing Karin’s new enterprise millions of ryo.

She was also noticing how local races in Konoha were beginning to see an influx of cash as these unions and other businesses trying to protect their strangle holds on commerce bought politicians sympathetic to them. Tsubaki had been elected to her original position before such hotly contested elections had begun, but that didn’t mean her Speakership hadn’t come about because of outside influences. Tsunade figured she would have a better read of the woman in the morning.

She stretched feeling content especially as she had noticed a change in Shizune. Of course it was hard not to as recently her first apprentice seemed much more confident, which showed up in how she dressed. She wore a similar kimono to the one she normally had, but she wore it so that it exposed some cleavage. It also had slits in the sides that reached up to her hips so that it exposed her legs as she walked. It also made Tsunade wonder if her apprentice was even wearing underwear any longer.

Tsunade smiled thinking about all the second looks Shizune was now receiving from men as she passed by and had a good idea that the change in appearance also signified a change in the color of her chakra. The Hokage also suspect it was why her first apprentice so often seemed to be burning the midnight oil as she worked in the medical lab of the Den. Being curious she had peaked at a few of her notes and found it full of poison formulas. Some of the formulas had shocked Tsunade at their lethality, but she knew that now that Shizune was embracing her talent with poisons she would have to follow it down whatever roads it took her.

It did highlight for Tsunade what a shoddy mentor she had been for her first apprentice. After all, while she had encouraged Shizune when her skills as a medic developed, she couldn’t say the same when it became apparent her talents didn’t lie along the path as hers medic wise. Tsunade hadn’t exactly discouraged her, but she had likely done so with her silence on the matter. Especially as Shizune began to use poisons to offset her inability to master the chakra control needed to copy her teacher’s strength. Yet, seeing how diligently her student was now pursuing her own path after some encouragement from their shared lover truly highlighted what a disservice she had done in training her.

Tsunade stood figuring she would give her lover some pleasure as her way of thanking him for what he had done, but stopped as her door began to open. She frowned as both Shibi and Shino Aburame stepped into her office. Not used to the Clan head just showing up without an appointment she asked, “Shibi, is everything alright? I’m…”

Both men silent raised their arms causing the insects housed inside their bodies to fly from their sleeves. Tsunade reacted immediately as she flipped her desk towards them. It spun in the air as it flew towards them, but their insects swarmed in front of it and caught the heavy projectile. Tsunade charged them just as the windows behind her exploded inwards as hundreds of thousands more Kikaichu beetles swarmed into the room.

Tsunade didn’t bother engaging the two shinobi as she instead slid beneath her still airborne desk and through her open door. Hitting the opposite wall, she leapt to her feet as she raced down the hall to avoid the insects flying after her. She wondered what was going on, and even if the Aburame were betraying the village for some reason. But as she slammed a door behind her, delaying the insects as she entered the main hall of the Hokage Mansion, she knew that the explanation for what was going on wasn’t going to be so simple.

The reason being was standing at the center of a room filled with corpses was the recently reinstated Taji. The ANBU turned to face her with her sword still dripping with the blood of the ANBU and Jounin that she had slain. Tsunade knew that Yuugao had her doubts about Taji, but doubted the ANBU captain even anticipated such a betrayal. Directing her attention out the windows Tsunade could see her village was descending into chaos so asked, “Why are you doing this?”

Taji didn’t bother responding as she instead raised her hands to point at a pair of clay pots which housed several plants for decoration. She then motioned to towards Tsunade, whose eyes reflected her surprise as large plant vines shot forth from the soil. Tsunade avoid them as best she could but Taji motion to two more pots behind her which also shot vines towards her. They caught Tsunade around the chest and stomach succeeding in also binding one of her arms to her. But Tsunade spun lifting the pots from the ground and used them as a weapon as they smashed into Taji.

Despite being hit by the heavy pots Taji quickly regained her footing and charged the Hokage. Tsunade kicked up a sword of one of dead ANBU and caught it with her freed hand and cut herself free. She then threw the blade at the charging woman who dodged it without breaking stride. The Senju easily avoided several of Taji‘s sword swipes and channeling chakra into her hand hit the bicep of the arm holding the weapon. The sword flew out of her slackened grip due to the chakra scalpel that Tsunade had used. But before the Hokage could capitalize on having disarming her opponent, she found an iron grip from Taji’s other hand wrapped around her throat.

The ANBU hefted Tsunade off her feet holding her suspended effortlessly while her other arm hung limp. But Tsunade noticed movement returning to it so, blocked the punch that her opponent delivered a moment later. Tsunade felt like her ribcage would have shattered if she hadn’t reacted as she flew back from the power of the blow. She smashed into the wall behind her, and slid down it as she gasped for the air that had been knocked free of her lungs.

She got back to her feet, preparing to show the closing woman why she was the Hokage. But then her eyes drifted to the windows behind the approaching ANBU. Although it was already night outside the windows behind her darkened even further and seemed alive, which proved to be the case as the windows shattered as the Aburame beetles flew at her. At the same time the door that Tsunade had entered the room from gave way as did every other conceivable entrance or exit. The beetles ignored the ANBU as they flew directly to Tsunade, and covered her from head to toe. The unknowable number of insects almost immediately drained her of chakra causing even the Yin seal on her forehead to fade.

They flew off her body taking the shape of a dome around her which parted as another woman entered it. Tsunade looked up weakly and despite feeling too tired to even move couldn’t keep the shock of seeing an almost exact duplicate of her smiling down at her mockingly. “Hello Tsunade,” the woman said amused, “I’m sorry I missed our last appointment. But, I wasn’t ready to see you then.” The naked woman reached down and grabbing Tsunade’s blonde locks pulled her to her knees before her. She then drew a seal on her forehead as she said, “There now, that should prevent your little hero from spoiling our good time. I suppose it was a stroke of luck that he interrupted me when I attacked that jounin that lives in his building. I hadn’t considered that he might have marked people that he cared for with the Flying Thudergod Seal.”

“Who are you? What do you want?” Tsunade asked weakly.

The woman let go of Tsunade’s hair but before she could slump to the ground she sent her flying backwards with a slap from the back of her hand. Tsunade landed roughly on the desk where the receptionist normally sat. The woman then clamped her hand around Tsunade’s throat spinning her so that her head faced toward her as she bent it back over the edge of the desk. She saw the copy of her face was twisted in a dark sneer as she said, “Of course you don’t recognize me. You never did consider me at your level did you Tsunade. While the rest of us toiled for what we earned, everything was heaped upon you, the precious Senju Princess.”

“Furofuki,” Tsunade said gasping for air as the bitterness and hatred being directed at her caused her to recall the woman that had felt if not for her existence, then she would have been the one people talked about being the greatest medical mind of the village.

“Yes, you remember. I’m deeply touched,” Furofuki said mockingly. She smiled wickedly as she stepped back and saw Tsunade’s eyes reflect her revulsion as three tentacles appeared from out of her vagina to begin dangling above the Hokage. “You wonder what it is that I want.” She paused to pet the head of one of the tendrils and shivered as a look of pleasure appeared on her face. Letting a slight moan escape her, Furofuki said, “I want to return to you despair Tsunade. I want to break you in every way possible so that you never put yourself back together again.” She reached out grabbing Tsunade by the hair again and dragged her off the desk. Then while dragging her behind, Furofuki began moving to the roof as she said, “First, I’m going to destroy your village, and then claim the man that helped you to stand on your own again. Mmmm, I look forward to having you watch me claim him over and over again, and then after you are shattered into a million pieces… I’m going to let you live with the knowledge you were powerless to stop me.”

They reached the roof, so Furofuki held Tsunade before her by her hair saying, “You know this venue doesn’t really have the view I was hoping for.” She looked behind her and held her hand up. For a moment nothing happened, but then a giant tree pushed its way through the roof as it grew from a seed Furofuki had planted upon arriving in the village. The tree grew taller and wider as a thick canopy spread out over the area. She leapt onto one of the branches as the tree continued to ascend so that it towered over the village. Furofuki pressed Tsunade against the trunk of the tree causing the wood to form around her arms and feet.

Furofuki smiled at her as she said, “Get comfortable Tsunade. It’s going to be a long night.” Tsunade glared at the woman but her gaze shifted as she noticed flower buds appearing from the branches. Furofuki noticing where she was looking said, “Soon my babies are going to rain down hell upon your village. What is it those movie villains always say in moments like this? Oh yes, today Konoha. Tomorrow the world.”

Tsunade glared at her, but said defiantly, “Don’t get ahead of yourself you bitch. We’ll stop you.”

Furofuki’s face twisted into a hateful mask as she punched Tsunade hard enough to render her unconscious before forming a wooden thrown beneath her captive so they could share the view of Konoha in flames. Hating how confident the woman that she despised had sounded, she said to herself, “You’ll certainly try.”

Next Chapter: Night Terrors: Chapter II

Author’s note: Well first let me thank those that take the time to review. They continue to inspire me and motivate me to keep working on my stories.

With that said, I have to admit some personal reservations about the first scene of the chapter. I debated back and forth with myself about including it, but ultimately chose to. The first reason being that while I don’t want to glorify taking a person against their will. I felt that with the number of times it appeared as a threat faced by the women of the story, it needed to happen to reinstall the threat behind it. A threat I wanted the readers to feel when I hinted that it might be Taji’s attacker with Shizune, or when it was revealed Furofuki was after Kurenai.

The other reason, well this is kind of personal. But as many people know from time to time I like to pay homage to various sex scenes or tropes found in movies, hentai, or just general erotica, after all without them The Lemon Sage portion of my imagination might not exist. So while I’m not a fan of Futa or tentacles, this chapter presented me with a chance to at least pay homage to them. Particularly since one of the first Hentai videos I ever saw was the Angel of Darkness series. I think people familiar with it will recognize the Blue flower that is hinted at giving birth to Furofuki, not to mention the tentacles and such.

Ultimately, though what gave birth to the idea was shortly after I started Eroninja someone asked me if Naruto would use his chakra in such a manner. I replied with an unequivocal no, as I just didn’t find the idea all the appealing. Could you describe it as being pleasurable sure? But, it to me kind of would lose any sense of intimacy between him and his lovers. Besides which, tentacles always seem to be used in the more horror oriented stories which was what I was shooting for with this chapter. Again, it kind of loses its impact as a threat if Naruto’s lovers are begging him to do it to them all the time.

Anyhow, I do hope you all enjoy the chapter, and once again thank you to the people that take the time to leave a review. So until next time, take care. Sincerely, The Lemon Sage

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