章節 114: Naruto Chapter 114
The next morning came too early for Naruto. Still, he had a mission to fulfil and he didn't plan to fail at this. He put on his normal mission gear and went to check with the team.
Choji and Kiba had taken the other night shifts of watching the princess, Naruto himself had had the first one, while Ino had been inside the suite in a room next to the Princess's one.
Thankfully nothing had happened. He would have been surprised if it did, as the ANBU were watching for any outside threats as well as intruders that got too close to their royal visitors.
The team got back together and today the chaperone was resigned to letting the princess wear an outfit in which she could move easily, but still look nice in. It was a pale blue short yukata on top of a darker blue shirt with black leggings with flat heeled black boots. It was one of the outfits Ino had helped her choose the day before.
Today they planned to show the princess the look from the top of the Hokage monument, as she had asked to be taken up there. Naruto had cleared the request with his sensei and got the permission, with the assurance that the ANBU would be ready to act in case somebody used the opportunity to attack while there wasn't really much cover.
They went down to breakfast, where the princess insisted that her guards got to eat as well. Lady Shiori protested, but the Princess in the end won.
Thankfully they got to leave after twenty minutes, as Princess Natsuki was eager to make most out of her last day in Konoha. Again she latched onto Naruto's arm, who had prepared mentally for this and hid his true emotions.
The trip up to the monument took two hours, as they had to go at civilian speed, and especially Lady Shiori wasn't suited for hiking. She complained a lot about not getting a carriage to take them up there, and it not being appropriate for a noble to have to do this. Princess Natsuki thought it a great adventure, even if nothing really happened.
Ino had made sure to pack some snacks and they stopped for a fifteen minutes break after one hour of walking up the paths through the forest. There were different kinds of fruits that were easy to transport, bottles with tea and water and some cookies.
During the picnic, Ino distracted the princess with things girls liked talking about and Naruto could get a small reprieve from his close contact. He kept watch for anything that might be out of the norm, but things were peaceful.
He could feel the presence of the ANBU, he had trained in sensing others for a long time after all, but not pinpoint their locations. The break had helped Lady Shiori regain some strength and they continued their way.
When they reached the top, Princess Natsuki wanted to watch the village laying at the bottom of the monument. They were currently behind a rail that kept anybody not a ninja or maintenance personnel away from the edge.
The face of the Fifth Hokage was still being built and nobody wanted to cause any accidents with people that got too curious.
"The look from up here is beautiful," Natsuki raved.
"It certainly is," Lady Shiori agreed, "Still, this village needs better transport facilities for the nobility."
The ninjas ignored her complaints, by now being used to doing so. She was always complaining about one thing or the other.
Ino, being the one that was the most outgoing, told their guests about the history of the monument and Konoha in general, keeping it to commonly known facts. Lady Shiori approved of this, as it made the trip at least educational for the princess.
She asked for some other things, like the things Konoha did next to ninja missions for earning money and Ino, being taught about business by her mother, explained how civilians made their lives in a ninja village.
Natsuki wanted to go closer to the edge to see better, but Naruto denied that, explaining that with the work on the fifth face being done right now, it was too dangerous.
Natsuki didn't like being told no, but Naruto was firm on is refusal. And no amount of begging, attempted bribery and fury changed anything about it. Lady Shiori also reprimanded Natsuki for her behaviour, which had the princess grumbling about unfairness.
A quick row between the two females later and they took to wandering the woods around for a while. Natsuki decided she wanted to play hide and seek and Naruto agreed to let her play with Ino, Choji and Kiba, as long as he stayed on guard duty.
...
During the early afternoon Ino showed Natsuki to a beauty salon, where the two girls got their hair styled, their nails made and their skin given a beauty treatment.
Naruto was all for the visit there, as it would distract Natsuki, who was much less easy to handle today than the day before, for two hours on end. He and the other two boys stayed outside, while Lady Shiori kept an eye on things inside.
She was much happier about this kind of place than having to hike up a mountain. She read a magazine that the salon had lying on tables in the waiting corner, a cup of hot tea and some biscuits making the waiting time more pleasant.
"Anything noticeable, Kiba?" Naruto asked when he passed Kiba's spot.
"Nothing, Naruto. Though there is this curious scent in the air. But that may come from the beauty salon. They do use different kinds of perfume after all," Kiba admitted.
"Hm, I want you to head inside and see if you can pinpoint the scent in there. If not, come back to report again. Then we will see if it has anything to do with our mission," Naruto decided and Kiba nodded.
He stayed, keeping watch, until Kiba and Akamaru returned.
"It isn't anything on the inside," Kiba stated, not looking as relaxed as before.
"Where did you notice the scent first?" Naruto asked.
"Well, the first time was this morning at the hotel. The scent left when we went up the monument, but it returned when we were here at the salon. Not sure how long it has been around, though," Kiba answered.
Naruto made twenty shadow clones to be on the safe side.
"Take position and be prepared for anything. Also inform Choji that we are increasing to stage three," Naruto told his clones, which disappeared to do their jobs.
...
"Well, well, well, he's as good as the rumours said. But that only makes this more interesting," A person hiding close to their position around the shop mumbled, making sure to follow the job she had to do today. This was an opportunity that wouldn't come as easily again after all.
...
Naruto was tense for the remainder of the day, as Kiba constantly found the scent that he had noticed before. Naruto had his clones spread out to make sure that nothing could get them unprepared and the ANBU had also been informed about a possible threat to the princess.
They refrained from going to any places that were hard to defend after noticing and instead Ino was informed to subtly stir their route to easily defendable places, which she did.
They stayed inside of buildings to shop, eat and see an exposition of an upcoming artist.
When they were on the way back to the hotel, where their mission would end, Naruto's senses rang in alarm and he threw a kunai at a suppressed chakra signature that didn't belong to the ANBU that were guarding them from a distance.
A person jumped from the shadows, dodging the kunai and a flash of light like from a flash tag broke out, which Naruto countered by switching to his other senses while keeping the eyes closed until the effect lessened.
His clones were also on the move, but when he nailed the person with a punch, he got a surprise at how different that felt to a normal attacker. Not as strong as you would expect an assassin to be. He quickly had the person tied up.
"Ow, really, that wasn't necessary," A female voice complained.
"What were you doing following the Princess around all day?" Naruto demanded to know.
"Princess? I wasn't following the Princess, Namikaze Sama, I was following you," The woman corrected.
"Me?" Naruto asked suspiciously.
"Of course. My readers want to know everything about you!" She confirmed, "I'm Hikari Otabane, special correspondent for the Fire Glamour."
"Oh, you're the famous reporter that shows the lives of famous people in Fire Country. We have a subscription on the magazine at the palace in Wave Country," Natsuki gushed.
"I am. And this will be a perfect story. The famous Naruto Namikaze, previously hidden son of the infamous Yondaime Hokage, protecting a princess while important negotiations are taking place inside Konoha. That will be headlines for weeks," The reporter raved.
"And why the hell didn't you inform anybody that you were trying to make a story about Naruto?" Kiba asked.
"It wouldn't be authentic anymore. And Namikaze Sama is notoriously hard to find and follow, even for the best in our business. Having him out in the open for long periods of time is very rare. He's even worse in that regard than his sensei, the Godaime Hokage," Hikari explained.
"I don't want to be bothered by the press," Naruto declared, "My private life is just that, private."
"The public has a right to find out more about such an interesting person as you, Namikaze Sama," The reporter shook her head, "People need to know who their protectors are."
"Well, you won't be printing anything about me," Naruto stated and took away the camera, "You have just been caught in interfering with an official ninja mission of Konoha and your camera is confiscated. Additionally, you will have to answer to the Hokage about spying on his ninjas, which is a severe offence."
The ANBU decided that it was a good opportunity to show that reporter, who was known to give ninjas problems during their missions, not caring for security at all, some realities of life and one of them appeared and took both camera and reporter and vanished.
"Was that really necessary?" Lady Shiori asked.
"It could easily happen that an assassin disguises as a reporter, Lady Shiori," Naruto pointed out firmly, "We were hired as bodyguards for the princess. Imagine if one of the reporters that clearly have learned basic ninja techniques like hiding in the shadows, which are taught at the academies of all elemental countries, would try to kill a target under the guise of wanting an interview.
There are countless ways of hiding poisoned darts in a camera or using other attacks if you just get close enough to a target.
It is why during official press conferences, which I expect one to be set up once a result is found for the negotiations that your Daimyo is involved in currently, the reporters are thoroughly examined and searched by ninjas trained on things like that before they are allowed anywhere near."
"I see, I never realised the danger of that," Lady Shiori admitted, "Reporters were just an unavoidable nuisance of life for me so far. Being nobility basically entails having to deal with them."
Naruto nodded.
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