As Naruto knelt down and began rolling up his futon, Kyuubi decided to contact him.
'So what do you plan on doing now?'
'I'll leave a kage bunshin here to keep an eye on things,' Naruto told his tenant, withstanding the urge to shrug his shoulders. 'That Chishima tends to get himself in trouble from what I've seen, and there's definitely something up about that Mōsō character that I don't like. Maybe because he smiles too much. Anyways, my clone will be an eye on them both. In the meantime, I'll need to do a little investigating of my own.'
'I don't see why you're doing this in such a roundabout way,' Kyuubi huffed, and though he could not see her, he knew she was crossing her arms under her chest and glaring. 'If it were me, I would have just killed him.'
'If it were you, you probably would have squashed him flat. Along with the rest of the village,' Naruto countered.
'Hmph!'
Chuckling a bit at having managed to pull one over on the red head sealed inside of him, Naruto finished sealing his futon into the scroll he used for camping supplies.
He stood up, pocketing his scrolls and looking ready to begin his journey home. It was in that moment that Chishima walked in, carrying a box wrapped in a light blue cloth. Naruto's nose told him it was some kind of food, or at least something that smelled vaguely like food.
"Yo, Chishima," Naruto greeted. "Did you need something?"
"No," Chishima shook his head. "I'm actually here because I wanted to thank you. You've done so much for my country and Sagi-Sama that I don't know how I could ever repay you, and I can't help but feel bad that we weren't able to pay you the amount that missions like this would have normally cost." He held out the box for Naruto to take. "It isn't much, but I wanted you to have this as a token of my appreciation."
"Ah, well, thank you," Naruto looked at the box curiously, his nose twitching as the unusual scent got stronger. "So, um, what's in the box?"
"A local delicacy," Chishima said with a bright smile on his face. Naruto felt dread welling up in his stomach. "Bean Jam stuffed wings."
Within his mind, Naruto got an image of a very skinny looking bird wing with little to no actually substance stuffed to the brim with bean jam inside. It wasn't the prettiest picture he'd ever seen. Just how anyone could actually enjoy the full and meaty taste of bird wings and the sweet taste of bean jam combined was beyond him.
This was, of course, neglecting the fact that the bird wings of Tori no Kuni seemed to lack much of the meat that made wings taste good.
'That does not sound pleasant at all. I hope you don't decide to eat any of those, because I am so not going to be helping you with indigestion if you do.'
'Ugh, what makes you think I would eat those?'
….
….
'Do you really need to ask?'
Naruto's eye twitched.
'Shut up, Kyuubi.'
"Naruto-san, are you alright?" asked Chishima in concern as he saw Naruto's right eye twitching violently.
"I'm fine," Naruto said, his right eye still twitching. He could hear Kyuubi snickering in his mind as he tried to gracefully accept the... gift, bestowed upon him by the well meaning, if naïve man. "Thank you. I'm sure I'll be able to make good use of this on my journey home." Maybe he could use it to feed the birds?
Chishima smiled in obviously relief. Maybe he thought Naruto would refuse? Well, he wanted to, but it wouldn't have been polite if he did. And Chishima was an upstanding guy, even if he was naïve. He didn't want to hurt the man's feelings.
"Thank you very much. I wish you luck on your journey."
Yeah, luck. As if he needed luck.
Naruto smiled as he stood on a ledge overlooking Tori no Kuni, just taking a moment to get some rest in before he headed off towards his destination. It really was a beautiful scene. The small village looked like nothing more than a bunch of tiny dots to represent buildings, their more earthen colors offset by the blue lines that signified the rivers running through the town. And the village was nestled into a surprisingly dense forest with just the right combination of lakes and clearings to give off the mood of a country at one with nature. It may not have anything on Konoha, but Tori no Kuni definitely possessed a beauty of it's own.
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