The next morning Naruto and the rest of the team he was on made their way to the meeting room that had been given to the Daimyo's so they could have their meeting. As they made their way there, he caught sight of the group from Kumo whom he had seen yesterday. Only this time their fourth member, and likely their Jonin leader was there.
The man was large and muscular dark skinned man with whitish blond hair. On his shoulder was a tattoo with the kanji for Tatsu, and on his right cheek was a tattoo of bull horns. He wore oval shaped sunglasses and a white head band. He had a modified Kumo flak jacket that only had one strap going over his right shoulder, a red rope tied around his waist, white hand bands and a white scarf around his neck. The thing that caught Naruto's attention the most were the seven swords strapped to his back.
As the Konoha ninja walked up the Kumo ninja seemed to notice and turned to look at them. However, they did not give any greetings until the Kiba No Kuni Daimyo stepped into the meeting room where the Ta No Kuni Daimyo was already waiting.
"I take it your our partners in this mission, it will be nice workin with you people, I hope it can be work together without any dissin," The large dark skinned man said as he stepped forward.
Anko blinked at the man's strange way of talking but tried her best to shrug it off, "… right. Well, I guess since we're going to be working together we should do some introductions."
"Right you are little lady, and since an intro is a necessity, I'll we'll go first so you'll know who is with me," The man grinned at them all as he pointed to himself. "I am the one who is known to float like a butterfly and sting like a bee, I go by many names but you can call me Kirabi."
Samui sighed as she stepped forward, "I am Samui, and the two behind me are Omoi and Karui."
"Oh yessss," Anko purred, sounding similar to a snake as she looked at Omoi who gulped. "I remember you very well."
Before the situation could go anywhere Naruto stepped forward, "I'm Uzumaki Naruto!" He grinned at group. "Though, your students already know me. Anyways, the crazy lady who looks like she's about to eat your student Omoi alive is Anko, and the other two are Kotetsu and Izumo."
Killer Bee looked at Naruto before smiling, "Uzumaki Naruto huh? You know I saw your battles in the Chunin exams, you were killer, dynomite! I must say your battles were really out of sight!"
"You were at the Chunin Exams?" Naruto asked as he got a nod from the man, "Wait, Kirabi? Do you mean YOU'RE Killer Bee!"
"That's right I am Eight-O, Mr. Nine," Killer Bee said while the other six people there looked confused. "So did a certain kitty cat tell you that?"
Naruto was easily able to figure out who he was referring to and grinned, "She did mention you several times, saying how you were the Raikage's brother and had some killer rhymes." That was a lie, Yugito hated his rhymes but she mentioned that it was a health hazard to make fun of them, at least to his face.
The statement caused several different reactions from the other ninja. With the Konoha ninja it was slight fear at hearing that they were with the Raikage's brother, who after the battle in Konoha was over, became known as a Jinchuuriki with perfect control over his Bijuu. For the Kumo ninja they face faulted at hearing someone else who had just rhymed like their sensei.
Killer Bee on the other hand was looking at Naruto with a large grin as he held out his fist. Realizing what the larger man wanted Naruto held out his own and bumped it with Killer Bee's, "You know our little kitty cat can't stop talkin' about you Mr. nine, she seems to be quite taken in wit' chu. Really thoughts of you seem to make her shine."
Naruto's eyes softened a bit at hearing that, "How is Yugi-chan doing by the way?"
Behind Killer Bee the three Kumo Chunin listened in with intrigued expressions, "Does this guy know Yugito-san?" asked Karui as she leaned into the other two.
"It is possible," Omoi pulled the sucker out of his mouth. "I mean she did go to Konoha for the Chunin exams. And Kirabi-sensei says this guy participated in them. Though from the way he's talking it sounds like that Uzumaki kid and Yugito-san are close."
"They are," Karui and Omoi turned to see Samui looking at Naruto with slightly narrowed eyes, as if trying to analyze the blond. "Yugito-san told me about how she met a real cutie as she called him. Though she refused to say anything else." The way they were talking she was positive that this 'Naruto' was the one Yugito would always get that dreamy look on her face when she spoke of him. This would bear further investigating.
"And so this is him?" Karui looked at the blond boy in interest.
Samui shrugged, "I would assume so."
"Man that's so cool. I can't believe Yugi-chan got promoted to Jonin right off the bat," Naruto looked disgruntled as Bee gave him that piece of information. "I wish I got promoted to Jonin."
Bee just laughed, "Take your time Mr. nine, there's no need to rush things or you may be dead before your time."
"I guess," Naruto tilted his head before turning back to Anko. "So how are we going to do this?" It took several moments for Anko to realize Naruto was talking to her, having been too busy staring at the pair of Jinchuuriki who seemed to just click, she figured it must be a Jinchuuriki thing.
When she did however, she stepped forward, "I figure that it would be a good idea for us to split up in groups of two, with a Konoha ninja and a Kumo ninja on each. That way we won't have any form of mistrust on this mission, since we'll have a member of each village to watch the other."
"I have to agree that is right, so we'll do it that way and this will help make us tight," Bee seemed to agree, in his weird, rapping way. "We'll have to split up and walk around, that way we'll cover more ground. I think it's time we get ready and pick our partners," Killer Bee looked at Anko. "Since your in charge of these Konoha fools, I'll go wit' chu, I hope that sounds cool?"
"Uhh… that's fine I suppose," Anko responded, though she was a tad freaked out by his rapping, she could only thank the high heavens he was not in green spandex.
"In that case I'll go with Samui," Naruto walked up the large breasted blond and smiled at her, "If that's alright with you?"
Samui nodded, "That is fine."
Kotetsu and Izumo ended up working alongside Karui and Omoi respectively. After that the two jonin gave the chunin their orders on where their patrols would lead them while they stayed to guard the entrance.
***---***
Naruto and Samui had ended up patrolling the left side of the meeting hall, keeping an eye out for anything suspicious. Honestly, Naruto did not know why the Daimyos even bothered hiring ninja for something that was so mundane. It's not like anyone was going to try to steal something of that belonged to them or hold them hostage anyways, their countries weren't all that important in the grand scheme of things. Though he knew he was probably just complaining because he was bored.
He looked over at his partner for the moment. He still did not know much about her, not that she was very talkative. The woman was about as cold as ice. He had tried making casual conversation with her but she had rebuffed all of his attempts with statements like 'talking about personal matters while on a mission is highly inappropriate' or some other crap like that. Naruto sighed as he focused more of his attention to the task at hand. No matter how boring it was he still had a job to do.
Little did Naruto know that Samui, despite her continuous rebuffs of any and all forms of communication that did not have to do with their mission, had taken to glancing at the blond out of the corner of her eyes.
I wonder if this really is the guy who Yugito-san seemed to be talking about? She looked him up and down as she tried to get a read on him. While she was not as good as some at reading people based off of things like movement and facial expressions as Yugito was, she had been taught how to do it. As a kunoichi that kind of thing was important for the infiltration and assassination missions they were sometimes assigned.
However, getting any kind of read on Naruto was a task in and of itself, at least now that they were actually working. Despite his attempts at conversation with her, he kept his face for the most part blank, with only the occasional boredom flickering through his eyes. Add on to that was his state of dress. Samui could not see anything other than the large black cloak he wore over his clothes and the steel toed boots. Because he was so thoroughly covered she could not even determine what kind of person he was from his walk.
Damn it, this is so boring, Naruto grumbled to himself. 'Hey Kyuu-chan, are you awake?'
He heard a yawn in his mind, signifying that Kyuubi had probably been asleep, 'What is it Naruto-kun? Something wrong?'
'Err… no. I was just bored. Sorry if I woke you.'
Kyuubi stifled a small laugh that threatened to escape her, 'It's perfectly alright; you know I'm always willing to make time for you. Its not like I have anything else to do in this seal,' She paused for a moment as she took stock of where Naruto was and what he was doing. 'It doesn't look like you need me for anything. Is there something you want to discuss?'
'Well, no. I was just-'
'Bored?' Kyuubi finished with a soft laugh. Naruto had to fight down an embarrassed blush at being called out on that. It seemed Kyuubi was getting to know him fairly well within the past four or so months they had started talkig. It was a definite improvement to how they had pretty much hated each other at first. 'You don't always need to be doing something Naruto-kun. You really do need to learn how to take some time off and just relax.' Even Kyuubi knew how to relax, not like there was anything else to do while she was sealed.
'Hey! I know how to relax!' Naruto cried out indignantly.
'Oh?' Naruto could almost picture the vixen in his mind raising a delicate eyebrow while giving him a small grin. 'When was the last time you just let yourself rest even when you didn't need to? Or the last time you went to the hot springs just because you wanted to?'
Had it not looked odd for him to do so, Naruto would have puffed out in cheeks in indignation. However, since Kyuubi would not see it, and Samui would probably wonder what the hell he was doing or if he had lost his mind. He simply settled to giving what amounted to a mental glare, 'I went on that date with Ten-chan didn't I? that could be considered relaxing. And what about all that time I spent with Gaara and Mari-chan in Suna when I escorted them back, huh?'
Kyuubi frowned for a moment as Naruto mentioned Tenten and Temari. However she did not let any of what she was feeling enter her voice, 'Your date with Tenten was just that one time. And what about your time with the blond and her Jinchuuriki brother? That was a mission wasn't it. It was kind of your job to be with them, and it's not like you would have truly been allowed to train during your stay there. And even then, you still wound up doing some form of training with Temari.'
Naruto pouted a bit at that but could not deny the truth of her words. Of course if he did not have to worry about a group of S ranked criminals coming after him he would probably take some time off to relax, 'Whatever, relaxing is for pussies anyways. I'll relax when I'm dead.'
As her fellow blond was holding a riveting conversation with his inner demon, Samui watched as various emotions played over his face; those emotions ranging from amusement and indignation among a few others. Shaking her head the blond woman tried to clear all thoughts of curiosity from her mind as she started paying more attention to her mission, I can ask him some questions later.
***---***
little ways away from the building, four figures stood and watched the patrolling ninja.
"So should we attack them?" asked one of the ninja, is voice raspy due to the breathing apparatus attached to his mouth.
"No… not yet, we'll wait until they drop their guard before attacking," Said the leader of their team.
"I say we just attack now," Another one of the people said. "They don't look so tough."
"We're out numbered 2 to 1, and that dark skinned man is Kumo's famed Guardian. Facing him head on is tantamount to suicide!" The leader scolded, "No, we wait until they drop their guard, then we separate whoever is guarding the Daimyos at the time from the others."
***---***