Naruto: Ero-Ninja CONTINUED

Chapter 34: Reunion

Naruto sat on the wall surrounding the castle that Tobi and Sasuke had used in order to avoid detection while they had planned to seal the jinchuriki Killer Bee. But looking back it had seemed a lot of work to rescue a tentacle. He smiled as he recalled Yugito emerging from the flooded tunnel looking like a half drowned kitten. She had managed to drag the tail up and then proceeded to kick and stomp it repeatedly in the vain hope that her fellow Kumo-nin could feel the phantom pains.

Staring at the severed tail did make Naruto curious though as he wondered if like his own lovers the chakra the tail had represented would regenerate into a new eight-tails. If that was the case Naruto was concerned as it meant that Tobi now potentially had most of the Bijuu. In those terms he figured that both sides had walked away from the battle a winner, although he felt that Tobi had gained more. The question was whether or not he knew it.

Naruto closed his eyes, and "looked in" on Konan to make sure that Tobi didn't make a move against her to obtain the eyes in her possession. Finding her to be okay, and having returned to Ame, he watched the sun near the horizon. Noticing people gathering on the shore near the dock he called down, "It looks like your escorts are here Naho." Having been informed by a messenger hawk to wait for the a group to collect Naho, Team Naruto had spent the past several days searching the castle for any sign of the missing guards or clues Sasuke and Tobi may have left.

The young noble looked up and Naruto could see she was a little scared as well as burdened by the guilt that by allowing Sasuke to stay in the castle she had inadvertently doomed thirty men. The fear Naruto could imagine was due to what punishment she would likely receive. Naruto jumped down to the courtyard glad that once the young woman was handed over he and his lovers would be able to return home.

Naruto took a position on the dock just outside the castle gates as he waited for the guards he expected to guard Naho on her journey to the capital to cross the lake. He frowned though as instead of climbing into the small wooden boat tied to the dock on their end. They proceeded to a nearby boathouse that Naruto assumed was where the spares were kept. Guessing that perhaps the guards wanted to cross in mass, he turned away as he felt Ino approach.

"What are they doing?"

Naruto shrugged as he suggested, "Maybe they want to leave a force in place so squatters don't move in."

Ino seemed to accept his explanation for a moment but then noticing something about the formation of the guards not readying the other boats said, "I don't think so. It almost seems like they are an advanced scouting party."

Naruto arched an eyebrow before taking a second look and spotting how some of the guards had spread out to keep a watch on the area guessed his lover may be right. But who they were scouting for was something of a mystery. For a moment he feared that perhaps bandits had heard about what had happened and believing the castle would be easy pickings had decided to help themselves to some of the finery contained within. Yet he quickly dismissed it as although the soldiers gathering on the opposite bank did appear dirty, he guessed it was due to the speed at which they traveled, as their uniforms were otherwise in immaculate conditions. Although doubting that bandits kept such things lying around just to be safe he nevertheless asked, "You and Karin collected all the samples you wanted to from those white freaks, right?"

Ino nodded as she answered, "Yeah, Tsunade's going to be pleased as she wanted to perform some tests on them. I also performed an autopsy on one..." Naruto wondered why his blonde lover trailed off and noticed that she appeared to be a little sick to her stomach. Knowing it wasn't necessarily due to the task she had just described he wasn't too surprised when she said, "There's not going to be any need to put together a search party for the missing guards."