Chapter no.121

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Recently, Naruto had realized that he had been taking everything far too seriously. It was either secrets this or invasion that, it was nice just to be able to sit back and relax with someone. In reality, he was still only a sixteen year-old teenager, and these were the kinds of things that teenagers were supposed to do, shinobi or not.

Much to the shock of his teammates and joy of his sisters, Naruto had been smiling a lot more...it was odd. Even while being in the same room as almost every person who had wronged him in his life, he couldn't force himself to feel angry or have the same hatred and that he once did. By no means did he fell like running up to Minato and Kushina and giving them a bear hug, but he felt more at ease. This feeling was nice.

With Konoha's alliance with Kiri, he was sure that he would be seeing her a lot more often now.

Seeing as how Konoha's alliance with Suna was effectively ended with their invasion, the village would need ties to another one of the great shinobi villages to ensure that none of the other villages took the opportunity to launch a second invasion in their time of weakness. This is precisely why Obito had spent several years in Kiri working as a liaison. The alliance with Suna had been shaky at best for a long time now, so their invasion shouldn't have been too much of a surprise, that was why Minato had worked out the details with Yagura through Obito, who had spent several years in foreign territory to prove Konoha's sincerity.

For them to position their strongest shinobi in foreign territory on the premise of a treaty and alliance was a sign of the village's good faith. This was because he was constantly surrounded by foreign shinobi who would be willing to end his life at any moment. No sane village leader would sacrifice their strongest asset if their intentions were built upon lies.

"Thank you for your hospitality, Hokage-dono. Our stay was most interesting to stay the least. Should Konoha ever need such help again, do not hesitate to contact Kirigakure, may this alliance prosper." After those final words had been said, Yagura followed his fellow Kini-nin out the door to prepare for their departure.

Minato signaled for an ANBU to escort the Mizukage and his shinobi back to their hotel to make sure that no harm befell on them during their commute. Now would be the perfect opportunity for enemies to strike, since the village was vulnerable and their forces spread thin and concentrated on the work effort to rebuild the village.

"Now with that taken care of, Satsuki, Hana, you are excused for the rest of the day. Make sure to see Obito tomorrow at your usual training ground so that he can brief you as to what your duties as a chūnin entails. Though, Naruto I would like you to remain behind for a few minutes. There are some things that we need to discuss." Minato said with a smile on his face as he took his seat once more.

Satsuki and Hana gave a worried glance to Naruto, but he merely smiled back at them and nodded.

Naruto's new attitude really confused them sometimes. He usually hated having these talks with his parents, but this time he seemed to not care that they were basically going to tie him down to a chair and interrogate him.

But if he was fine with it then so be it.

It was still fairly early in the day, only an hour or two left until lunchtime. They had previously agreed to celebrate whatever outcome the promotional ceremony held at the Akimichi's barbecue restaurant and they really had nothing else to do until then.

Though, the fact that Naruto would be questioned about his abilities really didn't surprise either of them. This occurrence had already happened on more than one occasion before. Hana and Satsuki understood that they wanted to know more about their son or brother, but this wasn't really the way to go about it.

The both let out simultaneous sighs. Whatever, he would be the one dealing with it, not them.

"Well...we'll be waiting for you at the barbecue restaurant when your done here Naruto-nii." Satsuki spoke as she waved goodbye to her brother figure while heading towards the door.

"Don't keep us waiting too long, you're paying you know." Hana teased as she added a wink to stress her point.

"Yeah, yeah. I'll catch up with you two in a bit. Don't start without me!" Naruto called out just as the two newly-made chunin left the room.

Jiraiya slowly got up from his seat on the windowsill, before he walked over to the door, making sure to close and lock it so that nobody would interrupt their conversation.

Seemingly ignoring all every set of eyes that was on him, Naruto walked towards the Hokage's desk and took a seat in one of the chairs right in front of it. The sooner he got all this over with, the better. He had no plans of wasting time with people who didn't like secrets being kept from them, when they knew every one of the darkest secrets of Konoha's history.

Minato whom was staring at the boy with the most suspicion, other than Jiraiya, was the first to break the silence that was slowly filling every corner of the room. "I trust you know why I asked you to stay Naruto." Minato asked with the utmost seriousness.

"Yeah, yeah. Every time I show off the slightest amount of skill, I'm the subject of tis kind of treatment. This really isn't all that surprising anymore." Was Naruto's sarcastic remark which was completely out of place of the serious atmosphere in the room.

Blocking off any form of retreat, Jiraiya was standing in front of the door,was eyeing the boy sternly. He would need to play this carefully if Naruto really was the one that the prophecy spoke of. They already didn't have the best relationship, so he couldn't take his usual approach here, he would need to let Minato lay all the groundwork before he stepped in.