Naruto: Dreaming of Sunshine

Hey young blood

Doesn't it feel like our time is running out?

~ Phoenix; Fall Out Boy

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The ship that took us to the Land of the Moon was larger and flasher than the one we'd taken to the Land of Snow, but it was still a boat, so I was glad when we were able to disembark.

"Home sweet home," Michiru called joyfully, spreading his arms like he could hug the whole country. He was starting to look tired now, like a man who had been on a very long trip who was so close to being home, however enjoyable that trip had been.

We left the majority of the group and items – of which there were a lot because the prince had spent his entire trip just buying stuff – to be unloaded at the docks and only took a single carriage to transport the prince back to the palace.

But as we drew up the road towards the palace, I gestured my team into a firmer formation around the carriage.

"Sense something?" Kiba asked, taking point.

"Not yet," I said with a slight frown. "But if anything is going to happen, this will be the last chance."

We'd been alert the whole trip, waiting for whatever shoe to fall and nothing had. Making it back home would either mean he was safe or we would find out what was really going on.

Best case scenario, nothing was going on. We'd deliver Michiru home, mission complete, turn around and go home. Worst case scenario… well. There were a lot of different worst case scenarios, actually.

There were guards on the gates to the grounds and the driver hailed them to admit us. They conferred for a moment, and I sensed a runner get sent off towards the castle before the gates swung open.

Not unusual, I thought because there were plenty of legitimate reasons to alert people to returning royalty. A welcoming committee would need to be assembled, food readied, preparations made to retrieve things from the docks – perfectly normal concerns.

But I still made sure I knew exactly where the guards along the fence were.

I hesitated for a beat, then swung up onto the step beside the carriage door. "Are there an unusual number of guards around?" I asked through the window, quietly. I had nothing to compare it to, since I didn't know Land of the Moon, but it wasn't a small number.

Michiru blinked owlishly at me, then looked around in confusion. "Oh, I suppose," he said which wasn't exactly a solid confirmation. "I hope nothing has gone wrong."

I made a vague hum and stepped down off the moving carriage, moving back out to a wide guard position. I had no doubt the rest of the team had heard that exchange and they could draw their own conclusions.

The grounds were pretty and well maintained – a driveway that circled up to the palace, a large water feature on prominent display – and the carriage drew to a halt in front of the oversized front doors. Above the doors there was an open balcony with stairs on either side.

The passengers got out of the carriage. "Eh? No one has come to welcome us?" Michiru asked, sounding disappointed.

There was the sound of echoed footsteps, the rhythmic sounds of a score of people marching in unison, and a squad of guards appeared on the second floor, marching down the stairs to surround us. There were maybe forty of them, armed with shields and spears or swords.

We moved into a tight formation around Michiru and Hikaru.

"Hold," I said, quietly, trusting my team to pick up on it. I wanted to know what was going on. These were only civilians and we weren't in trouble yet. We could afford to wait and see how this played out.

"Shabadaba?" Michiru called, looking upwards as a man appeared on the balcony above us and doing an excellent job of ignoring the armed soldiers around us. "What's going on, is something wrong?" There was definite unease in his voice, but he was trying to seem confident.

Irrelevantly, I wondered who on earth named their child Shabadaba. Shaba daba doo? You were honestly just asking for them to turn into a cartoon villain at that point, weren't you?

"Michiru-dono," Shabadaba said with a barely concealed sneer. "I see you've returned from your trip. And Hikaru-dono, too."

And that didn't sound intentionally ominous at all, I thought dryly. Like someone had arranged for him not to return, perhaps?

Michiru put a hand on his sons shoulder and pulled him close. "Yes, of course," he said with fake cheer, eyes moving back and forth across the man above us. "Where's Papa?" he asked with the same determined pep. "Is he not here?"

"The King," Shabadaba said, "is dead. I am now the ruler of this country. So that makes you… quite unnecessary."

The soldiers around us tensed, hands tightening around weapons, leather creaking and metal clanking.

"Kill them," Shabadaba ordered.

The soldiers didn't move.

Not that they didn't want to, of course. But they'd launched an ambush on a group that included two Nara. It was doomed to fail right from the very start. And that balcony did cast a very nice shadow down on us.

"Drop your weapons," I ordered. I opened my hands and they did. On the other side of the group, Shikamaru mirrored me which was the real purpose of the statement. The guards didn't have a choice.

Still, the looks on their faces as they followed my orders. Like the words had power.

Sai leapt up, springing from the top of the carriage to the ledge of the balcony in one easy move. His sword was half drawn as he crouched.

"Taicho," he said diffidently. "Shall I take care of this?"

Shabadaba stepped back, the look on his face that of a man who had just made a very large mistake. But not one who regretted it. "Ishidate!" he shouted.

And-

"Three ninja incoming!" I said loudly, chakra sense picking up on the signals inside of the palace. They were moving smoothly but not with a great deal of urgency, like someone whose employer was in trouble. Maybe they didn't particularly like him, either.

Shikamaru and I exchanged looks and pulled out ninja wire, tying it to shuriken to loop it around the guards in an easy restraint. It wasn't particularly binding, but it was fast and we wanted them out of the way if there was going to be real fighting.

"I thought you said you had it handled," the incoming ninja drawled, stepping out onto the balcony. He had a shock of orange spikey hair and a white vest over a blue outfit. The other two ninja with him – a girl and an even larger man – were dressed the same.

Shabadaba bristled, right down to his ridiculous moustache. "Just kill them," he said in irritation.

Ishidate – that was probably his name – sighed theatrically.

Then moved. Fast.

Sai bent backwards and just barely avoided the first swipe. Ishidate's fist passed over his chest, close enough to ruffle his clothes. Then it stopped and reversed, a hammer blow coming down at an angle to crack his ribcage.

Sai retreated in a burst of body flicker, vanishing as the stone he had been standing on exploded into fragments and dust, returning to the ground.

The other two ninja were stayed where they were, hanging back, but that clearly didn't count them out of the game.

I considered our options. Not just if we could manage this fight, but if we should. Obviously we needed to keep Michiru safe from them – that was our mission – but it might not have been our best option to engage these with him right here. We had no idea what their skills were and it would take so little for them to get past us to kill him.

"Watch the damage!" Shabadaba said sharply. "I can't have you wrecking my palace as soon as I take over. These things cost money to repair, you know."

"We'd all prefer things were settled without damage," I offered, projecting my voice up to them. It was a bit of a long shot, but I would much prefer it if we didn't get into serious fights while trying to protect people. "Surely this can be settled diplomatically like civilized people?"

Apparently not.

The girl rolled her eyes. "I'll take care of it," she said, and flicked a kunai down towards us.

Kiba batted it away from the carriage but the smoke bomb attached to it exploded in mid-air and he froze. "Poison!" he shouted. "Don't breathe it in!"

And that decided me. None of this fight was in our favour and none of us had any particular skill at dealing with poison. "Retreat," I ordered. "Get back in the carriage." I gave Michiru a shove towards the vehicle and he scrambled for the door.

The rest of us scattered as far from the smoke as we could without getting too far from our client. It was hard to tell if it made any difference without knowing what kind of poison it was. Not breathing was going to be hard if we had to fight. Oxygen was a necessity.

The carriage started to move, the horses well trained even though they were starting to dance with fear. But the gates ahead were closed and the guards posted around the fence line were drawing inwards, pulled by the fighting.

"Sai, take out the guards," I ordered. "Kiba, get the gates."

Which left Shika and I to stall these ninja so we could get away. Yay.

I flicked a kunai with exploding tag up at the balcony – more at Shabadaba than the ninja, because two could play at this game. Ishidate knocked it out of the way, back into the air, but seemed more irritated than worried.

"Well, Karenbana," he said and crossed his arms. "Are you going to take care of it? Or shall I do it?"

Karenbana glowered at him. I caught the brief flicker of light on metal as she palmed a kunai, then she vanished in a burst of speed.

I twisted, tracking her by chakra not sight, to avoid the attack.

Her kunai scored a line of fire across my cheek.

Wha- I dodged that!

But there was no time to voice the thought. She was too fast. I couldn't react in time, even if I could sense her changes in direction. Had no time to start a jutsu to catch her when I was so busy trying to dodge.

Then Shikamaru's shadow raced around me, encircling me and providing a barrier of safety she couldn't cross without being caught.

I staggered, and ran a thumb across the cut on my cheek. "The poison," I said, more a warning to Shika that because I needed to realise it out loud. Also because I needed to stall for a moment – my hand dropped to my vest, flicking open one of the front pockets. "It dulls our reactions. Senses as well."

Karenbana smirked but didn't reply.

Behind us, Kiba was spinning into a Tunneling Fang, bursting the gates open to let the carriage out. And I could feel the fluttering of Sai's ink animals subduing the guards.

Time to leave.

"Shadow Stitching Jutsu!" I called, dropping four small finger sized scrolls down onto the tendrils. They snapped out, extending rapidly, not at Karenbana but past her. Two reached back to the walls of the castle and two only slammed into the ground only steps in front of us.

"Sealing Style; Four Corner Barrier Seal!"

Blue light snapped into reality, translucent walls filling the air between the seals. The two rear seals were far back enough that it curved up over the balcony, locking all three of our enemies inside. Usually, you set barriers up to keep things out but they worked just as well to keep things in – all you had to change was to put the seal tags outside of it.

Karenbana slammed into it, just a few seconds too slow to escape. Her face was filled with rage.

My one seal barrier had failed utterly in the Chunin Exams. I'd had to take a step back, go back to the original barriers and start again. This wasn't even one of my creations – but I was now really glad I had brought it along.

Shikamaru grabbed my arm. "How long will it hold?" he asked as we spun and chased after the carriage.

"Hour, maybe," I said. "Unless they have some way to break it."

Which was a possibility you could never discount. I was hoping it would hold, that it would give us time to get away and get our client somewhere safe – give us time to regroup and shake off the effects of this poison.

I kept an eye out behind us as we caught up to the carriage careening back along the streets. Nothing came chasing after us and nothing attacked, so they hadn't broken it yet.

The horses were slowing down, unable to keep the pace, breathing heavily and sweating. It was going to be faster to leave them behind soon, and travel on foot, but that raised the question of where we were going to go. Getting away was one thing. Now we had to work out what we were doing next.

At the front of the group Akamaru barked. "Yeah, guards ahead," Kiba agreed, translating for us. "Not ninja, though."

The guards were dressed the same as those from the palace, but they weren't barring the road. On the contrary, they were waving, like they were trying to hail us down. "Michiru-dono! Michiru-dono, this way, quickly!"

"Captain Korega?" Michiru said, unwinding just a little and looking out the window. He kept Hikaru pressed tightly to his chest. He was pale and shaking but that was almost to be expected after what had just happened.

"You know him?" I asked, hopping up onto the footwell. That wasn't exactly a vote of confidence, given the whole coup situation but… it would be good if there were locals on our side.

"Yes, he was the captain of the guard," Michiru said. "Do you think…?"