Nindō: Dominion

"What a moron," Naruto's clone shook his head, not particularly affected by the threat that Urashiki left while running away. "What about you? Can you stand?" He asked Temari, who had put her entire body weight on him after putting an arm around his shoulder.

"I don't think I can stay conscious much longer. He sapped away all of my chakra," Temari said before looking at Naruto. "You didn't get hit even once against that monster?"

"I'm built differently, Temari," Naruto's clone laughed. "Plus, That guy is leagues weaker than either Momoshiki or Kinshiki, the two who attacked the stadium."

"Monsters … all of them," She shook her head. "Why even was he here?"

"He wants chakra. It seems that my clone is his most attractive target at the moment," Naruto said.

"Won't you just dispel if he tries to take your chakra?" She asked, her voice strained.

"If he hooks himself into my clone, not only will I not be dispelled, but he might even be able to extract a portion of Kurama's chakra from me. A very small portion, but a portion of it nonetheless," Naruto told her.

"Ahh, fuck!" Temari grunted as she felt herself getting weaker and weaker as the effects of chakra exhaustion started hitting her. "Can you share some of your chakra with me?" She asked him, a little desperate, as she looked up into his eyes.

"You don't have any chakra of your own right now, Temari. If I send my chakra into your body, the reaction will be the opposite of what you want. If chakra exhaustion was that easy to fix, then it wouldn't still be an issue for ninja," Naruto said.

"Yeah, I know …" She said, grumbling. "I was just shooting my shot, hoping that your fancy abilities could somehow help me out with it."

"I can heal your spiritual and physical damage, which I'm already doing," Naruto said as Temari's eyes widened. "That's why you're still awake enough to talk to me right now."

"I see …" She got conscious about the fact that she was currently talking in such a leisurely manner with the Hokage, "Sorry for acting short with you, Hokage-sama. I'm just a little … frustrated." She instinctively addressed him formally despite previously talking to him normally.

"You don't need to feel too conscious about being frank with me, Temari. Your frustration is understandable," Naruto said, shifting his hand a little to hold Temari up more easily. "You've just lost all of your chakra, leaving you extremely vulnerable to attacks. Not to mention the entire Anbu squadron's demise without even leaving bodies to be buried. Anyone would be frustrated about this situation."

"No. That's not it. I've seen enough death in my life that it doesn't faze me as such," She said, leaning further on Naruto as her current weakness seemed to settle in. "I was more concerned about the conversation that we were having on the train … Whatever, forget it, we should get a move on before more Suna nin encounter us. There's no telling when that Ōtsutsuki might return."

"You're correct," Naruto said before taking a step as Temari was essentially dragged alongside him. He frowned, "It won't be easy for me to support you like this while walking on the sand."

"What do you suggest?" Temari felt that it would be rude of her to make demands of him and threw the mantle in his hands.

"Get on my back, I'll form some chakra strings to wrap around you so that you stay in place while I move," Naruto said, letting the woman go. She almost fell after losing his support, barely holding on to his shoulder to continue standing.

She frowned, thinking about the prospect of asking him to send a clone to Suna to get some help for them.

"I know what you're thinking," Naruto said. "While I could do that, our people are currently trapped in Suna. If they expose themselves, Suna's Anbu will find them and get to Kankuro, making things much harder even with my presence. Don't think too much about it," He gave Temari a bright smile. "Think of it as a simple escort mission … just you are the helpless civilian being escorted … and the Hokage of Konoha is the one fulfilling the mission."

The blonde snorted and looked away, but a small smile crept up on her face, "You're right."

Naruto let go of her as she barely kept herself upright and knelt in front of her while facing away. She made her way behind him and rested her arms on his shoulder before taking a deep breath. She pulled her attire slightly higher as it would get in the way of the position and moved slightly forward as Naruto started standing up. A grunt escaped the blonde's lips as she tried to raise her legs further but was unsuccessful. Naruto understood and wordlessly grabbed her thighs to support her.

The blonde hardened her expression, deciding to ignore the inappropriate contact that she was sharing with her husband's best friend, not to mention the Hokage — who is also married. Naruto stood up while holding Temari's legs up as an invisible rope wrapped around him and her in a cross shape and was tied around Temari's torso and legs to keep her weak body in place, freeing his hands. She felt her chest pressing against Naruto's back and felt even more conscious about the situation, but decided that ignoring it would be the best. She didn't think having a conversation about the weirdness of the situation would bring any benefits to either of the two.

Neither she nor Naruto spoke a word to each other for a couple of minutes, but the helplessness of her situation started getting to Temari, frustrating her. Not only was she powerless to even stand up by herself, but she was also tied up against another man, forced to be constantly pressed against him with how tight the chakra ropes were wrapped around her torso and legs.

"Hey, Naruto …" Temari somehow felt weird as she called the man.

"What is it?" He asked, seeming completely unbothered by the current situation.

"We were talking about Shikamaru when the Anbu derailed our train, right?" She said.

"I am not going to tell you whether he's ever cheated on you or not. I am his friend and have no plans to rat him out. But off the record, no, he has never cheated on you despite having plenty of chances to do so," His words made Temari burst out laughing.

"I would've destroyed him if he ever dared to come home smelling of another woman," She said with a slightly growling tone as Naruto laughed.

"I'm going to pick up the pace now. Hold on," Temari restrained the urge to roll her eyes at his words. The chakra ropes held her tight enough that she couldn't free herself and fall even if she wanted to. Her eyes widened as she let out a yelp when Naruto suddenly shot forward at an insane speed. The man was easily running at the same speed as the train itself, maybe even more so.

Temari found herself on a much less comfortable and much more bumpy ride as each of Naruto's steps sent a wave of force through her, making her rub against him repeatedly as if grinding herself on him. Restraining the urge to groan at the situation that had now gotten even weirder, she ground her teeth and spoke up in an attempt to distract herself, "How is Shikadai doing in his missions these days?" She asked. "Shikamaru told me some time ago that Team 10 has a very good success rate for missions. Is there anything that Shikadai should focus on?"

Naruto laughed at her words, "There is a reason that Shikamaru doesn't share too many details about Team Ten's missions with you, Temari. Not because they are confidential but because he knows that you would go into your overprotective mother mode and scrutinize Shikadai to no end. Let him grow on his own while guiding him; don't force your experiences upon him. Shikamaru's words, not mine."

Temari frowned, she would've told Naruto to butt out of her and her family's business, but his last sentence shut that up. She spoke up, "Shikamaru is a moron," She said. "Back when we were genin, we used to deal with things of immense magnitude, even taking some S-rank missions. We took action to change the entire political landscape of small countries. And him? The missions that the genin nowadays go on are mostly all D and C-rank ones with barely a single A-rank one in their roster, let alone S-ranks."

"First off, that's because you and Kankuro were in Gaara's squad and were the only ones whom he would somewhat listen to back then. Secondly, this era is different," Naruto said. "Sasuke, I, Shikamaru, and the rest of the Kage have all worked very hard to bring about an era of peace and non-conflict. While there are still some small skirmishes throughout the world, nothing has ever grown to the point where we need to send our kids to war. I remember shinobi as young as thirteen or fourteen participating in the Fourth Ninja War. The Third was even worse, directly sending newly graduated genin shinobi into war right after they graduated from the academy. We grew up in a time when all of the villages were licking their wounds, desperately showing off a strong front by completing whatever missions they got, whether they had the manpower or not. That is why kids like us were forced to go do missions of proportions far beyond our skills."

Temari couldn't help but sigh as she took in the depth of Naruto's words, "Conflict and danger breed strong shinobi; strong shinobi breed peace," She spoke, she was about to continue, but Naruto interrupted her.

"I don't plan to let things devolve into what you're thinking, Temari," He said. "While an era of peace will naturally make Shinobi more mellow and peaceful, I will make sure that I leave things in capable hands. Hands who truly embody the Will of Fire."

"But what if …"

Naruto and Temari passed the time by enthusiastically discussing their views on the sensitive topics of peace and the current state of the new generation of Shinobi.

***

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