Starting over

#84 Back Again

Timeskip no Jutsu : 1 week

Naruto POV

After an uneventful track towards Konoha we finally reached the village gates. We waited in the background, while the council gave the two chunin guarding the gate the necessary documents before we were allowed to pass through. One of the chunin blurred away to tell the hokage that we arrived. The council walked through the streets with Hori and Gabu behind them undercover acting as a couple, even though it was obvious that they weren't just acting. Temari and I knew about their relationship but as long as they wouldn't let it interfere in our missions we would support it, after all how would we look if we criticised them for doing essentially the same as us. 

Temari had sent her team and Paira on the rooftops while she and I were the only visible guards that accompanied the council. 

We were in some random street of the shopping district when Tsunade came walking towards our group with an Anbu at each side. She smiled at the council before inviting them to come to her office immediately. The council declined stating that the voyage had taken a toll on them and that they would like to rest and talk about the trade deal the next day. 

I smiled behind my mask, since I knew that the council was still a bit upset about me not teleporting them here. I had denied that request, since it would have meant for one, that I , reveal who is behind the mask of Suna's Nine and it would also take a large toll on my chakra reserves and I would be most likely not able to defend them from a threat when it would come to an attack. 

Tsunade nodded and told the council where a good hotel was and turned around walking off with her bodyguards in tow. 

Escorting the council to their hotel we instructed our team to stand guard while we went to Tsunade. 

Temari and I jumped over the rooftops towards the Hokage tower, looking over the city and watching the sun set slowly over the horizon. 

Arriving at the building we went inside and were greeted by Shizune who looked at us with a confused look. 

"How can I help you?", she asked. "We want to speak with the hokage.", Temari answered, drawing an even more confused look from the black haired woman. "You know, that you are not allowed to enter the office in disguise.", Shizune warned us. I chuckled and slowly pulled down my mask. "You really think, that we should go in without our disguise.", I asked with a smirk on my lips. The eyes of the black haired woman widened as she recognized me. She opened her mouth to say something but decided against it. "You can enter.", she said after a moment.

Tsunade looked up from the paperwork as she heard commotion in her office. Her eyes widened as she saw the scenery before her. Her two Anbu guards were kneeling before her with swords to their throats. The swords seemed awfully familiar to the hokage as she looked up to see two shinobi wielding them, that were wearing the uniform of Suna's Anbu force. "Can you please tell your Anbu to stand down and not attack us as soon as we enter the room?", I asked, not moving my sword. "Who are you? Why did Shizune allow you to enter while wearing a disguise?", Tsunade fired her questions at Temari and me. "Order your Anbu to stand down and to go away and we will answer you every question.", Temari replied. Tsunade looked at her two Anbu who were nodding their heads ever so slightly. Tsunade sighed, closed her eyes and suddenly the room was filled with smoke. I chuckled as I felt four more chakra signatures enter the room. I made four shadow clones who intercepted the Anbu squad and protected Temari, while we kept our swords on the other two Anbu. 

The smoke cleared and Tsunade's eyes widened again as she saw now six of her anbu being subdued. "Now can you please just order your Anbu to stand down? If we would have wanted you dead we could have already killed them.", I tried to reason with the Hokage. She sighed, again, and then told her anbu to stand down. I smiled and removed the sword from the throat of the Anbu and dispelled my shadow clones. Temari also released her captive. The six Anbu immediately surrounded and pointed their weapons towards us. "I though your Kage said to stand down.", I said standing there relaxed. "Unmask, or you will die.", Tsunade ordered confidently. Temari looked at me and I just shrugged my shoulders. We moved our hands up and undid our masks. Letting the cloths swing to the side of our face we smiled at the Hokage as her eyes widened for the third time. 

"Naruto, Temari. What are you doing here?", she asked almost whispering. "You wanted to see us.", Temari answered. "Anbu, go.", Tsunade ordered, earning concerned looks from her bodyguards. "I said go!", she replied with an edge to her voice. The shinobi sheathed their weapons and vanished from her office. 

Tsunade relaxed visibly, smiling at us. "It's good to see you two. You know, I lifted your banishment. You didn't need to disguise yourself.", she noted. "Yeah, but I didn't want to be recognized by everyone. It would have been a mess just to get here.", I replied. "And I mean, it was fun wasn't it.", I replied with a smirk. "I didn't think it was funny, my Anbu could have killed you.", Tsunade replied. I chuckled and smiled at the blonde woman. "It's a good thing they didn't right? I must say I was surprised that you didn't recognize my predator blade. After all it's pretty easy to identify.", I noted pulling out the sword from my back, showing Tsunade the handle. Tsunade just shrugged her shoulders. "I guess you need better perception then, maybe we can put you with Temari, maybe combining you two fixes the holes in your perception.", Temari chuckled at that and playfully hit my arm. I put my arm around her shoulders and looked at Tsunade again. 

"So why did you want to see us?", I asked her finally getting to the reason for this whole meeting. "Well, I wanted to talk with you about a group called Akatsuki.", Tsunade began. I was surprised, while Temari just looked at the blonde hokage with confusion in her eyes.