“Of course,” Hinata promised. “I was an innocent then, and protecting innocents is important.”
“I don’t understand why you’re doing this,” Naruto complained. The local kid version, that is. Unfortunately we weren’t due to meet our version again for a few loops.
Still, he was as real as we were and I didn’t want to just vanish on him, so I’d arranged for Hinata and I to meet him on our way out of town. I’d already done a little enhancement on us both, but we could still pass for the Sakura and Hinata everyone expected.
Of course, this was after we’d set up a cover story that gave us a reason for leaving. Hinata was wearing a snug leather collar with a tag that read ‘Sakura’s Bitch’, and looking adorably smug about it.
“Naruto,” I said, “the Hyuuga will never let Hinata and I be together. We have to be gone now, tonight, or their assassins will kill me and take her back by force. Then they’ll put the Caged Bird seal on her, just like Neji. You don’t want that, do you?”
He shook his head. “No, of course not. But I could come with you.”
“Don’t you dare!” I insisted. “How will you become Hokage if they declare you a missing nin? Besides, they’d never give up on catching you if you left. They can’t afford to lose the Kyuubi.”
He started. “The… but… um… you know?”
Hinata giggled. “I’ve been able to see it since I was seven, Naruto-sama.”
I nodded. “Yeah, we know. A secret that every adult in the village knows isn’t much of a secret. It doesn’t matter to us, Naruto, we both know you aren’t the fox. Anyway, it isn’t forever. When you become Hokage you can reinstate us, and by then we’ll be strong enough to handle the Hyuuga.”
He sighed. “You’re really counting on me for that, aren’t you?”
“We believe in you, Naruto,” I said firmly. Then I smiled. “But if you need a little incentive, how about this? When you get the hat, you also get two sexy girlfriends.”
Hinata beamed. “I like this idea, mistress! Should we kiss him goodbye?”
“Why not?”
Being an S-rank missing nin was a lot more fun that I’d expected. We had a few skirmishes with Konoha hunter-nin at first, but since we weren’t hiding our abilities this time around they gave up pretty quick. The fact that we killed those Hyuuga assassins may have had something to do with that. We always left the hunter-nin alive, but they were probably afraid we’d changed our minds about being gentle. That, or Hana didn’t want me to leave her tied to a tree under a twelve-hour Heaven Viewing Technique again.
We got into a lot of bar fights in the early days, and it’s amazing how many slavers and bounty hunters tried to catch us with tired old tricks like drugged food and disabling genjutsu. I learned some new techniques that way, and discovered that reversing drug effects is actually much harder than healing trauma. But between us we had so many detection and resistance abilities that no one ever came close to succeeding, and I made a point of letting Hinata get creative with those guys.
After the first few bloodbaths the rate of kidnapping attempts slowed dramatically, and for some strange reason the bar toughs didn’t harass us nearly as often. It was quite a rush to walk into a room full of hardass missing nin with Hinata on my arm, and have them all step out of my path and nervously look away.
But we usually had better things to do than hang out in sleazy bars.
The ninja of the Bokura clan encircled us nervously as their clan head shuffled into the courtyard to meet us. The Bokura were a strong clan of earth specialists with dozens of active ninja, and the fort of chakra-hardened stone they lived in could probably withstand any normal siege. But their clan head was almost as old as Sarutobi, and the fact that we’d simply appeared in the middle of the main courtyard had to be disturbing. That, and we were already getting a reputation.
“So, the jutsu thieves have come to Taikoju,” the old man said slowly. “We have heard of your encounter with the Itisara clan, but you’ll find the Bokura are not so weak.”
A pair of thirty-foot stone statues with giant maces for hands rumbled out of the keep to stand menacingly on either side of him. Rumor had it they were some kind of permanent golem rather than a temporary animation technique, and nearly impossible to destroy. Several smaller statues of various designs were emerging from the fortifications around us to join the encirclement, but I ignored them.
“The Itisara were hot-headed idiots,” I said airily. “They attacked us in the middle of parley, but we still crushed them and ripped their secrets from the minds of the fallen. They should have listened to our offer, instead.”
“I see. What, then, is your offer?” The elder asked dryly.
“We’ve come to trade techniques,” I said. “For each ninjutsu or genjutsu you’re willing to part with, we’ll trade you two of the same rank. For each secret skill, such as puppetry or a taijutsu style, we will trade instruction in two of the secret skills we have already mastered. And for a prized clan secret, like your golem creation method, we will trade either the prized secrets of two other clans, or two S-rank ninjutsu.”
A murmur of conversation sprung up among the crowd. It was a very good offer indeed, but secrecy is such an ingrained habit for the minor clans that they might still reject it. The old man considered us for a long minute as the murmuring grew, no doubt weighing the benefit of our proposal against the obvious risks. After all, we might try to give them worthless techniques, or subtly flawed ones, or just use a few days of mutual training time as a chance to scout out their defenses before launching a surprise attack. Not to mention the political issue.
A man of about twenty stalked angrily over to the elder. “Grandfather, you can’t possibly be considering this!” He protested. “They’re missing nin! If we shelter them Konoha will only use it against us. They can’t possibly have anything to trade that would be worth the risk!”
“I wasn’t aware that the Bokura had become vassals of Konoha,” I said loudly. The murmuring turned angry at that. The Bokura were one of a dozen minor clans that the Fire Daimyo relies on to counterbalance Konoha’s power, which made them political rivals at best and blood enemies at worst.
“We don’t ask for shelter,” I went on. “Their hunter-nin have been learning that they can’t handle us, but if they make another try we’ll be happy to take the fight outside your walls. The Fire Daimyo has issued no proclamations regarding our activities, and Konoha’s inevitable complaint will only make them look weak.”
The young hothead turned to us, and looked Hinata up and down in a way that made it quite obvious what he wanted to do with her. “You think we’re fools!” He shouted. “But I see through you! You’re nothing but a pair of weak kunoichi trying to bluff the world with genjutsu and fast talk. You’ll discover your precious bedroom techniques are of no use against cold, hard stone. Iroko, capture them!”
One of the larger golems shifted at his order, and suddenly charged us with a lot more speed than you’d think a twenty-ton mass of stone could manage. Hinata shifted to guard my back as I stepped up to meet it with a Rasengan already forming in my hand. I eyes the mass of the statue and the depth of its chakra reinforcement for a split-second, and added fire to the whirling ball of power in my hand. The distinctive warble of a Flame Rasengan started up, rising into a sudden shriek as I tapped my storage seal and fed in enough chakra to grow it into a two-foot sphere.