Strolling Amongst Stalactites

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As Jade freed Naruko a certain old goat in a Konoha woke up with a feeling of dread ...

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Hiruzen Sarutobi looked up from his paperwork when he heard someone come in, "It has been a while, Koharu." He smiled as he saw his old teammate, but he blinked as the old woman remained silent and seemed to be studying his face. "What? Is something on my face? Did I get ink on me again?" He asked while patting his face looking for any stray ink.

Koharu straightened her back and leveled the hokage with a stern glare, "I've always known that you had a sexist point of view on pretty much everything, but I thought you were smart enough to keep your opinions quiet especially around our clients."

"Wait what?! I don't think like that ... honest." he argued weakly under the old woman's glare.

"Sure, whatever you say." snapped Koharu coldly clearly not believing it, "but just so you are aware we lost a few treaties because it got out that you think females are best suited for brothels and you have some explaining to do to the new Fire Daimyo who, guess what ... is a woman." she hissed in irritation and promptly stormed out of the office.

The hokage flinched as the door slammed harshly, "Ever since Naruko disappeared everything has been going downhill." He sighed sadly.

Over the past few weeks he found himself getting more and more worried about the small five year old. He was kicking himself for not keeping a closer eye on her and now she was gone. It may have been common practice in other villages to hurt demon vessels, but Konoha didn't do it on such a level until this time.

Kushina, the former vessel was only teased for her hair color and except for one kidnapping attempt, but that wasn't a plot to manipulate the demon vessel. Naruko is different. She didn't just have the demon sealed in her at a young age, but right after her birth no less, and worse, right after the nine tailed demon attacked the village. The civilians were heartbroken and needed to blame someone for those who were killed ...

So the brilliant third hokage had a plan ... a kill two birds with one stone deal. He let the villagers attack the demon vessel to vent their anger and train her to be their weapon at the same time ... he severely underestimated the villagers' cruelty. As another brilliant move he had another ninja pose as Kakashi Hatake in full anbu uniform and mask.

Being the fourth hokage's student he world of want to have Naruko, his sensei's daughter, on his genin team so Sarutobi thought giving Naruko a fearful impression of the man who used Kakashi's voice, hair and body type would help keep her in line. Before you ask, Sarutobi had to have someone else make Kakashi scary because Kakashi would rip out his eyes before hurting Naruko. The attacks on Naruko were arranged to happen when Kakashi was away on a mission.

If Kakashi or, heaven forbid, Tsunade and Jiraiya found out about any of this ... he would be so dead ...

A bird landed on his window and he pulled the message off its leg, "Ooooooh shit ... I have to find Naruko."

Jiraiya was returning soon to check on Naruko. The sage wasn't supposed to draw attention to her and originally agreed to stay away to protect her, but he couldn't help it. He had to see her ...

Hiruzen gulped, he had to cover some things up ... and stall for time by making up some sort of excuse for why he can't see Naruko ... maybe Naruko is sick- no ... that will make Jiraiya get Tsunade and then he'd be in even deeper trouble! He had to think of something, but what?!

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"YAY! I did it!" Naruko yelled happily.

Jade came in from the other room and grinned as she saw the little girl run up to her with her orange Warp Stone that she had been playing with everyday for about a month "lets see"