The Ultimate Weapon (Naruto Fanfic)

41-Bumpy Roads

Faint mist covered the ground as Aoi and his teammates drew ever closer to the mist village.The mist shinobi had told them that they should arrive in the village today, and everyone in the group was looking forward to the relative safety. Mountains rose up on the sides of the road, spires stretching to the sky, a natural defense for the village. Before long there was a guardhouse, and two shinobi stepped out to meet them.

"State your name and show your travel papers." The guard had a gruff voice, with long uncombed hair and a scruffy beard. There was a decidedly unfriendly look in his eyes, and he didn't seem in the mood for any delay.

Aoi stepped forward with the papers, handing them to the man as he spoke. "Aoi, a jonin from Konoha. My teammates are Shikamaru Nara, Shino Aburame, and Migota Kidoairaku, all chunin. We are here to escort and protect Princess Kou to watch the chunin exams."

It took a few minutes to shuffle through the papers, double checking them with a list of expected guests. Finally, the man handed them back. "Welcome to Kirigakura, don't do anything that will cause trouble, or you won't have a chance to explain yourself to the Mizukage." The man then looked beyond the group from Konoha. "Yoshito! It's been a while!"

The leader of the mist shinobi that had been accompanying them smiled back. "Good to see you Kodaichi, guard duty today?"

"Yeah, the Mizukage's being cautious this year with village security."

"She would have to be for a jonin to be on guard." They both grinned at each other.

Then the gate guard sobered up, realizing the leaf shinobi were still there. "I'll see you later Yoshito, maybe we'll go out for a drink."

"Yeah, gotta turn in my report anyways."

The group continued then, with Yoshito and Shin leading the way through the village to a massive village. The leaf all looked around, taking in the sights of the foreign ninja village. There were spires of rock, holes in them emitting light. The village was noisy, decorations spread from home to home over the street in celebration of the chunin exams. There was an air of excitement, as here, like everywhere else, the chunin exams were akin to a festival for citizens and nonparticipant shinobi.

Eventually, the group came to a halt. There was a building before them with a sign, an inn. "For the duration of the chunin exams you can stay here. On the day of the tournament, someone will come to lead you to the arena, in the meantime, feel free to explore the village. Of course, there are guards everywhere, so don't get any funny ideas." Yoshito looked them all over, but no one reacted to this. "It was nice meeting you, some others from your village were annoyingly eccentric."

With that, the mist team left. After they did, Migota was the first to speak, breaking the silence before one could begin. "Right, well let's get settled in and then we can decide what to do." They were given two rooms, one far larger than the other, as Kou was, after all, a princess.

When Kou saw that Migota was going to room with her team, she cut into the group. "Migota, come stay with me. The room is much to big for a single person, and a lady shouldn't share a room with three men."

"Oh... um..." Migota hesitated a moment, looking from Kou to Aoi, or rather the door Aoi had disappeared into, in indecision.

Shino cut in, "Aoi will not mind, because it will be easier to protect the princess if one of us is near her."

 "Right, then I'll be with Kou," Migota turned around, following Kou into the room.

When the door had shut behind the two, the princess sighed. "I'm sorry, I should have thought about your team. I suppose I'm a little selfish, I just didn't want to be alone, and couldn't very well ask the other three to sleep here as well."