The both of them waited at the rendezvous point for half hour, the both of them were bored. Just when Rafuru was going to complain, a number of horse carts and coaches reached the destination. A man finally came out of his coach and said "We are really sorry to keep you waiting I am Kaito the princess' personal adviser." A beautiful lady came out of the coach, "Is it really you? The savior of the world, the hero of the Hidden Leaf! I am one of the girls who admire you the most my name is Akari and I am the princess of the land of Alcohol." She suddenly diverted her gaze and looked at Rafuru who was standing behind Naruto. "Is he with you? Didn't I mention that I only want Naruto-san as my guard!" Naruto then replied "No need to worry he is my son and will be accompanying us on the mission. He is here to make sure that I return home safely." The princess was shocked when Naruto mentioned Rafuru as his son, the main reason for her getting shocked was that Rafuru was the same age as her. "Let us not waste anymore time, it is already late." Said Rafuru, the princess was really mad when Rafuru started to boss her around but she was focused on Naruto so she didn't give a damn and they all finally started the mission.
After 2 hours of travel Rafuru noticed some movement in the surroundings, he looked at Naruto and Naruto gave him a nod. Just when Rafuru was going to take his kunai out, the adviser suddenly screamed and was crying "the princess those bastards captured the princess! What do I do? Naruto-san do something…" Naruto looked at Rafuru and told him to go after the enemy Rafuru agreed and vanished.
After following their tracks for 30 minutes he finally caught up to them. He jumped on the tree which was in front of them. "You… you are… we are really sorry, we didn't know that you were supposed to be her guard. See we are letting her go, alright? Now you take her to the coach safely and we'll be done." When Akari saw this scene she didn't know what to say, she was wondering that why the shinobi are letting her go all of a sudden when she looked at Rafuru she felt as though nothing had happened at all. When the shinobi were about to leave Rafuru got behind them and slaughtered them in an instant. When Akari saw him do that she trembled in fear, Rafuru stood beside her and asked her to get up and follow him to the coach. She was about to stand up but she fell down and noticed that she had twisted her ankle. When Rafuru noticed that he held her in his arms and then teleported to the horse carts. The adviser was really relieved when he saw that the princess was safe but she could walk because of her twisted ankle, Rafuru placed her in the coach and was going to leave but the princess suddenly grabbed his hand. "Do you want anything?" said Rafuru, the princess replied "I want you to stay here and guard me!" Rafuru said "it's not my job. Ask my father to do that!" Rafuru pulled his hand back. "No please wait I am really scared and actually… I kinda… feel safe when you are around." Said Akari and made a really cute and sorry face. "Fine, I'll stay but let me warn you, I am not like my father if you do anything to annoy me I will drag you and throw you at the enemies that are planning to capture you." said Rafuru, Akari agreed and remained quiet but every now and then she would get a peek at Rafuru.
They had been travelling for 2 days now, it was the time of night and it was winter in those parts of the world. Rafuru was holding it in for a long time but he also reached his limit and started shivering. When Akari looked at him she was worried that he could catch a cold, she hesitated a bit but finally gathered the courage and said "Why do you have to be so stubborn, if you are feeling cold just come inside my coach, there is a heater in here." Rafuru replied "no thanks, I am fine…" just as he was going to finish his sentence she dragged him in without asking. Rafuru was really angry with her behavior but when he entered the coach it was really warm and was better than the cold, so he didn't say anything and sat quietly. "I have an offer for you…"
"Not interested"
"At least listen to the offer first!"
"What did I tell you before? If you annoy me I'll…"
"Keep those empty threats to yourself"
"Just be quiet!"
"I want you to be my personal body guard."
"Not interested!"
"I can give you anything, anything you want. Just ask."
"Find someone else, don't bore me."
"I'll give you 40,000Ryo per week."
"If you say another word, I'll… I'll… just let it be, you are not worthy!"
It started snowing outside as they entered another Nation, soon they had to stop because they were hit by an avalanche.
Akari stared at Rafuru as if she had grown feelings for him. She looked at him clear the snow, his muscular body was hidden in the jacket he wore. He got close to her and said "stay close to me, this is not caused naturally. We are currently surrounded by shinobi."
"Father get in position!"
A group of shinobi finally appeared, their leader stood in front of them
"So you were the one that killed 3 of my men. I am going to kill you and capture the princess!"
Rafuru replied "Just try it, you will not be pleased with the results."
"Rafuru should I deal with them?" asked Naruto
"No, you stay behind and look after the Akari-sama, I'll fight."
Rafuru got in position
Rafuru: I can finally test it on you!
Rafuru created a rasengan and applied his fire style nature to it when the jutsu was finally completed it looked like a fire kunai
Rafuru: Fire Style rasen-kunai!
The surrounding started to heat and the snow around them started to melt.
The Leader: what is that jutsu? It is so powerful that the surrounding snow is starting to melt.
Just when their leader was going to perform a jutsu he was hit by Rafuru's jutsu. It caused a really big blast and when the smoke faded their leader was on the ground dead, each and every liquid in his body vaporized.
Rafuru killed each and every ninja using this jutsu. The jutsu was so powerful that the snow that had fallen on the carts evaporated.
Naruto asked "that technique was awesome, it was even powerful than my rasen-shuriken!"
"It's nothing, are the carts and the coaches ready?"
"Yes they are ready, we'll be moving now."
Rafuru asked the princess if he could enter the coach, she allowed him to enter.
"How are you so powerful?"
"Is anything wrong with me being strong?"
"No, it's just that I am curious about you."
"About me? You must really have a bad taste in men to be curious about me."
"Hey! Why do you have to be so cold and rude?" she pouted
The both of them seemed to be enjoying each others' company.
They finally reached the Land of Alcohol and finally headed towards the palace.
When the King checked that his daughter was fine he thanked Naruto and Rafuru, when he was given the info about what happened on their way to the Land of Alcohol the king was really happy and invited Naruto and Rafuru for dinner. He wouldn't take no for an answer so the both of them agreed and joined them to dinner. After they finished dinner Rafuru was standing in the balcony and was thinking about Hanabi, when Akari saw him she headed towards him and stood right beside him.
"Will you leave now?"
"Yes."
"Why can't you consider my offer?"
"I have my own reasons."
"Why can't you stay?"
"I have duties, I can't just run away and have a vacation."
"The Leaf already has strong shinobi, so why do you need to be there?"
"You liked my father didn't you? Then why are you talking to me so suddenly. You didn't want anyone to accompany him right?"
"I changed my mind when you saved me."
"What do you want from me? We have just met and you want me to stay here in the Land of Alcohol for what? Just give me one reason to stay here."
"All of the alcohol is imported from this land so the executives here are really rich. You can have everything you want."
"So you want me to stay here just for money?"
"It's nothing like that… I … I"
"What is it? Just speak!" Rafuru shouted real loud at her, she didn't dare open her mouth. Rafuru received no reply so he turned and started to walk, she suddenly said something but Rafuru wasn't able to hear it properly,
"What was that? I didn't quite hear you."
"I said that I… I like you!"
Rafuru's heart skipped a beat when he heard those words, Akari started to cry and hugged him tightly. It wasn't the first time that someone confessed to Rafuru but this time it was different, the girl started to cry and hugged him. He was really confused "what the fuck! How did I end up in a situation like this?" thought Rafuru,
"Listen we have just met and you are a princess and I am…"
"A ninja who is feared by all. You are a ninja who is feared by everyone."
"I can't, please let go of me."
"Please stay I beg of you!"
"I love someone else."
When Akari heard those words it was like someone had poured lava in her ears, she started crying even loudly
"Why? Why can't I be the one that you love?"
"I don't know, I love that girl more than my own life! So please understand."
She loosened her grip and finally let go of him, just when she was going to leave Rafuru stopped her and placed a energy sensing teleportation seal on her back.
"If you are in danger, I'll teleport and save you right away."
"Thank you and I will pray that you get the girl of your dreams."
"Hmm…"
Saying this both Rafuru and Naruto prepared to leave, Akari waved them good bye when they were leaving.
On his way to home Rafuru thought "The way she cried, she lied she did not just like me, I guess she fell in love with me but Hanabi is the one that I love so I'll just forget what happened today. I guess my love for her is truly unrivalled."
TO BE CONTINUED