Politics in the Mist

Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Chapter 18, time for some more interaction with the Akatsuki. Thanks to all of you who reviewed, you guys are awesome. Also thanks for getting me nearly 7,000 view on this story, you guys really are the best! Anywho, lets stop with sentimental bullcrap and get on with the story. Thanks for reading and please review.
M

ei had become very impressed with her husband over the past month. She was now almost 7 months pregnant, and Naruto had insisted that she stay off her feet at much as possible. She still had her Mizukage duties, but Naruto made sure that was all she did. He cooked for her, cleaned for her, gave her a foot rub when her feet swelled up, anything she wanted or needed he did. Anytime he wasn't busy helping her or doing missions, he was training. Over the past 2 months Naruto had been learning how to use the fire chakra he got from Kurama, and how to combine it with his wind actually was having very good results, although his wind style was much stronger, he was about a chunin level fire user. He still trained with Kubikiribōchō and was getting to be an exceptional swordsman. The day Mei hit 7 months pregnant was also the day Naruto was scheduled to head to the Leaf with Rituji, though he didn't know why she was going.
"Are you sure you're gonna be okay," Naruto asked nervously.
Mei laughed at her husband and shook her head, "of course sweetie, you've got nothing to worry about."
Naruto sighed, "Don't be on your feet to much okay?"
Mei kept giggly at her husband's antics, "would you just go already, Rituji's waiting by the gate."
Naruto sighed again and headed off to meet Rituji, still a little nervous about leaving his wife alone for too long. He found Rituji waiting patiently by the gate, a worried look on her face, "Naruto-kun, how are you, reading to head out to the Leaf?" she asked halfhearted.
Naruto was confused at the usually happy and bubbly Rituji's attitude, "Ok, what's wrong? You never act like this, do you not want to go to the Leaf or something?"
Rituji frowned, "they didn't tell you? I'm to be married to the Aburame clan hair Shino. I am the last of my clan, and don't have a bloodline either. The treaty stated that we need to send the Leaf one of our ninja's in around 3 years time. That would be me. I know you and lady Mei get along so well, but I just can't imagine myself being so lucky."
Naruto tried to be sympathetic, "come on, Shino's a good guy. I"m sure you two will hit it off."
Rituji just looked at the ground, "I met him at the wedding, he's quite and has no personality. It was like talking to wall. His response were always yes or no. How can I be with a guy like that?"
Naruto raised an eyebrow, "he was an Aburame at a wedding, of course he showed no emotion, that what they're taught to do at social events. Just try to bring his personality out, he's gotta have one. If anyone can do it it's you."
Rituji looked up, "you really mean that?"
Naruto gave her a foxy grin, "of course, just give Shino a chance, he's a good guy who loves his friends."
Rituji smiled and nodded. They left the gates and headed for the Leaf.
They reached the Leaf to find Shino waiting for them along with the rest of team 8.
"Hey guys, how've you been?" yelled an excited Naruto.
Kiba gave him a toothy grin, "Oh, pretty good. Been getting to spend plenty of alone time with Hinata so that's nice."
Hinata blushed heavily, "Kiba!"
Kurenai gave a small smack on the back of the head, "Not the way to act when we're meeting Shino's future wife."
Rituji laughed, "It's alright, I'm Rituji Suikazan. It's a pleasure to meet all properly, we didn't really speak much during the wedding. I think we should all go out for a drink and talk some, what do you think Shino-kun?" She asked trying the suffix out.
Shino nodded, "Sounds pleasant, I know a good place. Please follow me Rituji-chan."
Rituji breathed a sigh of relief, he got her to call her chan, that was a start.
They went to a small restaurant owned by the Aburame clan. The hostess clearly knew Shino, he whispered something to her and see nodded heading down a flight of stairs.
They sat down at one of the table, "My family owns this establishment, my clan makes a special kind of wine made from honey we collect from special bees we've bread. Using a special process of fermentation we observed from rare bugs in the water country, it makes a truly amazing flavor."
Rituji gaped, "that's quite impressive, but we would bugs need to ferment something?"
Shino grabbed the bottle the waitress brought, "they use it as a numbing agent on animals when they bite so that they are not noticed."
He poured some for everyone but Kurenai, causing Naruto to get confused, "do you not drink?"
Kurenai smiled and put a hand on her stomach, "actually I'm in the same boat as your wife. I can't drink and Asuma's even stopped smoking around me."
Naruto congratulated her and took a sip of the wine, "wow this stuff is great! The Aburame clan really knows its stuff. Thanks for the wine but I've got to go report to the Hokage. See you guys later," he leaned to Shino as he left, "Rituji's very nervous, just do your best to make her feel comfortable, you know show a little emotion."
Shino nodded and Naruto headed to meet Tsunade.
Naruto entered Tsunade's office to find her in a battle with the greatest enemy of Kage...paperwork. That was one of the few reasons Naruto was very glad he wasn't going to be a Kage, "hey Baachan, how are you."
A tick mark appeared on Tsunade's forehead, "not the time to be calling me that gaki."
Naruto could tell she wasn't kidding a decided to change the subject, "So Kurenai is having a baby, do you know the sex yet?"
Tsunade's didn't look up from her paperwork, "it's a girl, tested her yesterday." (The gender and name of the baby has never been told, but since Kishimoto has stated he was thinking it was going to be a girl, I'm making it a girl.)
Naruto thoughts drifted to his own children, they still didn't have a name for the boy yet. Just as he was about to fill Tsunade in on Mei a chunin burst through the door, "Lady Tsunade, Asuma, Shikamaru, and some other ninja's are being attacked at the gate. We think its Akatsuki!"
Naruto jumped up, "take me there, now!"
They ran out of the room while Tsunade got out her seat to tell Shizune to gather some reinforcements.
Naruto followed the chunin until they reached the gate, they were engaging a man with gray hair and a scythe, and a man with mask over his face with green eyes. Naruto recognized the two from Sasori's notes immediately, "guys back up, if Hidan hits you even once and gets your blood it's over. You can't kill him, he went through a chakra tainting ritual when he was younger that made him immortal. Lucky though it means he can't use chakra only taijutsu. The one with the mask is Kakuzu, he's a bounty hunter with five hearts, we've got to kill him gives times before he'll stay dead. He a ninjutsu master and he had a massive amount of ranged attack so stay sharp."
Hidan was pissed, "who the fuck is this shithead and how the fuck does he know every fucken thing we can do, I didn't tell anyone about my damn powers, did you fuck up Kakuzu cause I will kick your damn ass all they way across the fucken Leaf Village!"
"Oh, 9 swears in one sentence, it's a new record. Go Hidan!" A man who had appeared out of nowhere yelled, he was wearing an orange mask.
Kakuzu growled, "why did they send this idiot along?"
"Tobi is just being a good boy, don't be such a grumpy old man Kakazu. You should have fun like Tobi, we can eat cookies, play games..." Tobi ranted.
Hidan was seriously pissed off now, "Tobi either help us or shut the fuck up already!"
Naruto was confused, he'd never heard of this Tobi person from Jiraiya or Sasori's notes. Who was this guy, a new recruit?
Naruto was shook out of his thoughts by Shikamaru grumbling, "so we're facing two people who are almost immortal, troublesome. We need to keep our distance from Hidan while avoiding Kakuzu's long distance attack. Great, just great."
"I think I have a move that could take out Kakazu, but avoiding his attacks while making sure I lost absolutely no blood is nearly impossible." Naruto told them.
Asuma scowled, "this isn't good, they complement each other perfectly. It's an almost impenetrable defense. We have to separate them."
Shikamaru nodded, "easier said than done, if I can capture Hidan in my shadow possession I can lead him away from here while some more close combat guys help Naruto take care of Kakazu."
Naruto liked the sound of that, "then what are we waiting for, lets move."
Shikamaru gave one of his rare smiles "already did." Shikamaru burst in smoke to relieve one of the chunin had used a henge of home while the real Shikamaru snuck to a better area, Hidan was already caught.
Naruto grinned, "hell yeah, lets get wild!"
Naruto, Asuma and another chunin charged at Kakuzu while Hidan ran in the other direction, or so they thought. Hidan appeared out of nowhere making a slash at Naruto, "we were under a genjutsu, but who cast it and when? How did none of us notice?" Naruto wondered all too late. The blade came down and blood scattered across the grassy plain.
I'm an evil little writer! Don't worry I'll update soon, see you guys latter.