senju rider

Chapter 7

Naruto looked around at the other people who had also been called to Mei's office, two of them he didn't know. They were not front line soldiers, so he had never fought by their side. All he knew was that one of them was the head of the medical staff and the other managed the supplies they acquired through various means. He also knew that the one who managed the supplies did not like him for some reason; the man was fairly young so Naruto assumed it was because of how close he was to Mei. The man had complained once about Mei insisting on having Naruto with them as a part of their meetings, he never did it again after Mei threatened to melt his balls of; which Naruto had later found out she could quite literally do.

Ao was also with them, he and the hunter Nin had gotten closer in the past five months Naruto had been here. During that time Naruto had usually been with Ao's team and had gone on several more infiltrate and destroy missions.

There was also Chojuro, a shy young man with blue hair, black eyes and sharp shark like teeth; a trait he shared with Zabuza and Kisame. He wore black rimmed glasses that were connected to a set of headphones. He was wearing a blue striped shirt with camouflage pants, while his Hitea-ate was worn across his chest. He carried a large sword on his back called Hiramekarei, which was wrapped in bandages much like Kisame did with his sword. Naruto had met and teamed up with him during one of his missions, they got along well enough. Naruto had found out that despite being a member of the Kiri no Shinobigatana Nananin Shū Chojuro was extremely shy and under confident. Though he had noticed the man seemed to find the courage to glare at him whenever Mei was on Naruto's arm and flirting with him.

Naruto looked back at Mei who had an apprehensive look on her face, Naruto was not sure why this meeting had been called since they met every week on Wednesdays to hear reports and plan. All Naruto knew was that it was apparently important, most likely new Intel that could spell trouble for the rebels.

"As you all know we have recently dealt several harsh blows to the Mizukage's forces," Mei started catching the attention of the people in the room. That was true enough, in the past five months they had managed to destroy ten enemy strongholds, cutting off valuable trade routes and isolating enemy forces allowing the bloodline side too pick them off. After that first mission Naruto had been on they had continued to use the infiltration tactic with great success, while Naruto would not claim credit for being the reason their missions were so successful he was glad to know that he was helping bring this violent war to a close. "However, it seems that with our success Yagura has decided that we have become a serious threat. I have received Intel that he has amassed his forces and they will be heading towards our base at one month's time to destroy us." the two who had no part in the fighting paled at her words and began to mumble to themselves, a glare from Mei quickly shut them up. "Because of this I am planning an evacuation of the base, we are lucky that we were able to get this information fast enough so that we can evacuate the base without costing lives."

"So we're going to have to run eh?" asked Ao with a small grumble, "back in my day when we had to face such engagements we..."

"Ao..." Mei interrupted with a sickly sweet voice as one of her perfectly shaped eye brows twitched. "Shut up... or I'll kill you..."

Ao paled, "I... I didn't mean to imply that..."

Naruto gave a silent laugh as he listened to the small banter, Naruto had realized awhile ago that this was a common occurrence between the two. Mei tended to get a particularly bad attitude when Ao would start talking, mainly because he would somehow end up making a comment that could easily be taken as a talk about marriage. Mei had confided in Naruto privately that she was somewhat depressed that she was going to reach her thirties in a few years and had yet to find a husband. Naruto had merely laughed and told her that a woman as beautiful as her shouldn't worry about such things since she would no doubt have men flocking to her as soon as the war was over. This had led to a little word play between the two that had begun to happen more often these days, especially when it was just the two of them.