The trip from Konoha to Tatsu No Kuni was for the most part, boring in the opinion of our blond hero. Due to the fact that the person they were escorting was a Daimyo, a rather portly man with slicked back black hair and a mustache, they were forced to carry a Jiao, a human powered transport that required four people to lift a portable chair, bed or room by holding onto the poles at their sides or on their shoulders.
This one was covered up by a set of royal blue veils with golden designs running along them. Inside sat the Daimyo of Kiba No Kuni, whom they could only see the silhouette of. Thankfully, Naruto had created Kage Bunshins to carry the Jiao, allowing everyone to set themselves up around it as they walked.
During that time Naruto had taken to speaking with Anko and the two perennial gate keepers. In that time he had gotten to know the two very well, and had also managed to gain great joy out of scaring the holy hell out of them with Anko. He was glad to see that the two Chunin gate guards actually seemed to like him, unlike some of the Chunin and Jonin he had been forced to work with, though the number of ninja actually hating him was surprisingly small.
Naruto was actually very interested in seeing Tatsu No Kuni. Having been forced to do a lot of studying after he graduated, Naruto had read much on the geography and history of various countries of the Elemental Nations. Tatsu No Kuni, while holding no Shinobi village was said to have the most powerful Samurai force within the Elementals. It was due to this reason that the country had been able to remain Autonomous throughout all three of the great shinobi wars, and had an alliance with all nations that made it so when any nation attacked them; the others would have to come to its aid.
While Naruto knew not to expect a fight or anything in the nation, he had high hopes that he could at the very least get a chance to see the countries Samurai forces.
When the group arrived in Tatsu No Kuni and was allowed entrance, they walked through the streets and managed to reach the hotel the Daimyo had booked in advance. Unfortunately they had not been given rooms and so Anko had been forced to get a few rooms in a much cheaper hotel, a few blocks away.
"Alright, since we're here I'm gonna allow us to take a load off," Anko turned to the three Chunin. "I want two people staying outside the Daimyo's room at all times." Anko grinned as she looked at Kotetsu and Izumo, who felt a shiver crawl down their spines, "And since you two are so good at guarding, I've decided that you're getting first watch."
"Wha-"
The two chunin barely had time to speak before Anko had grabbed Naruto's arms and began dragging him out of the hotel lobby, "Come along brat. We're getting some dango."
Izumo looked over at his partner, "Did she just dump us with guard duty?"
"Looks like it," Kotetsu said with an imperceptible nod.
"Man this sucks!"
***---***
Anko grinned as she looked at Naruto around a mouthful of dango, "Nothing better than dango and red bean soup, eh brat?"
Naruto took a sip of his sake, sighing contentedly before he set it down and looked at Anko, "Well I won't deny that I rather enjoy a good platter of dango every once in a while. But I must confess to liking ramen much more."
"You just don't know how to enjoy the finer things in life," Anko shoved another stick of dango in her mouth. "There is nothing better than dango."
"Obviously you have yet to realize that ramen is a far better dish than dango. After all, what can beat a food that has been gifted to us by the gods? Nothing! That's what! And once you taste the delectable noodles and smelled the heavenly aroma from the broth, you will realize that dango cannot compare to ramen."
Anko narrowed her eyes at Naruto as their age old battle seemed to come to the fore, "It seems you're still not budging on this. I thought I had taught you better, but it seems like you need more lessons in order to understand that your noodly dish is nothing but a-"
The purplette was cut off from speaking when a dark skinned boy a few years older than Naruto crashed into their table, knocking it over and spilling Anko's dango all over the floor. The boy groaned as he got up and Naruto saw that he had spiky white-blond hair and red eyes. He was wearing gray pants and a gray hoody with a Kumo flak jacket over it as well as a Kumo headband on his forehead. The blond also took the time to notice that he had a long katana strapped to his back.
A few seconds later a young dark skinned girl the same age as the dark skinned boy came stomping out of a restaurant. She had long red hair and amber eyes. She had a bandana style head band, a gray short sleeved long dress, a Kumo flak jacket and a katana on her back.
The dark skinned boy rubbed his bruised cheek as he looked at his female companion, "What was that for Karui, I didn't do anything."
The now named Karui angrily shook her fist as she glared at him, "Didn't do anything! You keep on running that over reactive brain of yours! If I have to hear you overanalyze something stupid like why grain sake tastes different then rice sake one more time I'm gonna make sure you can't sit straight for a week!"
Throughout this little exchange between the two Kumo ninja, Anko had been deathly still as she stared at her knocked over dango. She soon began to shake, something that the two dark skinned ninja were unfortunate enough not to notice. In Konoha there were a few things about Anko that one learned to never do. The first was to never call her any derogatory names unless you were on her good side, this was something most of Konoha's civilian populace found out early on when a woman had called her a snake whore for a traitor and was seen in the hospital later that day with snake bites all over her body and her nipples looking like they had been bitten off. The second was don't ever try to get in her pants, despite rumors Anko was very selective when it came to who she slept with. The last man who had tried and couldn't take a hint had his balls bitten by a venomous snake and could no longer even get it up, much less reproduce.
The last and most important rule about Anko was never, ever, mess with her Dango.
"But all I said was- GAH!" The dark skinned boy suddenly found himself being constricted by several snakes that had wrapped around his torso and began constricting him. The snakes lifted him into the air and brought him face to face with a very pissed, Anko.
"I hope you're ready to feel a lot of pain brat," Anko gave the boy a sweet grin that spoke of unspeakable horrors and made the dark skinned boy shiver in fright. "Because these snakes of mine are going give you the worst case of blue balls you'll ever see for what you did to my precious dango."
Karui seeing her teammate in danger put a hilt on her sword only for Naruto to step in front of her and shake his head, "What the hell do you think you're doing blondie! Get out of the way or I'll-"
"I suggest you stop talking while you're ahead," Naruto interrupted as he sent a small dose of killing intent Karui's way to shut her up. "If you even try something I can guarantee Anko will just make you suffer with him." He gave the dark skinned girl a grin, "Fortunately for you I know how to handle situations like this, so just stay out of the way and I'll get your friend out of the shit he piled on himself."
Naruto walked over to Anko who was torturing the poor boy by constricting her snake around him. He sighed, knowing this was going to be troublesome but also knowing that it was the only way to get her to stop from killing the Kumo ninja. He channeled chakra into his gauntlet, activating his claws as he slashed the snakes and forced them to dispel. Before the snake summoning Jonin could react Naruto was in front of her, hands on her face as he forced her to look at him, "Anko-nee-chan, what have I told you about attacking others for no reason." He gave her a chiding look that one would expect a parent to give to a child.
Anko did not appreciate the look at all, "No reason! NO REASON! That son of a bitch spilt my dango! How can you even think such blasphemous thoughts! My dango is ruined because of him. My poor poor dango…"
Oh geez, what the hell? Naruto sighed as the woman actually had tears gathering in the corner of her eyes. It was often depressing to see just how much she loved the sweet dish. Trying to resist muttering a quick troublesome he gave Anko a hug and gently patted her back. "There, there Anko, it will be alright. I'll give you some money to buy some more dango."
"But… but…"
"I'll have a kage bunshin give your dango a proper funeral too," Naruto interrupted, already knowing what she wanted to do from previous experience. The last time this had happened she had a funeral service for her dango and had forced Naruto to attend, her eulogy speech had been nearly an hour long and the blond Hanyou had been hard pressed not to fall asleep.
Naruto pulled back and gave his Jonin leader some money, "Go buy some more Dango while I talk to these nice Kumo ninja."
Anko growled at the mention of the Kumo ninja but did as told. She grabbed the money and went back into the dango stand, but not before giving the boy who had been sucker punched into their table another growl.
"I swear she's such a baby when it comes to her dango," Naruto sighed as he created a Kage Bunshin to throw away the dango before Anko got back, then he walked up to the dark skinned Kumo shinobi. "I apologize for my friend's behavior, um…"
"Omoi," The boy answered as he popped a sucker in his mouth. "I appreciate the rescue um…"
"Naruto. Uzumaki Naruto."
"Naruto," Omoi greeted with a nod of his head.
"What the hell was that about?" Karui decided to but in.
Naruto turned to her and gave a sheepish smile, "My Jonin leader is a bit…eccentric and often times violent when people mess with her favorite food… among other things." The blond looked at the two of them before he remembered a piece of information about the mission, "Are you guys the bodyguards for the Daimyo of Ta No Kuni?"
"How did you know that?" Omoi asked with a slight narrowing of his eyes. "Are you here to try and gather information on our mission to make assassination attempt on the Daimyo? Maybe you want to make Kumo look bad so Konoha gets more business. Or perhaps you want to try and find out more about Kumo by befriending us and asking about the mission and then you'll try to steal our secrets. Or maybe…"
Naruto blinked as the man came up with more and more intricate plans on why he would ask about their bodyguard detail, which also began to sound more and more ludicrous as time wore on. Naruto looked back at Karui and hiked a thumb at Omoi, "Does he always overthink like this?"
Karui sighed in a depressed manner, "Yes, always." She blinked before narrowing his eyes at the blond, "Though I do have to wonder why you were asking about something like our mission. You can't honestly think we would tell someone about that when they're not even from our village."
Naruto rolled his eyes, "Because I'm one of the escorts for the Daimyo of Kiba No Kuni. And that means we're going to be partners on this mission."
Karui blinked and was about to say something when another voice spoke up, "Karui, Omoi, what are you two doing with this Konoha ninja?"
The three turned to see another girl about a year or two older than Naruto. She had light blond hair that stopped roughly around the shoulders and like him had blue eyes, though hers were icy compared to his warmer colored ones. She was wearing a low cut short skirt outfit with mesh armor underneath, and a short sword strapped horizontally across her lower back and what looked like a modified Kumo flak jacket that wrapped around her lower torso. Not that Naruto couldn't see why, the woman chest was huge!
Holy shit! I think her chest is as large as Baa-chan's! He thought, doubting that a flak jacket actually existed in her size.
With much effort he kept his eyes on hers, "Your friends got into a bit of trouble with my Jonin leader when Omoi here, knocked our table over and spilled her Dango on the floor. He was actually lucky that situations like this are fairly common and I was able to get him out of having his balls being eaten by her snakes." Omoi paled a bit at the thought, though Naruto was too busy focusing on the blond before him to notice.
The woman looked over at Omoi with a cool expression and upon seeing him nod she turned back to Naruto, "I suppose some thanks are warranted Mr.…"
"Naruto. Uzumaki Naruto!" The blond grinned as he held out a hand, "Please to meet you miss…"
The woman looked at it for a while before nodding and taking it, "Samui."
"Samui," Naruto grinned as he looked at the woman.
"I take it since you are from Konoha that you are with the group who has been partnered with us for this mission?" It sounded more like a statement with her, but Naruto decided to answer it anyways.
"Yep! I'm with two other Chunin and my Jonin leader. Speaking of partners, you may want your friend Omoi to leave before Anko comes back out from getting her dango."
Samui raised a delicate eyebrow but shrugged any curiosity she may have felt off and turned to Omoi, "That is fine, I was actually coming here to get these two. Omoi, Karui, Kirabi-sensei wanted you two back for your shift."
"Hai Samui-taicho!" The pair said before hustling off.
"Samui-taicho?" Naruto looked amused by the title.
Samui looked at him cooly and Naruto had to admit to being impressed by her somewhat blank stare. The woman was as cool as a cucumber, "I am the one who is in charge when Kirabi-sensei is not around." She replied, deciding that there was no harm in informing him of something trivial like that, it's not like it was something that he could use against them and he would find out soon enough.
"That's cool. I wish I could get a kick ass title like that. Something like Uzumaki-sama, or Naruto-sempai," The blond shinobi sighed when his words did not get a rise out of the woman.
"I see… well it was nice meeting you Uzumaki-san, I will most likely see you again tomorrow when the negotiations are likely to begin," Feeling there was nothing left to say Samui turned around and followed the two dark skinned chunin.