Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted material shown herein. They all belong to their respective creators and associated companies. I make no money off of this whatsoever. I write only for my own enjoyment and for those that like to read my stories.

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Konoha Hospital, Two Days Later, Mid-Afternoon, Uchiha Sasuke's P.O.V

Again.

Again he had failed to stop his older brother Itachi.

Failed and instead of him paying the price for that failure, Alexander was the one who'd suffered the most.

He hadn't escaped from the fight unscathed but his injuries had been easily handled. While they weren't quite ready to discharge him just yet, neither was he still so injured that they made sure he stayed in bed. It was only today though that he'd chosen to visit his cousin. Up until today he hadn't been able to face the most recent example of his brother's evil but eventually he felt it necessary to see the new reason he had for putting an end to his brother. Looking at Alexander from where he stood, he could tell that the medical nins had completed most of their work on his physical injuries with time the only thing needed now for recovery. The injuries of the mind, though, were beyond any ninja healer currently in Konoha and would require nothing less than the skills of a legend to repair. He knew firsthand the sort of hell that Itachi could put someone through with his Mangekyou Sharingan and, for a moment, he wondered what sort of torture his older sibling had visited upon their newest relative. It would without a doubt have been something painful, either emotionally or physically, in order to wreak the sort of psychological damage to put Alexander in this state. Had it been repeated viewings of a loved one's death or had it been simply been never ending physical torture?

In the end it didn't matter what had been done.

All that mattered was the end result.

His cousin was lying in a bed, staring vacantly at the ceiling and only his autonomic functions were causing his body to move at all.

This caused his anger to rise within him as his imagination came up with worst case scenarios of how the future might unfold in the days and weeks to come. What if Naruto failed to find Senju Tsunade? What if she refused to come back to Konoha? Would Alexander stay this way forever or would some other medical specialist find a way to heal him? He didn't know and that lack of knowing one way or another only frustrated him all the more. This frustration only fed the anger within him until, without willing it, he could feel his Sharingan activate, changing the way the world looked in his eyes. He swore, swore on the life of the Uchiha in front of him, that his brother Itachi would die for all the death and misery that he left in his wake! He knew that as the gap between himself and his older brother hadn't closed as much as he'd wanted, he would triple his training efforts in order to get stronger.

He would also be adding his cousin's method of sealing explosive tags into his hands.

It would be a useful technique and, if he could somehow get gloves that were the same color as the ink, he'd use then his enemies would be completely in the dark until he actually undid the seals. It would be a nice surprise to have up his sleeve and, if he could build on the idea somehow, make it better, then it'd give him an advantage when he next faced Itachi.

Getting up from his chair, he decided to go back to his room so that he could begin planning his training schedule without any… distractions holding him back. He couldn't have anything holding him back if he was to catch up with Itachi and avenge the death of so many family members. Nothing was more important than that objective.

Absolutely nothing.

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Konoha Hospital, Evening, Two Days Later, Inuzuka Hana's P.O.V

You better wake up soon, Xander. Hana thought looking up from a scroll she'd borrowed from her mother's library, It's not fair of you to have everyone in such a snit and not let them yell at you.

It had been eight days since her teammate had been brought back with his cousin and there had yet to be any real improvement in the situation as far as his mind went. The docs had made it clear that the odds of the Uchiha managing to come out of his current state on his own were slim at best. Psychological damage via genjutsu was usually quite thorough and, as was the case with Copy Ninja Kakashi, even the most experienced of shinobi could be brought down with the right technique. Every adult was telling her that she should wait for Naruto to get back with Tsunade but it had been eight days already and she was beginning to lose her patience. Not that she was known for patience to begin with but what little she did have had been almost completely used up, leaving only a few drops and fumes for her to work with. If that blonde-haired kid didn't come back soon, she was going to head out with her partners to track him down just to give him a piece of her mind.

In a way it might be easier on Xander if she did go off and blow off some steam.

Then she remembered how pissed she was that Wannabe had gone off with only that moody Sasuke as backup.

She was going to make his ears bleed with the tongue lashing she was going to give him!

In the midst of this thought, she remembered the amused look on Anko-sensei's face two days ago when she'd last come to visit Xander. She'd called the Jounin on it and the woman had the gall to insinuate that she was acting more like a worried girlfriend than a teammate! Her! Wannabe's girlfriend!! Yeah!! RIGHT!! Even if she had accepted the guy into Team Anko and even if she had come to respect him as a ninja, she didn't see how that could possibly translate to her… liking… him in a 'more than friendship' sort of way. AARRRGGHH!! It was driving her insane, that memory was, and no matter how much she tried to repress it the thing never failed to pop up whenever she started thinking about telling off Xander when he woke up. Yet another reason to want Naruto to hurry back to Konoha with the super medical-nin, so she could tell off Wannabe and get the whole mess out of her system. Maybe once she said her piece to him, that one damn conversation would finally leave her alone so things could get back to normal.

The old fossils on the village council had allowed Team Anko some time off because they were down a member, but not one of them expected that that'd last would forever. While the number of casualties from the invasion hadn't been as bad as it could have been, Konoha was still in a tight spot. It needed every available ninja, from Genin to Jounin to ANBU, working their hardest to keep their enemies from thinking about trying something shady. She figured that at best she had about three or four days before she, Ayeka and Anko-sensei would have to go off on a couple of missions, whether they wanted to or not. Anko would probably be a bit pissed but would follow orders, Ayeka would, of course, do her best to come up a reason for her to stay close to her 'future husband' and she'd probably resist leaving on a mission just to piss those bags of bones off. If necessary, she'd look up their own rules and use them to her benefit if simply refusing wasn't enough to get them to leave her alone.

And she'd pound the first person to imply that the reason she refused to leave on a mission was because she was worried about Uchiha Xander in a more than friendship sort of way.

Even if… even if it might have some truth to it.

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Konoha Hospital, Two Days Later, Morning, Ayeka's P.O.V

Please wake up, Xander-sama. Ayeka thought as she placed another bunch of flowers from Yamanaka's Flower Shop into a water filled vase, I… I miss you.

It had been ten days since that horrible day when she'd learned that the young man she had set her eyes on had been seriously hurt fighting some S class ninja. She hadn't wanted to believe it but, after seeing the Uchiha for herself, she could not refute what she had been told about his condition. Ever since then she'd been spending almost every free moment she had at his side and only when either Anko-sensei or her mother forced her did she do anything else. They said they were doing so because it wasn't healthy for her to worry so constantly about her teammate to the exclusion of all else. Upon objective reflection, or at least as close as she could come to it, she had to admit they sort of had a point. More than once she'd found herself having gone more than five hours without a single thing to drink or eat and this caused her stomach to growl at embarrassing moments. She tried to watch herself, to keep from doing things that would make others worry, but all it took was a few moments looking at Xander-kun to make his situation her entire world.

Sometimes she smiled slightly in wonder at how far she'd come since that day when Anko'd first introduced her and Hana to their new teammate. In the beginning she'd been resistant to the addition of a stranger to Team Anko but had warmed up considerably when she'd found out that he was a member of the illustrious Uchiha clan. It had always been a goal of hers to rise above her current societal standing and ensure that when she left this world she was better off than when she entered it. She'd hated the possibility of living her life never doing anything other than what was expected of someone 'at her level of society' and so strove to rise up to become more than anyone thought she could be. True, her dedication to training and improving herself as a ninja hadn't been as strong as her efforts to marry into one of the more powerful ninja clans in Konoha, but she'd been working to change that in the last couple of weeks.

Ever since that nightmare of a journey through the Forest of Death, she'd been doing what she could to improve her skills as a shinobi so that she could be more than a trophy wife to her future husband. Learning the skills of a medical-nin had been at the top of her list, followed by increasing her skill with projectile combat but, thanks to Hana no Bitch's sneaky little getaway, her training had been almost completely derailed. In the end she'd been forced to go into the Final Matches not much better than when she'd fought in the preliminary matches a month before. Then those three Sound whores had shown up and she'd been forced to watch Xander-sama get beat up once more before somehow turning things around with that weird black chakra jutsu. She still wasn't sure what it was but she knew that the American Uchiha had still wound up in the hospital afterwards, making it clear that if Xander-kun was going to keep getting into trouble like this, he'd need back up. Back up she'd be if she had any say in things.

Being 'Lady Uchiha' doesn't seem quite so important anymore. She thought, sitting down in the same chair she'd been using since the young man before her had been admitted, Not when I want more than just a title. Not when I truly wish to earn his heart.

Indeed, the 'gold digging' Hana had accused her of had gradually given way to true affection and was well on its way to becoming something more. Oh, sure, she might use some of the some tactics and her thoughts might roll down paths similar to when she'd only been interested in rank and title, but the feelings behind them had changed making all the difference. Where once there had merely been selfish ambition there was now a growing flame of affection that had already grown large enough that the status of focus of the fire was enough to severely mess her up mentally. She doubted very much that she'd be in any sort of mission ready shape until something happened to convince her that Xander-sama would make a full recovery.

"C'mon! C'mon! Hurry up, Tsunade-no-baa-chan!!" Came the familiar yelling of one Uzumaki Naruto from the hallway of the hospital.

"Tsunade?!" She exclaimed before shooting out of her chair and running for the door to the room.

Using the doorframe to stop herself, she looked in the direction she'd heard the younger Genin's voice come from and saw something that caused her hopes to soar. Coming down the hallway just a couple of feet behind the noisy ninja was a blonde woman looking to be in her early twenties but walked with the presence of someone much older. She wondered if this really was the legendary Sannin that Uzumaki had been off to find, seeing as how the student of the Third should have been in her fifties. However she didn't think that even the number one ninja at surprising people would be this hyped up if the person he was leading down the hall was a fake of some kind. Plus she doubted that someone impersonating the granddaughter of the First Hokage and one of the Legendary Sannin would have gotten very far into the village. As the Sannin reached the doorframe, she automatically reacted to the presence of a superior ninja and stepped aside to let the fellow blonde kunoichi enter. Watching her walk over to the bed where Uchiha Xander was, she wondered if this was the moment where all her hopes for the past ten days would be realized or if she'd plunge to new levels of sorrow.

"Uchiha Alexander, eh?" She heard the woman remark with a mix of amusement and fondness, "You definitely take after your mother in the looks department, kid."

Walking back over to the bed she watched as the older woman formed a hand seal and then placed a hand emitting a green chakra field on Xander-sama's forehead. Wondering what technique it was only for a moment, she then focused all of her attention on the face of the one who meant so much to her. She watched his eyes for the slightest flicker. She watched his mouth for the smallest voluntary movement. It seemed like an eternity had passed but, when she heard the first moan of awakening coming from the mouth of her teammate and potential significant other, she became so happy that tears of joy began to flow down her cheeks. Watching his eyelids pull back to reveal brown eyes that were once more full of life instead of the blankness of before, she quickly moved to the side of the bed opposite Tsunade-sama in order to be the first to welcome him back.

That is until he uttered his first full sentence.

"Man do I hope I checked the 'do not revive' box because I'm most definitely looking at heaven right now." Xander said with his eyes looking right at Tsunade's quite substantial chest.

For a moment everyone in the room froze as they waited to see how the blonde woman would react to such a lewd comment but the silence was broken when Tsunade barked with laughter before settling into a few moments of giggling. This relaxed just about everyone in the room and, now that he was fully awake, Xander-sama seemed to realize in 'inappropriateness' of his words, if the nervous look of embarrassment was anything to go by. He looked properly guilty and sorry for what he'd just said, so she'd let the comment slide by just this once. Besides, it wasn't the size of a woman's chest that mattered but rather how they were presented that matters. With the right clothes, just about any cup size could seem attractive to a guy and besides at least her chest was nice, firm and appropriately gravity defying, unlike Tsunade's, which were noticeably sagging. Ahhh, the horrors of growing old!

"HA! You're definitely Jun'ko's kid! She had a knack for saying the wrong things after waking up, too. Fortunately she soon learned her lesson." Tsunade said finally done chuckling at the Genin's statement, "You know what that lesson was, Alexander?"

"Um…no?" Xander-sama replied, obviously thinking he was in a verbal minefield at the moment.

"Never say anything to piss off someone who can turn you into a greasy stain on the floor." Tsunade replied with a tone in her voice and a look in her eyes that sent shivers through those that saw both, "Simple, isn't it?"

"Yep! Real simple!" Xander-kun said right away, nodding his head rapidly.

"Then I'll leave you to the rest of your recovery. If your chart is any hint, they should be able to discharge you as soon as tomorrow." Tsunade said with her face completely clear of any anger or warning as she looked over his medical chart, "I suggest you learn how to think before you speak or else you're going to get into trouble down the road."

"Yeah! Yeah! C'mon! Kakashi-sensei's next, Tsunade-no-baa-chan!!" Naruto exclaimed, obviously impatient for his Jounin teacher to be healed.

"Yeah, yeah!" Tsunade-sama sighed as she and the rest of the group walked out of the room.

She didn't miss how Xander-sama slumped in relief at the departure of one of the most powerful ninja in Konoha history. Not that she could blame him, since the blonde student of the Third Hokage was reputed to be so strong she could demolish an entire building with only her bare fists and a few surgical punches. The very thought of having someone like that pissed at her was enough to make her vow always to be on her very best behavior whenever she was in the older woman's presence. Even if she made it to the rank of Jounin, she'd always show the proper respect since she knew that those that did otherwise would be lucky if they lived to regret it.

For now, though, it was just her and Xander-sama and she had a question she'd like to have an answer to if only to satisfy her own curiosity.

"So, Xander-sama, you like women with a good rack on them? Is that right?" She asked with a playful smile on her face as a decidedly uneasy look appeared on Xander-kun's face.

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In the Tree Outside of Xander's Hospital Room, Same Time

He will recover now. Thought he masked figure from her perch in the tree, Now I can finally fulfill the last order given to me by Third.

It had been six weeks since she'd been summoned by the Third Hokage, where she was given a package along with very specific and serious orders. When the man called the Professor explained everything, she'd felt both honored at what she'd been asked to do and angry at the reason the Third had deemed it necessary to devise the orders in the first place. The very idea that there were those in powerful positions who would see this young man deprived of his rightful inheritance for no other reason than because they thought they could use it better. With the orders given, she'd left the office of the Hokage with the package in hand and had done her best to keep it safe until such time as a new Hokage was officially declared. She wondered if Third knew it would be Tsunade who'd be selected in the end by the village council.

Probably.

Whatever the truth might have been, she now had to find just the right time to meet with Tsunade-sama so she could deliver the package along with the reasons for why it was in her care.

She would allow no one to get in the way of fulfilling this mission.

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Three Days Later, The Hallway of Hokage Tower, Top Floor, Late Morning, Xander's P.O.V

"I wonder what Hokage-sama wanted to talk to us about." Xander asked as he and the others continued towards the office of the Hokage.

"Dunno. I wasn't told anything other than to bring you all with me." Anko-sensei stated in a tone that made it clear she didn't know any more than the rest of them.

"Well we'll find out when we get here." Hana said, sounding bored even though she was keeping her eyes peeled for the entrance to their destination.

It had been only a little over an hour ago that the messenger had popped up on the other side of the apartment door with orders for Team Anko to be in the Hokage's office in one hour. It'd taken them a bit of time to round up Hana and Ayeka but, once they had, they'd proceeded to the Tower with the standard load out for a mission just in case that was the reason for the summons. As they finally set eyes on the entrance to the office, he realized that this would be the first time that he'd get a chance to really take with the kunoichi face to face. That little discussion they'd had when he'd woken up didn't count. He wondered what she was really like, the Jounin teacher of his mother, and if she'd be willing to set aside some time to tell him about what Uchiha Jun'ko was like in her prime. Probably not, considering the amount of paperwork and other things that she had to catch up on with her new position in the village. Still, he hoped that eventually, once things calmed down enough, that they'd be able to spend some time getting to know one another better. He wanted to know more about what his mother was like when she was his age so that the good memories would outnumber the bad ones. Until enough free time opened up for both of them, though, he would have to be patient and use the good times he was making with the rest of Team Anko to make do until then.

Stopping in front of the door, Anko-sensei knocked twice on the door before waiting to be invited in.

"Come." Came Tsunade's voice from the other side of the door.

Obeying the purple-haired Jounin opened the door and led her team inside where the Fifth Hokage and her assistant Shizune, who stood off to the side. He'd expected those two when he'd been gearing up but he also saw that all three examiners from the Chuunin Exam were present, including Hayate, who, while still in a wheelchair, looked a lot better than the last time they'd met. It'd been a little after the invasion once he'd recovered enough from his wounds to take brief walks around the hospital that he'd learned that Hayate had awoken. The wounds he'd incurred from that Sand ninja had been serious and, until that day soon after the invasion, the man had been unconscious in bed with his injuries. It had lightened the load on his heart that the Jounin he'd tried to save that night so long ago would both live and most likely make a full recovery given enough time.

"You wished to see us, Hokage-sama?" Anko asked with the rest of her team taking up positions behind her.

"Yes. As you may know, due to the invasion by the Hidden Villages of Sound and Sand, the Chuunin Exam had to be cancelled before it could be completed. Now normally this would mean that all finalists would have to wait until the next Exam before they could have another chance to become Chuunin." Tsunade-sama replied, opening a folder that had been sitting in front of her, "However, after reviewing the reports of the examiners as well as the various V. in attendance, it would seem they were impressed both Uchiha Xander's tactics as well as his stamina. Therefore I have decided that as of today he will no longer be Genin but Chuunin. I hope you will justify our faith in your abilities."

Whoa.

Of all the things he'd expected this meeting to be about, his promotion to Chuunin certainly wasn't even in the top five possibilities. Looking at Ayeka and Hana, he could tell that they were surprised as well not to mention a little annoyed that they were going to have to wait for the next Chuunin Exam before they could rise up in rank. Then, though, they looked at him with smiles on their faces that clearly said 'good for you' without actually saying the words. Regardless of their own personal feelings, he was their teammate and as such they would be happy for him when he accomplished something.

Looking over to the ahou Ebisu, the pompous idiot walked over to him with a Chuunin flak jacket in hand. He'd never liked the asshole ever since the jackass called him a future traitor but, unless the bastard provoked him, he'd do his best to keep things professional. When the flak jacket was held out for him, he reached out and attempted to take it, the jerk held onto it before angling his head just right so he could look over the top of his sunglasses.

"Do not betray the trust Hokage-sama has chosen to place in you with this, boy." Ebisu stated with cold words that implied bad things would happen if they were not heeded, "Treat it like the honor and responsibility it truly is."

With that the prick let go of the flak jacket and then resumed his position next to the rest of the Chuunin Exam Examiners. Deciding that now was as good a time as any he told Ava to wait over by the windowsill for a moment so he could slip on the flak jacket. The bird mentally felt a little surly to him but he supposed that she was still feeling a little miffed at him both for what happened during the invasion as well as his less than spectacular attempt to back up Sasuke. Thanks to the bond they shared, his pain would have filtered over to her, even though they'd both made an effort to prevent unwanted spillover between their individual minds. While he'd like to think they were closer to becoming partners like Hana was with her three dogs, he knew that with the bird's attitude it'd take quite a bit longer before such a close partnership could come to pass. Once he had the flak jacket on and all zipped up, the bird hopped back onto his shoulder.

"Not bad, Wannabe! Give it a little bit of time and you might actually look like you deserve it." Hana declared, slapping him on the back with her usual playful smile on her face.

Everyone but him had a good chuckle at that comment but, in the end, he supposed that he'd better get used to it. Inuzuka Hana never missed an opportunity to needle him or make fun of him, so he figured he had about a month of this coming his way before she ran out of material to use. What happened next, though, was a bit of a surprise. With a single look from Tsunade, everyone except for Shizune left the room, leaving only Team Anko standing in the office of the Fifth Hokage.

"There is one final matter than needs to be handled," Tsunade-sama said before she picked up a package and opened it up for all to see. "Before the final matches of the Chuunin Exam, the Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, carried out one final bit of business and had it made official. Due to concerns that certain members of the village council might object he placed this package containing the official documents involved in the care of a trusted member of ANBU. The documents were to be delivered to me once my position as Fifth Hokage was made official. They pertain to you, Uchiha Alexander."

"What was this 'final bit of business', Hokage-sama?" He asked, keeping his tone professional and formal since he didn't risk angering the insanely strong woman.

"Well, ever since the decimation of Uchiha clan by Itachi, all of its holdings and assets have been held in trust by the village council until such time as a member of that clan was old enough to take possession of it. Up until now it was believed that Sasuke would be the one to take possession of the clan assets but, now that you're here and of the necessary age for Konoha, the Third decided that it would all be signed over to you." Tsunade-sama replied, passing him the documents so he could see their contents himself, "This effectively makes you the head of the Uchiha clan. Congratulations!"

This news completely floored him and made it impossible to think up an appropriate way to respond, so his mouth went on autopilot while the rest of his brain struggled with the new input.

"Um…thanks." He said before a feeling came over him to cause him to look to the right.

Ayeka was looking at him like a mountain of gold and rubies. While he himself might not be a mountain of treasure, it was entirely possible that the Uchiha holdings did indeed contain enough riches to form the pile that the Mishima could dive into them. He had a feeling that this little revelation would only make the blonde all the more determined to be the one he placed a wedding ring on.

Just when she was beginning to act like a normal girl in love rather than a marriage-crazed Uchiha hunter. He thought as he looked back towards Tsunade-sama, Still, since we seem to be on a bit of a roll with shocks and surprises, I guess I'll spring mine on Hokage-sama just to see how it'll go.

"Hokage-sama… I have something of a request, maybe a suggestion I'd like to make." He said, trying to formulate his request into something convincing.

"Huh? What is it?" Tsunade asked, sounding as surprised as everyone else in the room did.

"Well I was wondering if it'd be possible to have Team Anko assigned to the Sunnydale Hellmouth." He said, knowing he sounded less than certain that he needed to be, "I know that things are difficult here thanks to the damage Orochimaru and the Hidden Village of Sand, but I believe that maintaining a presence on the Hellmouth is important as well. If the defenders that are there fall, Konoha would not be free of the consequences. I believe it would be in Konoha's best interests to make sure that there is a ninja presence there to keep an eye on things and take action if necessary."

There.

He'd said it.

Now to see what kind of response he'd get.

"Eager to get back to your friends, are you?" Tsunade asked rhetorically, sounding like she'd expected something like this, "Well I'm afraid that I cannot grant your request and not because I think you're wrong about keeping an eye on the Sunnydale Hellmouth. I've heard enough stories about what goes on there to know if things went south there, the whole world would be in danger. The problem comes from the fact that not long after the village was founded and began to work under the current system, we signed a treaty of sorts with the Watcher's Council. I won't bore you with the details, I know I wish I hadn't been, but the bottom line is that once the Council establishes a presence someplace, we're to steer clear unless explicitly invited by the ruling board of the Council."

That certainly sounded like the sort of thing the Council Giles occasionally muttered four letter words about would do. Still, he wasn't ready to concede defeat in his desire to head back home to Sunnydale.

"What if Konoha established a presence first?" He asked, hoping that the stray thought he'd just had worked.

"Well, if I remember correctly, if Konoha were to establish a presence in a given area first, then they'd have control of that area and the Watcher's Council would have to avoid the area unless specifically asked by me." Tsunade replied as a twinkle suddenly appeared in her eyes, implying that she had just had the same thought he had.

"Well then, unless you specifically sent them notification of my mother's 'death' eighteen years ago, then it could be said that Konoha had a presence before the current Slayer showed up." He said, building on the bit of progress he'd managed to make.

"They'd no doubt ask why they weren't informed of your mother being on the Hellmouth eighteen years ago." Tsunade stated, pointing out the first hurdle that they'd have to overcome with the Council.

"You could, theoretically speaking, say that Uchiha Jun'ko was on a top secret mission in Sunnydale and that there were concerns that if the great and mighty Watcher's Council began acting funny around such a supernatural hotspot, that it might compromise the mission." He said, mixing just the right amount of feasibility with a liberal amount of white lies, "Therefore it was decided that unless my mother's presence in Sunnydale directly affected the Watcher's Council or its agents, that her presence would be kept secret. If they ask why they're only learning about it just now, you could say that with the mess of the invasion and the subsequent establishing of a new Hokage, the notice just got bogged down in the bureaucracy of it all."

"Heheheheh. Smart. Still there's the little matter of your Slayer friend, Buffy, and her Watcher." Tsunade said with some amusement at the weaving of words he was managing, "If we do as you say, then they'll have to leave as per the treaty's stipulations."

"Not necessarily. As you mentioned, the treaty says the other party must stay away from the area where you have established a presence unless specifically invited. What if we specifically invite Buffy Summers and Rupert Giles to work with us in Sunnydale in the interests of strengthening ties between the two organizations?" He explained, sounding more confident than ever that his plan would work, "However you could stipulate that the two people named are non-negotiable since you don't want to take the chance that some 'ambitious' Watcher might violate the trust between the two groups. If they push back, threaten to deny them any access at all to Sunnydale and the Hellmouth. The odds of them throwing away their foothold on the basis of a personnel dispute has to be pretty low indeed."

"Indeed. They also wouldn't want to throw away the chance to learn our secrets. The rest of the village council will likely point out that while keeping an eye on an active Hellmouth is important, it might not be important enough to risk village secrets getting into the hands of the Watchers." Tsunade pointed out, reminding the newly promoted Chuunin.

"Then offer to assign a member of ANBU to act as overseer to make sure that Team Anko doesn't spill any secrets and the Watchers Council doesn't stick its nose where it's not wanted." He suggested, figuring that having someone from ANBU might be security enough for those old farts, "Just make sure that whoever gets assigned is fair and doesn't play favorites."

"I think I know just the one. Very well," Tsunade said with a nod of agreement. "Give me a few days to iron out the details and 'convince' the village council to back the plan. Assuming there are no hiccups, you should have your mission orders by mid-week."

"By your command, Hokage-sama." He said with a bow though, judging from the look on Anko-sensei's face, she'd gotten the Battlestar Galactica reference and was rolling her eyes in response.

He merely gave his patented lopsided smile in response.

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The Front Gates of Konoha, Two Days Later, Morning, Anko's P.O.V

"What's keeping that ANBU?" she muttered to herself as she kept looking about for any sign of the man Hokage-sama had assigned to Team Anko for this mission.

It had been an hour ago that they'd been called to Tsunade-sama's office to receive their official orders as well as the restrictions that the village council placed on what they could do while carrying out this mission. The mission Xander-kun had outlined had remained mostly unchanged, monitor the Hellmouth and prevent world-ending level events from coming to pass, but there were several restrictions which she just knew came from the old hag and old man. The first was that Team Anko would make every effort to keep Konoha's secrets from being discovered both by choosing a home location outside of the Sunnydale city limits. They were also forbidden to use their jutsu outside of official missions and had to do all they could to blend in so that no one would know Konoha had shinobi stationed in America on a long term basis. If the other hidden villages learned of their presence, they might send agents of their own and this would unnecessarily complicate matters. They would also do their best to keep their relationship with the Slayer and her Watcher purely professional and only interact on a more social basis. This was given less emphasis than the other restrictions by Tsunade-sama, making it clear that she would not pay any real attention if such acts came up in official reports. The final stipulation was that Team Anko was to return home every summer in person both to undergo review of their activities in the United States and accomplish a quota of missions in the region.

None of the stipulations were unreasonable but it definitely didn't leave much room for them to work with once they got to Sunnydale.

On top of that, they'd been told that the village council had fought tooth and nail on who would be assigned to the team from ANBU but, in the end, the one that Tsunade had chosen had been accepted.

Reluctantly.

Now they were waiting at the front gates, just like they'd been doing for the past fifteen minutes, but the ANBU hadn't arrived yet and she was starting to get impatient. Right then and there she decided that if the masked black ops agent didn't show up within the next thirty minutes, she would leave with the team no matter what. She knew that the stipulations were the only things that were keeping the village council from stopping them but there was such a thing as limits.

"Maybe he's having trouble deciding what animal mask he wants to wear?" Xander-kun asked with some humor in his voice.

"Or maybe he's flipping through his personae books to decide what sort of person he should be around us?" Hana asked mockingly, it being clear that she didn't like waiting.

"Or maybe he got here before and decided to wait and observe for a bit before revealing himself." Came an unfamiliar male voice from the right side of the front gates.

As one they looked in the direction of the voice and saw an ANBU soldier separate himself from the wooden door of the front gate. He didn't look much older than Xander-kun, maybe two or three years, but was definitely ANBU, if the tattoo on his shoulder was true, and he was dressed as one as well. Black clothes with grey armor on top and a ninjato strapped to his back. As for the face mask it looked like the guy had chosen to go with a cat themed one making her wonder what the implications of that could be.

"Oh? And what have you observed?" Xander-kun asked politely but with a little coldness in his eyes.

"That of the four of you, only two have any patience at all and neither of them are Genin." Replied the ANBU as he walked into their midst.

This did not go over well with either Hana or Ayeka but a look from her and Xander kept the duo from tearing into the ANBU verbally as well as perhaps physically if things spiraled too far out of control.

"You got a name?" she asked with a little warning put into her question.

"For this assignment I've been given the name Hisoka." Replied the ANBU now to be called Hisoka.

"Alright then, Hisoka, next time you want to learn something about the people you're going to be working with, just ask." She stated, making it clear that she wouldn't tolerate much more covert 'observing'.

"Hai, Anko-san." Hisoka stated, bowing formally for a moment.

Why did she get the feeling his making a face at her underneath that mask of his?

"Now that we're all here, I'll lay out our travel plans. We'll head north then enter the territory protected by ninjas from the Hidden Village of Waterfall. Once we reach the sea, we'll take a boat north to Guangzhou, where we'll hop on a flight back to Los Angeles in California," Anko explained in her official briefing tone of voice. "Once we're in America we'll buy some local clothes and then drive down to Sunnydale. When we've arrived at our destination we'll make a temporary HQ at one of the local hotels until we can locate a more permanent address that matches the criteria given by Hokage-sama. Only then can we begin out monitoring of the Hellmouth and potential threats to the world. Any questions?"

"Not so much of a question as it is a suggestion. If we stop over in Japan there's a good chance we could get clothes that much sooner and blend in a bit better even with these clothes." Xander-kun said with confidence in his words, "Worse comes to worse, we could just say that we're a couple of Anime fans doing a little cosplay and just decided to shop a bit."

"Not a bad idea and we'll probably have to stop there anyway before continuing on to the U.S. anyway," she said, mulling over the suggestion for a moment. "Anyone else have something to add?"

Heads shaken in the negative were all she got in response.

"Then let's move out! Follow me!" She declared as she began to take the first steps towards their destination of the day.

It was probably a good thing for all that she didn't see the rolling eyes and the exasperated shaking of heads.

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Five Days Later, A Village Near the Border Between Waterfall Territory and Fire Country

Mid-Day, Inuzuka Hana's P.O.V

"About time we hit a village." Hana said with a yawn as she walked alongside her teammates down the busy street, "I was getting tired of sleeping outdoors."

Truthfully it wasn't so much the sleeping outdoors that bothered her so much what the others got up to once they'd set up camp for the night. Ayeka was back on the 'woo Wannabe routine', Anko spent most of her time eating dango and Hisoka often wandered off returning at random times with no explanation as to what he'd been up to. It'd gotten so bad that she'd taken to taking baths at odd hours or when she knew that the ANBU was with Anko-sensei just in case the idiot turned out to be some sort of pervert. She'd be happier knowing that they'd be divided into male and female baths from here on out and if they managed to get separate rooms for each gender it'd be even better. Not that such things would keep a perverted ninja from trying to sneak a peek but it would at least make things harder than it'd be out in the middle of the woods where there'd be a lot of cover to hide behind. She knew she didn't have to worry about Wannabe peeping but she didn't know this ANBU idiot at all, so she refused to take chances until he understood him better.

"You and me both!" Ayeka commented as she tried to brush off some dirt that had gotten on her clothes, "I know that rouging it is part of the ninja way of life but I'll take a nice clean hotel over a tent anytime. Right, Xander-sama?"

"A hotel is nice but it's a little hard to do any training when you're in a village like this." Xander replied, looking about the street to see what it has to offer, "Still, it'll be a nice change of pace and probably better than what we'll have to put up with on the boat we'll be taking."

No kidding!

Even though there were passenger boats that made the trip between Waterfall territory and Guangzhou often, the sort of rooms you got varied from boat to boat. Depending on what was available when they got there and what they could afford, they could wind up in rooms ranging from luxurious to downright putrid. If she had any say in the matter, they'd turn down all ships that weren't at least as clean as her room, even if it meant they had to wait a couple of days for the right one. There was no way she was spending who knew how many days on a boat that either stunk to high heaven or needed a serious cleaning.

Then, of course, there was the other problem.

She, like her partners, always got a little seasick whenever they had to travel by boat.

It was something she did her best to hide, often staying in whatever room they had on the boat for the entire trip, but she had a feeling that Anko-sensei knew her secret. How else do you explain how her Jounin teacher continually found new reasons to reject missions that had a chance of leading to boat travel? She appreciated it but now there was no way to avoid it, so she'd just have to do her best to endure the unpleasantness that was boat travel.

"Where do you suppose Hisoka got off to?" She asked, looking about the street for any sign of the ANBU ninja.

"He's probably on the rooftops keeping track of us." Xander replied, looking up to see if he could spot anything.

"Not necessarily. Having an ANBU of Konoha hopping rooftops in Waterfall territory would attract attention and that's the last thing those black op boys want." Anko-sensei declared, looking more at the people around them, "It's more likely he's disguised himself as a local and is following at a safe distance. Far enough away that he won't be considered part of our group but close enough that he could move in to help if some trouble got dropped in our laps."

"Makes sense," Xander-kun stated, taking his eyes off the rooftops and putting them onto the crowd around them.

Taking an experimental sniff, she tried to see if she could smell the ANBU anywhere near them but, amidst the scents of the street and the people, there was nothing to tip her off that the masked shinobi was anywhere nearby. Either he was positioned so that smelling him would be impossible or had some sort of jutsu that kept his scent from being picked up. It wouldn't be completely beyond the realm of possibility, considering the sort of missions they were regularly assigned, but it just made her all the more leery of the guy being assigned to Team Anko while they were in the United States. She didn't like having someone around that she couldn't keep an eye or a nose on. Such people often liked to surprise her at all the wrong times and she wasn't a big fan of surprises that were directed at her.

"So where are we going to stay?"

"Well, we're coming up on the hotel district of the village." Anko-sensei said, pointing out the signs that all had hotel or inn as a theme, "Take your pick but remember our spending budget. Nothing too fancy or you'll be sleeping on the floor before we even step on American soil."

Sensei didn't have to worry about that sort of spending from her. So long as the place had passed all the tests it had to and looked decent enough, she had no trouble sleeping in that sort of hotel. However if it turned out to be a complete dive or had something suspicious going on, she was going to decline the place and then try to decide whether or not to do the village a favor by tearing it down with a four pronged Gatsūga.

"How about this one?" Ayeka said, pointing out a hotel that apparently had a hot spring area as well, "Doesn't look too pricy."

What the--?! Miss 'I-wanna-be-a-noble' actually approves of a place that doesn't scream luxury!? Hana thought with shock as she immediately became suspicious of her teammate's intentions, What is she up to?

"What's got you looking at this place, Ayeka?" Anko-sensei asked with similar suspiciousness in her voice.

"Well I'll admit it's a little middle class for my tastes, but you said yourself we had to watch our spending so I decided to use this as a compromise." Ayeka replied, actually managing to sound convincing for the most part, "So what do you think?"

Her reasons seemed to be logical enough and did ring with just right trueness of the Mishima way of thinking, but she couldn't shake the feeling that there was something she was missing.

"I guess it looks good enough. Let's check in!" Anko-sensei said as she guided the team into the chosen hotel.

Walking up at the tail end of the group, she looked at the various signs that decorated the outside of the hotel telling people who pass by what it had to offer. It wasn't until she was almost halfway into the doorframe that she spotted one that stopped her cold and made it clear why Ayeka had chosen this place.

Co-ed hot spring available to guests!

Just when she thought that she might be able to get a break from Ayeka's efforts to woo Wannabe, the blonde pulled something sneaky like this. It was enough for her to consider avoiding the hot spring that the hotel offered altogether if it weren't for one little thing she knew about Mishima Ayeka. Whenever the projectile specialist got even a little momentum in anything she did, she often continued down that line of action until something happened to show her the error of her ways. If she avoided the hot spring, it'd mean leaving Wannabe at the mercy of blondie whenever she decided to make her move. Unopposed, it'd be like this the entire trip to America and that was more than she was prepared to endure for the sake of the team. However she couldn't just come straight out and tell Xander that the only reason why Ayeka chose this hotel was to get him into the co-ed hot spring so could show off her merchandise. At most this might simply mean that Anko-sensei would come along to monitor things but, knowing the Jounin, she'd be so amused by whatever the Mishima girl did that she'd only step in if things went from wooing to raunchy. Thus, when you got right down to it, there was only one way she could derail her blonde teammate's agenda and that'd be if she herself was present in the hot spring the entire time the Wannabe was there.

After all, two people alone might be romantic but three at once would put a serious flaw into the status conscious kunoichi's plans.

She didn't like it.

She'd especially hate it if she actually had to… flaunt… in front of the Uchiha if simply being there didn't do what she wanted it to.

AARRRGGHHH!! I swear ever since Wannabe showed up in Konoha things have been turned completely upside down!! She thought angrily as she watched Anko-sensei check them into the hotel, This kind of trouble I don't need!!

At the same time though a part of her sort of wondered what it'd mean if she actually wound up catching Xander's eye instead of Ayeka.

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Early Evening, The Hotel Hot Spring, Xander's P.O.V

Only ME! Only I could wind up in a place that many guys would consider paradise and experience HELL instead! Xander thought as he sat in the hot spring up to his chest while the scenery tried to lure him to his demise.

On the one side he had Mishima Ayeka wearing two strips of cloth that just barely covered what needed to be covered and, if his suspicions were correct, she was moving in such a way to give him tantalizing, not-quite-enough-peeks on purpose. It was never enough to let him see what lay beneath the pieces of cloth and, while he had caught her naked one time before after they all accidently got hit with his stink spheres, somehow being teased like this… it just wasn't fair! However he couldn't say anything to make her stop because she would either play innocent or accuse of him of being some sort of pervert for thinking such impure things of her in the first place. Leaving also wasn't an option since his mind was having a little trouble coming up with a reasonable or even thin-styled reason for leaving the hot spring post haste. Then there was the fact that he couldn't look elsewhere because not only was Anko-sensei present but, for some reason, there seemed to be a wide variety of nubile young ladies staying at the hotel at the moment. He couldn't be sure but he thought he heard something along the lines of the unknown women being part of a travelling acrobat act. Whatever the case, if he even tried to look elsewhere other than the people he knew, it would only provoke Ayeka into trying harder, especially if one of the ladies he didn't know took his gaze the wrong way.

On the other he had Inuzuka Hana who, while not quite as scantily clad as Ayeka, was definitely acting out of character and he couldn't make heads or tails of it. On the one hand it looked like she couldn't care less about what was going on about her and just wanted to enjoy the comforts of the hot spring. On the other hand, when he looked a little too intently at Ayeka's teasing, the dog-like girl would make attempts to break him out of his hormonal haze. Sometimes it'd be something simple like just talking to him about something that would catch his attention, like his friends back in Sunnydale or what he intended to do now that the Uchiha assets were now his to handle as he would. Other times, when he was locked into a particularly sinful daydream, she actually got into his personal space to snap him out of it. She brushed it off as an option of last resort since nothing else seemed to work but, for some reason, she flushed a bit each time she did this, blaming the heat from the hot springs each time. If he wasn't so sure that such thoughts and actions were impossible for the Inuzuka girl where he was concerned, he'd think that the young woman was jealous of the attention he was giving Ayeka's actions. Of course this was complete insanity since the feral female often made a point of enlightening him of his shortcomings in a humorous way and rarely got along with him outside of serious missions. The very idea that she might be jealous of someone because of him was pure insanity of the strongest sort.

This wasn't some anime, after all, where a girl who constantly gives the male protagonist a hard time secretly has a crush on him that doesn't get revealed until the end of a major story arc or something.

Right?

Whatever the case, Anko wasn't any help whatsoever as the older woman seemed to find the whole mess he was in quite entertaining and even stirred things up a bit just as it looked like they might calm down for good. Of course he tried to corner her on her tactics but the woman refused to admit a single thing and then changed topics by asking him what Ayeka was doing right now in a surprised manner. This, of course, caused him to look the first couple of times to see what she could mean and, of course, every time he did this was when Ayeka was in a particularly brain freeze worthy position. He was getting better at resisting the urge to look but every once in a while he'd fall for her tricks, landing him right back where he'd started from.

Hell was the only way he could describe this trap of titillating temptresses.

Fortunately, though, it was then that nature called and he finally had a way of getting what he wanted: a way out of this situation that not even his teammates would be able to block. "Uh, looks like nature's calling. See ya!" he said before he bolted from the hot spring for the changing room where his clothes were located.

Then, of course, something bad had to happen in the form of him tripping over the edge of the hot spring, causing him to fall flat on his face. This by itself was painful but, when he began to feel something of a draft below his waist, his was reminded of one little fact that was causing him to heat up that had nothing to do with the hot springs. When they'd first learned about the hot springs from the clerk at the front desk, he'd talked to the others about it since his Halloween memories didn't really cover what they were like. Oh, he'd seen pictures and the odd clip on TV before, but it was common sense that both of those forms of media would leave quite a bit out. Most of what the rest of Team Anko had filled him in on was common sense but the one thing he'd been a bit wary of was what guys were expected to wear into the baths. From what he'd learned, while some of the more modern places like this allowed for swimsuits to be worn, the majority permitted only towels tied strategically in order to preserve modesty. According to Anko-sensei, some places only permitted the towels to be worn between the washing cubicles and the hot springs themselves, requiring that the patrons keep the towel out of the pool. In this case, though, the hotel let him keep the towel wrapped around his waist all the time but now… now because of his little fall, it was most definitely not where it was supposed to be at the moment.

The feeling of having every female eye on a certain area of his person washed over him and, in the privacy of his own mind, he found it to be worse than any murderous intent he'd felt since embracing the ninja way.

Using his hands to put the towel back to where it should be, he calmly got to his feet and proceeded to the changing area as he'd originally intended. Only when he'd passed through the sliding door and closed it did he allow himself to express his feelings openly.

"Thank GOD! I thought I'd never get out of there!" he muttered under his breath as he sagged for a moment against the sliding door.

He was a little ways away from the door when he felt a simmering sense of murderous intent coming from inside the hot spring area.

Hopefully Ayeka won't do anything too crazy. He thought realizing that for someone determined to be his wife any new rivals would not be welcome at all.

He wasn't too worried since he figured that Anko-sensei would step in if her Genin student went past a nasty water fight with the other ladies present. Hana would probably put in a token amount of effort in keeping her teammate from doing anything too nasty but it wouldn't be anything that'd cause the animal caregiver additional problems. So long as whatever happened didn't cause her problems personally, Hana wouldn't lift so much as a finger unless Anko-sensei ordered her to. In any case, though, he planned on being far away from this area of the hotel because otherwise he'd get dragged back in, never to be free again.

With that in mind he grabbed his clothes from a nearby basket on a shelf and headed to the changing room. If he took too long, his bathroom excuse would become suspect and they'd come looking for him.

The cunning prey knew better than to be anywhere near the lair of multiple predators.

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Three and a Half Days Later, Aboard the Passenger Boat the S.S Kani, Ayeka's P.O.V

Looks like Kami-sama and I are of similar thinking when it comes to Dog-Girl. Ayeka thought as she watched her feral teammate lean over the side of the ship once again, tossing her cookies.

It had only been three days since her perfect plan to tempt her way into Xander-sama's heart had been ruined by that flea bitten female's presence at the hot springs. It should have been perfect, a flawless way to completely storm the defenses around her future husband's heart, allowing her to claim it for herself. Instead it had turned into complete chaos with her every attempt at careful flirtation interrupted in some way or another either by someone she knew or a stranger. Then fate itself interfered when it compelled the Uchiha to visit the bathroom and then disappear when she went to check on him after it seemed to take too long for him to answer nature's call. Since it was impossible that he'd fled because of her, she could only presume that he'd been overwhelmed by the presence of so many distractions, thus causing him to run off. It was understandable considering that it was his first time at a mixed onsen but it was something she'd have to be careful of in future plans. Instead of going with such public or populated locations that could be full of just as many obstacles as there were aides, she would seek out something a little more private.

Maybe a private patrol of Sunnydale once they got settled in?

A definite possibility considering what Xander-sama told her and the other members of Team Anko about his hometown of Sunnydale. One of the things that Anko-sensei had been asking him about as they'd travelled was what sort of things happened on the Hellmouth and what they could expect when they arrived. What he'd told them so far made the place seem like ground zero for the strange and the bizarre with demons of almost every variety showing up sooner or later. Definitely a place where they'd never grow bored or complacent since, aside from vampires, it didn't sound like Xander-sama and his friends ever faced the same type of demon twice in a row. The Scoobies, as her future husband often referred to his friends as, also made a point of patrolling their hometown almost every night. Such patrols were usually made in groups of three or more for safety but, now that Xander was a Chuunin, she was sure he could be convinced to reduce that number to just the two of them. Such a setting would be perfect for a little private making out and maybe a little something more once she got him to finally admit that he had feelings for her.

Hearing another round of retching from Hana, she was reminded of the possible problem that was growing in strength within the Inuzuka girl. Ever since the second phase of the Chuunin exam, Dog Girl had shown herself to be progressively more interested in the newest Uchiha to become a Konoha shinobi. It hadn't surfaced as anything serious yet but she knew all the signs of growing affection thanks to her past attempts to secure a place amongst the more powerful clans of Konoha. If allowed free reign to develop, she could wind up having to deal with a very dangerous rival indeed since Hana would know many of her methods, including how to counter them. She would have to sow some seeds of disquiet between the two of them soon or else the Inuzuka girl might decide to act on her growing feelings.

Moving away from the unpleasantness that was a seasick Inuzuka Hana, she decided she'd see what Xander-sama was up to. When she'd last seen him he'd still been in bed and had claimed he'd be up in about fifteen minutes, but that had been an hour ago. Had he overslept or had he simply not come up onto the main deck like the rest of them had?

She was going to find out.

Going down the stairs that led to the lower decks and the room they'd been assigned for the duration of their trip, she passed a somewhat pretty young woman wearing a Chinese dress. She was carrying a cage with what looked like a long distance messenger bird but this wasn't entirely odd for this region of the world. Unlike most of the major countries in the world, the region wherein the Hidden Villages resided didn't have an extensive postal service that could be relied upon. For them, if they wanted any sort of mail to get from one place to another, it had to be done either by messenger hawk or a hired small time courier. Therefore she let the other young woman pass by unhindered while she continued her trip to where she believed Xander-sama would be located.

Turning the corner that would lead to the hallway where their room to be, she saw her future husband exiting it and locking the door behind him. Smiling at the fact that she wouldn't have to go looking for him, she picked up the pace a bit and this caught his attention almost immediately.

"Hey Ayeka! Sorry I took so long getting out of bed." Xander-sama said with his usual half grin, "I've always been something of a late riser."

"Not a problem, Xander-sama. I know I wouldn't mind sleeping in every once and awhile." She said, imagining several possible late risings with him involved, "Provided I have just the right incentive to stay in bed, that is."

She could easily see how the gears were turning inside his head and what the most likely meanings of her words were and, fortunately for her, those were precisely the sort he wanted him to be thinking about. After all, the more she got him thinking about it, the more he'd be forced to consider the possibilities that involved her, increasing the odds that he might actually open himself up to the romantic options thus allowing her to get her foot into the door. From there it'd be a simple matter wedging the door open more and more as time passed until she could walk fully into his heart.

"T-that's good to know. I guess it's a good thing that the cleaning lady they have on this ship thought to knock and wake me up." Xander-sama said a little nervously, scratching the back of his head, "I guess Anko-sensei must've asked her to come down to wake me up before I slept the entire day away."

Cleaning lady? Huh. I guess it's possible. She thought as she looked about the ship for a moment.

This wasn't the most luxurious boat in the world but it was definitely a few steps above a family-run operation, so it was entirely possible that they could hire a cleaning staff for all their trips. For a moment she thought that it might have been that young woman with the Chinese fashion sense but discarded that idea since there was no way that the people that called the shots would have their cleaning crew doll themselves up like that every single day they were on the job. To do something like that would wind up causing the staff to go through outfits like crazy and require the ladies to touch up their make up at least once an hour to keep everything perfect. Unless this boat had backers who were into burning money like that on a monthly basis, then there was no way Ms. Chinese was part of the cleaning staff.

Whatever! The important thing is that now is to make the most of this day to move myself onestep closer to sole ownership of his heart. She thought wrapping both of her arms around his right arm in order to pull it close to her body before saying, "Let's head up and see what this boat has in the way of entertainment. I'm certain we can find something to pass the time."

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The Main Deck of the Passenger Boat, Same Time

I'd better inform Elder of where Uchiha is going now. Conda thought as she finished writing her message in a special code passed down in her Amazon Tribe for generations.

Once she was finished, she rolled up the scroll into as small a form as possible before placing it into a tube tied to her messenger bird's leg. Once she was sure that her message wouldn't fall out during the trip, she released the bird into the air and watched as it soared towards its destination with all available speed. It would take about two days to reach its destination and then, presuming that the ones it was intended for left immediately, it would be another four before they'd reach their target. With luck they'd reach him before he left for the United States but if they did not, it wouldn't matter.

In the end the will of the tribe would be fulfilled.

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Four Days Later, Tokyo, Japan, Mid-Morning, Xander's P.O.V

MAN! Twenty-four hours later and they're still going at it! Give it a rest already!! Xander thought as he walked down the streets of Tokyo.

They'd arrived in Tokyo early yesterday after taking a plane from Guangzhou Airport to Japan and, after taking time for a quick catnap, they'd gone out to do their modern clothes shopping. Their cover of being a couple of cosplayers had worked pretty good and only the few times when one of them pulled out an awfully 'real' looking weapons did it almost fall apart. However those few times only happened because he got put on the spot about how Hana, Ayeka and Anko looked in their more mainstream outfits. While not as bad as he'd feared, their dress sense was a little rough when they didn't have to deal with articles of clothing not commonly worn in the ninja region. This, of course, led to him being asked questions about whether their combinations looked good or not and that meant all sorts of tense moments where he tried to phrase things just right. Most times he'd been able to answer quickly enough that they didn't suspect anything but those few times he took too long the one who asked would get annoyed. Then, of course, the other would either defend him or make a sarcastic remark about the outfit, resulting in the two butting heads. Between him and Anko-sensei they were usually able to defuse things but the one time that the purple-haired Jounin got dragged into it, resulting in the one time they'd gotten thrown out of a store.

This had resulted in what he was doing right now which was basically exploring the city, on his own, with the others knowing full well it'd be in the team's best interests to leave him be for a time.

He still considered them his friends but after the things Hana and Ayeka had done since they'd left Konoha, he needed some time for himself or else he was going to say or do something he'd regret later.

At the moment he'd say he was about halfway cooled down and could probably go back to being around them sometime in the next hour or so.

BOOM!

"AAAHHH! MONSTER!!" Came the cries of dozens of people from what looked to be a small park three blocks ahead of him.

Better make that two hours if this turns out to be what I think it is. He thought as he began to run towards where he figured the trouble was.

It was a little difficult on account of the fact that there were quite a lot of people trying to get away from the source of the commotion, but he eventually managed it. What he saw, though, made him look about the area for cameras or some sort of film crew because it looked like something out of a ten year old girl's TV show. The threat seemed to be some sort of blue skinned woman with a costume that had a serious ladies basketball theme to it with a basketball bra and basketball shorts. Woulda been kinda funny except the female was tossing around basketballs that turned out to be potent explosives capable of reducing a stone bench to gravel. The other weird half of the equation was that the five people fighting the weird blue basketball babe were teenage girls wearing some sort of superhero versions of sailor outfits. Skirts were short, shirts clung and they were all showing a lot of leg.

Not that he minded all that much.

They all had their own colors and so it sort of reminded him of those super sentai shows that were created over here, along with numerous variations. The more he looked at it, though, the more he was convinced this was the real deal rather than some staged thing for a TV show and that meant it might be in his best interests to stick close by in case these ladies needed a hand. They looked like they knew what they were doing based on their movements and the lack of hesitation, but he knew how complacent even the best could get after doing the same old routine over and over again. At the same time, though, he knew that Anko and the others wouldn't like it if he got caught on camera doing his ninja thing or even doing anything to draw attention to himself. Moving into a nearby alleyway, he did a quick check of the area to make sure he wasn't being looked at by anyone then quickly performed the transformation jutsu. The form he chose had been a slight modification of the one he'd used to escape Kaede's town with Ava with features from some ninja videogames like a scarlet scarf covering his face from top of his nose on down. It was probably enough to obscure who he was and maybe cause a few spectators to dismiss him as some fanboy trying to be a hero. The only thing that would get him trouble would be if he used too many moves or techniques that could be traced back to the ninja region of the world. If pressed, he might be able to use some of the moves his Sharingan managed to copy from the Tarakan assassins he killed or a few things he'd picked up on his trip, but that'd be pushing it.

It's not like there could be a lot of ninja in town and it'll be tough enough bluffing my way past the others if I get caught on film. He thought as he used the tree climbing exercise and a little muscle power to get to the rooftops.

Mentally going through the list of ninja gear he had concealed on his person before leaving the hotel room, he knew he had a kunai holster hidden beneath the right pant leg of his shorts, one explosive tag per glove and a flash bead bracelet on his left wrist. It was emergency gear, just in case, but it should get him through this little spat without too much difficulty.

Looking down at the battlefield below, he could see things were getting a little tough for the color coded girls since the battle was slowly sliding in the basketball femme's favor. The lightning, golden energy, fire, water and…were those hearts (?!?) were managing to keep the thing off guard but it was getting harder for them with every minute that passed. Whatever the thing was, it was definitely something more than they were used to judging by the looks of surprise they sometimes showed on their faces after scoring a hit. Still, this was their territory and they showed signs of doing this sort of thing many times before, so he'd wait a bit longer.

Or not as he watched one of the ladies with a green and pink color combo be three seconds too slow in getting clear of the blast radius of the latest bombshell basketball.

Taking a quick glance at the others, he could tell that even if they went to their friend's aid right that minute, there was a better than fifty percent chance they'd be too late to save the brunette from a follow up strike. Diving off the edge of the building, he used chakra to slow his descent as he slid down the side and, once he was certain he could leap off without breaking his own neck, he made his move. Channeling the chakra he was using to slide down the side of the building into his leg muscles, he leapt towards the still-dazed sailor girl, picked her up and leapt away just in time to avoid a double whammy from basketball babe. He landed a good fifteen feet from the outer edge of the blast and gently sat the young lady onto her feet since it looked like she could stand under her own power now.

"W-who are you?" she asked as the last of the disorientation from the blast that knocked her on her butt dispersed.

"A friend." He replied, deciding that the less info he gave her, the less complicated his life would get.

With those two words he figured he'd committed himself to helping these ladies so he pulled two kunai from his holster and threw them at basketball babe. Both struck their target, one in the shoulder while the other hit a basketball that was a second away from being thrown, causing the femme monster to direct her attention towards him. Deciding to go with it, he charged forward, all the while dodging the bombs being thrown his way. Truth be told, while this femme might have some decent ba-booms, neither her aim nor the speed at which she threw them were anything compared to Ayeka. It was almost too easy to dodge them and close to taijutsu range to take her down.

Then, just as he was about to deliver a kick to her jaw, she showed him that the two halves covering her assets weren't just for show.

BOOM! BOOM!

Turned out the two half basketballs that made up the blue babe's bra could be fired off when necessary and they packed one helluva wallop. Fortunately, though, the power behind the halves was considerably less than that which you'd get from a whole basketball bomb, otherwise he'd be decorating the entire area in blood red. As it was, he could not keep his alternate form active and knew he couldn't risk another hit like that. In any case, though, it knocked the cockiness out of him and that could only be considered a good thing in his mind, but the blast had damage the henge that was keeping his face obscured. He hadn't thought to change his looks along with his outfit and had counted on the scarf to keep him from being positively IDed. With it coming apart and him unable to spare the time to fully re-establish the transformation form, merely enough to keep his face mostly hidden, he'd have to end this quicker than he'd thought he'd have to.

Landing on his feet after being knocked back by the blast, he skidded a couple of feet before deciding that he needed something that could distract the femme long enough for him to put an end to this. Grabbing the bracelet off his wrist, he quickly slipped off a single flash bead and threw it at the creature he wished to bring down. Then, just as it came within range of the being's face, he sent out a pulse of chakra, resulting in it detonating and covering everything within three feet of it in a blinding light. It was music to his ears to hear it scream out and a definite plus that allowed him to get in close to release the explosive tags in his gloves so that they could attach themselves to basketball babe. Once they were there he quickly leapt back out of the range of his target's explosives as well as his own before deciding to do the honorable thing by giving whatever this was a chance to come quietly.

"You now have two explosive tags on your body, both capable of rendering the limb they're attached to useless one way or another, so you have once chance to come quietly or get hurt." He said in his best badass voice as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"CHARGER!!" the female yelled before creating two fresh bomb basketballs in her hands.

"Your choice," he said before detonating the tags.

He'd upped the explosive power on the tags since he saw how badly they worked on Itachi and now, looking at the seriously burned, possibly broken, limbs on basketball babe, he'd say they were an unqualified success. She was down on one knee with the other one seriously banged up and an arm that didn't look like it'd be throwing anything anytime soon.

"Now, Sailor Moon!" came the voice of the tall brunette he'd saved earlier coming up from behind him.

"Right! RAINBOW MOON HEART ACHE!!" yelled the blonde with the two extra long pigtails coming down on either side of her head.

Rainbow Moon what?! He thought wondering where the hell the girl came up with the name for that attack.

Wherever she came up with it, it did the job since, after it hit, the basketball babe turned back into a normal basketball and some sort of weird seed popped out of it. The seed then cracked, releasing a cloud of black vapor that seemed to cry out for a moment before dispersing entirely. Not exactly the oddest thing he'd ever seen in his life or even since he'd been clued into the supernatural, but somewhat anti-climactic considering the power basketball babe had displayed.

Whatever! Time to get out of here before someone decides to take a picture of the new guy. He thought as he prepared to scale to the top of the nearest building before roof hopping away.

"Wait! Who are you?!" asked the brunette as she clamped down on his right shoulder to keep him from leaping away.

She looked a little dazed, though he supposed she might still be recovering a bit from the earlier blast or suffered a relapse or something. He was no medical-nin and the memories he'd picked up from his Halloween personae focused more on hurting than healing, so he was clueless. Still, he supposed he should at least say a few parting words rather than rudely slip away like a certain souled blood sucking corpse he knew.

"Just someone who was passing through and saw that you and your friends could use some help," he replied with a smile that was mostly obscured, he hoped, by the partial henge. "Now, as much as I'd like to stick around and chat, it's going to get a lot more crowded here in a minute and I'd rather stay out of the limelight. Expect me when you see me, beautiful!"

With that he freed himself from her grip and leapt as high as his chakra empowered legs could take him, which, thankfully, was high enough to land on a nearby balcony which he used to leap to a nearby rooftop. From there he kept going from roof to roof until he was easily ten blocks away before dropping down into an empty person-less alleyway and cancelled the transformation jutsu. Looking over his appearance for anything that'd tip off Anko when he got back, he breathed a sigh of relief when he saw nothing he couldn't explain away with a few well-chosen words. He could cover up the loss of the kunai and the flash bead easily enough since he doubted that anyone on his team was so observant that they knew precisely how many he had on him at any given time. Now, as long as no one or thing got a decent shot of him during the fight, he should be able to file this one away as a win for him with no harmful repercussions.

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Back at the Battlefield, Two Minutes Prior

"Who was that hunk?" Rei asked looking up to wear the ninja guy had gone after the battle with the daemon ended.

The person she asked, though, didn't answer but rather looked up in the same direction she was with 'the look' in her eye but this time it seemed a lot stronger than usual. The look was something that all of the Sailor Senshi had seen in the brunette's eyes at one time or another and, for the most part, it was just a temporary thing. Give it a week or more and she'd normally be back to her usual self.

Usually.

"Mako-chan? Are you alright?" Usagi asked before waving a hand in front of Makoto's face, "Hel-loooo!"

All Kino Makoto did was sigh with that starry look in her eyes, making it clear she wouldn't be moving from her current spot anytime soon. That could be a problem because, while the local P.D and government might tolerate the Sailor Senshi because they lacked their own ways of combating the monster of the week, sticking around and overstaying their welcome wouldn't be a good thing since it'd lead to questions none of them wanted to answer. Thus, with a little co-operation between Minako and Rei, they were able to take Sailor Jupiter away with them before the authorities showed up.

All the while though they were wondering what was so different about this ninja guy that would cause their teammate to go almost completely crush crazy.

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The Plane Ride to LAX, The Next Day, Anko's P.O.V

"Maybe I should go and see if Xander-sama is alright." Ayeka said with a surprisingly honest-looking face as she began to stand up.

"Sit. Down." She bit out as her bad mood since yesterday was perpetuated once more by one of her 'students'.

It had been hours, almost a full day, since Xander-baka had decided to play hero in Tokyo but she was still no closer to figuring out how she was going to explain things to Hokage-sama in her next report. On the one hand, he had done a pretty good job disguising himself and not once had he used a jutsu or technique or piece of equipment that could be traced back to Konoha. On the other, though, two or three civilians had managed to catch him on film fighting and, while grainy, it was possible that the shots of his face could be enlarged and enhanced. She'd have to wait and see what the tech heads back home had to say about the footage before she jumped to any conclusions. If things went right, she'd just get a reprimand but, if things went down the toilet, Team Anko would be recalled back to Konoha so fast it'd make their heads spin. Still, at least she'd get a sort of vacation out of the whole deal and that was something at least. While ninja of the various hidden villages did go abroad in the world occasionally to accomplish a mission, for the most part everyone pretty much stayed in that neck of the woods. This was mostly due to the fact that shinobi were their country's military and it didn't pay to have too many soldiers out in the field when relations between the various ninja nations were so delicate. In any case, she decided that she'd enjoy this time abroad for however long it lasted and prayed that if repercussions for Xander-no-baka's actions were on their way that they weren't too harsh.

Looking to Hana for a moment, she was glad to see that the feral young woman wasn't airsick because, after the long boat ride from Waterfall territory, she didn't want to smell vomit for a good long time. At the moment, though, the Inuzuka girl was fast asleep and her trio of partners were sedated in kennels in the cargo department. The feral girl wasn't too happy about that at all, which was understandable considering how close her clan was to their animal partners but, sadly, Konoha didn't have any private aircraft of their own, so they had to fly civilian the entire way to America. As such, Hana made periodic trips herself down to the cargo department of the airplane to check on her three furry friends, using some subtle jutsu to make it past the civilians. At the moment, though, she was catching up on some sleep while they jumped time zones and probably would stay that way for another three hours at least.

Problem was that they were due to touch down in LAX in about two and a quarter hours, so that would mean someone would have to wake the young lady up.

It was never a good thing to wake up Inuzuka Hana before she was good and ready to wake up.

The last person who did that wound up with multiple broken bones and was getting over a slight Inuzuka phobia.

Hearing approaching footsteps, she saw that Xander was back from his trip to the bathroom and, while she no longer was quite as mad at him for his bout of heroism, she wasn't ready to let him off the hook just yet. He needed to realize how important it was for ninja to remain in the shadows and not even approach becoming established fact. If the world at large knew about ninjas, real ninjas, then it'd only be a matter of time before every general, dictator and criminal organization in the world would want in on the action. They'd want to learn all the techniques, get ninjas permanently on the payroll and, before anyone knew it, there'd be a shinobi arms race where every country wanted their own standing army of transforming, flame-throwing soldiers. Not only would it pretty much make the hidden villages small town organizations, but it'd likely spark off a couple of wars along with lots more changes to the landscape of good old Earth. She knew that he knew it on a basic level, but until he started taking it more seriously, she had to keep him on a short leash.

"Welcome back, Xander-sama." Ayeka said in her usual loving 'you will marry me' voice.

It was amusing to see these two go at it and she had a feeling it wouldn't be too much longer before the Uchiha finally caved in enough to officially ask her out on a date somewhere. He'd put up an admirable defense, but even the strongest cliff face eventually got worn away by the crashing waves of the sea and Mishima Ayeka was definitely a force of nature. Her money was on it being another month before the Chuunin finally popped the question every girl wanted to hear from the guy she had an eye for. Whether or not the blonde actually made it all the way to the wedding dress and the title Lady Uchiha was anyone's guess. Persistence might get Ayeka her foot in the door but it would be actual dates and time spent that got the diamond ring on her finger. Until that time, though, she'd have her fun messing with the two of them and stirring the pot every time things looked like they were settling down a little too much.

She needed some giggles in this life of blood and death, after all.

"Nice to be back. Piece of advice though: do not eat any of the airline food." Xander said with a bit of a grimace, "It'll come back to bite you in about two hours."

"I know, which is why I made sure to eat that big meal before take off." She commented with a smile as she rubbed her student's faces in the fact that she'd seen this coming and planned ahead.

"Really? I just thought you had a thing for dango." Xander-kun said with levity in his voice.

"Only about as much as you have a taste for all things hot and wet." She said sexily before laughing at the look that produced on his face.

Especially when he turned to see a lustful look on Ayeka's face and then heard moan in a nice way in Hana's sleep.

She'd have to remember to ask the Inuzuka girl what was so pleasing about her dream when she woke up.

She had a pretty good idea already, though.

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Pulling up to Sunnydale High School, The Next Day, Early Afternoon, Xander's P.O.V

"I'd like to say home sweet home but, after having my chakra senses heightened, this place feels like a sewer of bad feelings." He said as he looked at the place where he figured the gang was on a Saturday.

"You think it feels bad? It smells worse than an Akimichi bathroom after a bad case of the runs." Hana said after sniffing the air and recoiling in disgust at what her nose was telling her.

"Well then be glad that my mom put some property in the box of things she gave me in her will." He said, recalling the deed in the box he'd opened prior to leaving for Konoha, "Seeing as how she didn't have the money to build a place from the ground up, odds are there's something already there. Might need a little fixing up, depending on how much money she put into maintaining it and how long ago it was built in the first place, but it's better than nothing."

"Any idea what this already existing building is?" Anko-sensei asked as they approached the High School.

"Nope. Just that the land is big enough to have a decent sized mansion or temple." He replied, seeing with a glance that the school courtyard that the damage done by his fight with the Tarakans had been completely repaired.

"If there's that much land then how'd your mom afford it." Hana asked, looking his way for a moment before continuing her surveying the immediate area.

"One of the only good things about building a town on top of a Hellmouth is that the death rates and craziness drives down the property values like no one's business." He replied, remembering a night when Giles had remarked how easy it was to find an apartment, "It still probably cost her a pretty penny but, depending on what she brought with her from Konoha and what she managed to scrounge up, she could've managed it."

"We'll go out and take a look at it after we meet up with your Slayer friend and her Watcher," Anko-sensei said as she pushed open the front doors of the High School. "We need to inform them about the new status quo around here. Hokage-sama should have all the paperwork in order back home so when the Watchers Council starts asking questions, they'll find we have all the right cards in hand."

He had to admit that he was looking forward to hearing about how the old men felt about having the terms of their stay dictated to them and having no choice but to accept. From what he could gather, the leaders of the Council thought pretty highly of themselves and wouldn't like the fact that someone managed to pull a fast one on them. Nor would they like being kicked out of the number one paranormal hot spot on Earth if there was something they could do to stick around. That was why they'd accept whoever Tsunade-sama chose to be Council representatives, even if they turned out to be Giles and a Slayer who was a little too American for their tastes. Of course he expected that Giles'd get orders to snoop on them and learn as much as was possible about the ninja arts, but the ANBU who even now was probably covertly shadowing them would put a stop to that. He hadn't shown his face to anyone but Anko since they'd left Konoha but, according to the Jounin, the guy made a habit of popping up every three days at the most inconvenient of times. Nothing special, strictly report and review, but that was how she preferred it. While he might be a Konoha shinobi, he hadn't exactly endeared himself to Team Anko and the fact that he had the support of the old farts on the village council didn't improve their opinion of him at all. It'd take something serious indeed to get any member of Team Anko to actually like the guy.

Walking through the halls, he hoped that Snyder wouldn't show up because he really didn't like the odds of Team Anko surviving the encounter without a punch or kunai being thrown. The man had an easy enough time pissing off normal civilian students who couldn't fight back, things'd get messy if he pushed Team Anko a little too far. Still, it was nice to be back in town and walking down the same old hallways. Konoha was nice and all but he still considered Sunnydale home and, despite all its flaws, he'd always be happy to come back to it.

It didn't take long for them to reach the library but, when he walked inside, he was surprised to find no one there. He knew that they knew he'd be arriving around now so there was no reason for the place to be completely vacant. Had something come up? This was Sunnydale after all and it was possible that something Hellmouthy had happened since he'd called them the previous night but that still should have meant at least one person in the library doing research.

"Where is everyone?" Ayeka asked looking about the room, "I thought you said they'd all be here."

"Normally they are. Something must have happened." He said before turning around to leave the library for the next most likely place where his friends could be, "If they're not here then they're probably at Giles' apartment. Let's go."

While they were making their way to the front entrance, he had to wonder at what could be so big and Hellmouthy that the gang wouldn't wait around for him to show up before getting down to business. Vampires acting up? Maybe, but without a Master level vampire leading them, they were pretty much the cockroaches of Sunnydale. Nothing any seasoned demon hunter needed to worry about except in large numbers. The demons? Also maybe, but it'd have to be a pretty heavy hitter to cause the gang this much concern. If that was the case then that was more than enough reason to beat feet over to G-Man's place to figure out what was going on.

Pushing the front doors open he only heard a slight snapping to tip him off before something unleashed a blinding flash of light that made it impossible to see anything. Whipping out a kunai he, could hear the others bracing themselves for an assault just like a trained ninja should but, until they got their sight back, they'd have to stay defensive. He then heard exclamations of surprise all around and soon discovered the reason as something metal and rope-like pinned his arms to his sides before the other end got stuck in the ground. While he tried to think up a way out of this mess, he had to admit it was a decent enough plan. Distract them with the equivalent of a flash bead while at the same time blinding them and then seal their movements with some sort of restraint cable or something. If his suspicions were correct, they'd get hit with the finishing blow anytime now and, unless he wanted to get knocked out or dead, he needed to come up with a way to get free and fast.

He never got the chance to do any cogitating, though.

Seconds later two people, fine females if the curves were any hint, glomped onto him, wrapping their arms and legs around him securely, making it even more difficult to move. Were they kage bunshin? Was this some sort of mutual suicide jutsu? He didn't know and he was clueless about who'd want him dead so badly that they'd be willing to die with him just to make sure he perished. Whatever the case, he was well and truly screwed because while he might have been able to form hand seals before with just the metal cables the arms and legs now made movement of his arms impossible. Caught unprepared on what he'd thought was safe territory and effectively taken down, along with the rest of his team, he had to wonder if this nullified his promotion to Chuunin. After all, while not Jounin, ninja of his current rank were supposed to be better than this and yet he'd just been skillfully captured like a freshly graduated Genin. Disgusted with himself for his carelessness, he waited for the end that was approaching him and hoped that Sasuke would do a better job restoring the clan than he had while he'd had the job.

SMOOCH! SMOOCH!

Kisses? He'd just been kissed on either cheek by these ladies?!

What the hell!?!

"Wo ai ni!" Came two somewhat familiar female voices from either side.

By this time the effects of the flash were beginning to lift allowing him to look about and figure out what the hell had happened, what was going on and why the two ladies wrapped around him had just kissed him. Looking down, he confirmed that he had a metal cable wrapped around his torso, pinning his arms to his sides at elbow level with the opposite end of the restraint stuck deep in the ground. Fairly thick and certainly not something he could power his way out of even if he channeled a large amount of chakra to his arms. Lifting his gaze, he looked to his right to find a young woman roughly his age with jet black hair wearing a Chinese style outfit looking at him with the same face that Ayeka sometime gave him whenever she was in one of those matrimony moods. This didn't clear anything up, so he turned to look at the other one attached to the other side of his body in the hopes that things'd clear up. The other was a brunette with ribbons in her hair that made her look quite cute indeed, wearing loose pants, sandals and a shirt that had obviously been bought to accentuate her ample endowments. Unfortunately for him she was looking at him much the same way her raven haired partner was, which made him increasingly worried since it could mean potentially troublesome had just landed in his lap.

Perhaps even something really troublesome, considering he was getting a sense of déjà vu like he'd seen these two young ladies someplace before.

"Amazon law has been fulfilled. Congratulations, Uchiha Alexander." Came a more mature voice from above.

Less than a second later an older version of the brunette attached to his body dropped down in front of him, wearing an expensive looking but durable cheongsam with a smile on her face. Figuring that finally someone had appeared who could give him some answers, he decided to ask the most important question first.

"Could you please explain what just happened?"

"Simple. Weeks ago we met in southern China while aiding our sister Xian Pu pursue a female outsider who had defeated her in combat. You unknowingly covered for that foul young girl and thus we were required to slay you." Replied the older woman the smile never leaving her face, "However, with your skill and abilities as a Konoha ninja, you defeated the four of us in honorable combat. In doing so, though, you set off the chain of events that have brought us to this moment and this situation."

The clueless look on his face must have been clear because, with a look of some annoyance, she rolled her eyes before looking at him squarely.

"According to Chinese Amazon law, if a man from outside of the tribe defeats a woman of the tribe, then that Amazon is required to marry that man as a point of honor." The older woman explained plainly, "Bluntly put, the young woman on your left, Pu Fium, as well as the one on your right, my daughter Lu Xion, are now by the laws of our tribe your future wives."

Definitely troublesome!

To Be Continued…

Note: THERE WILL BE A SEQUEL!! Let me just make that clear from the very beginning. I will be writing a sequel to this like my other completed works but before I can do that I must finish off a few more of my in progress fanfics that have not yet been completed. Just as there are fans of this fanfic I have people who like my other works as well who want them continued and completed as well. Therefore I ask for your patience in the matter and hope that you will stick around for the time when I do manage to get the sequel to this fanfic up and running.