Dark Phoenix of Konoha by White Angel of Auralon

Part 44 - Incident

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.