As Naruto watched his friends who were girls walk away with their own short-term escorts, the lead paladin saw him rubbing a small trinket in his hands.
"What's that? Another momento of your friends?"
"Well, yeah," the boy replied, too shocked to shout or dissemble. "I've never had too many, and..."
"Well why don't you give it to me and we'll have the Warlocks summon her as well?"
Naruto blinked, eyes round. "But... she's dead." And he ought to know, as Kakashi had told him to form clones to be the burial detail for all of the corpses left on that bridge. There really hadn't been any doubt of Haku's gender, once it had been revealed when he'd been forced to arrange her for burial. But he hadn't been able to resist keeping one of her needles to remember her by.
"Pshaw! Like that matters?" Grumbling something about at least this one should have clothes, and if he'd known earlier another girl summoned might have had a spare something for the others to wear, the knight had him down in that basement again.
Haku had rotted by the time the body arrived, but the Warlocks thought nothing of it, and the raid's priestess had the girl back alive before Naruto's astonished eyes in short order.
"You two, and the other three, that's five. Enough for a full party," the Paladin declared, herding both of them back out of that basement, as he'd not anticipated the girl having been dead that long, and her clothes not only stank, they were falling apart. Time for all of them to get new clothes. "So, what are your interests?" he asked the girl bluntly, so as to get her a novice's robe as soon as humanly possible.
Haku was still having trouble comprehending she was alive. But she was with Naruto, who was friendly, and these were obviously his guards, so she answered honestly, if nervously, "Um, ice. And I like to heal."
"Shaman, then," the knight declared, naming off the only Warcraft class to have any interest in both ice and healing, while sending off a message to someone who could take her to an appropriate trainer, along with a Naruto clone, as the girl was obviously nervous about everyone but him.
Hinata arrived with a Naruto clone, Circe shooing them along from behind, at the Druid trainer of Stormwind before their escort of women opened up the wall of cloaks they'd held around her on the way. So she was practically on top of the long eared elf man before she knew it, and didn't know what to say, shrinking in on herself in embarrassment at being so poorly dressed when so close to an adult male. It was intimidating, and she hid behind Naruto.
Luckily Circe did know what to say, presenting both children with a wave of her arm. "Sheldras Moontree, I've brought you a new apprentice!"
Already deep in conversation with another druid, this one of much higher level, Sheldras simply thrust out his arm at the child he'd thought she'd indicated and after a burst of magic went back to his conversation, while one of his assistants fetched the new Druid a fresh robe.
"Ano," Hinata blushed, pushing the tips of her fingers together as she glanced nervously sideways at Naruto, who was now draped in a ivy-trimmed cloth garment that shrank to fit him. "A... are you going to become a druid too, Naruto?"
The boy blinked several times, not knowing what to say, until Circe whispered in his ear, "Any time a girl asks you anything, try to phrase your answer into a compliment to her."
Blinking once more, he shook himself slightly and gave Hinata a smile, determining to give it a try, since that was the first advice on girls he'd ever gotten. "Um, I'd be happy to do anything with you, Hinata-chan!" he declared proudly.
Hinata glowed, lips parting and eyes fixed on his as she absorbed the praise. Even though his smile was only about twenty percent as confident as she was used to, that was the nicest thing she'd ever imagined he'd say to her!
Naruto saw this reaction and was amazed by it, quickly sending off a Whisper to his other clones so they could know this amazing secret!
Of course, that was the moment Hinata fainted.
Circe smiled smugly. Well, who knew? The kid could listen to advice. She tugged on the trainer's sleeve, unconcerned about him having wasted a robe and a spell on what she knew to be simply a visual projection, and not at all concerned about explaining that to him, either. "Shelras? The one on the ground, too, please."
Temari had not wanted to be separated from her client at all, after all she was a ninja, and she was on a protection mission. Still, Naruto had promised that he and his guards could handle it, so she permitted herself a brief break while the responsibility lay on the Leaf nin's shoulders.
There were certain missions that had so high a priority that any ninja who had a good shot at one of them was just automatically authorized to pursue it, even to the detriment of any normal mission they could be on. And, well, this escort mission had been only a C rank for difficulty, that they'd been treating closer to a B for political reasons. But from what one of those armored knight had said?
It was worth her taking a shot at, even if the client she was to be escorting died from her moment of neglect.
Because one of those armored guys had let slip one of the most amazing pieces of information Temari had ever heard in her life, a 'Drop Everything' priority if she'd ever heard one, especially considering the current Kage of her village.
Some of those Paladins had mentioned how the Kyubi had gotten released, BIG news by any stretch of the imagination, and something that Naruto had confirmed. That it was tearing up half a continent was not surprising in the least to anyone who knew anything at all about Tailed Beasts.
But more important to Temari was how those Paladins had been gossiping about how Holy energy, apparently an ability they wielded, could hurt Tailed Beasts. And they wanted to offer that training to her? And it would take only a few seconds? Well, if that wasn't a one-in-a-lifetime opportunity what was?
If she could bring back to Suna an ability, any ability at all, to harm a Tailed Beast, it was worth dropping everything for a moment to pursue that possibility.
"So what about you?" Temari asked of her Naruto clone as they went with their escort into the temple district. "How is it you aren't jumping about shouting over something like this?"
The Naruto clone's eyes grew distant as he received a Whisper. Trying a smile, he ventured, "Uh, I'd be happy to do anything you did?"
Temari smirked. That's what she'd thought. Guy was just using her as an excuse to get the training himself. After all, what jinchuriki could pass up a chance at something like this? Must have slipped his real self into escorting her when everyone else got clones. Got to give him credit, she hadn't noticed the switch.
"Come on, let's go get our hammers."
"Paladin training is this way," their escort pointed to a set of doors opposite to those where the Priest training took place. Those were still closed.
Moments later after two short spells Naruto and the kunoichi were modeling their new clothes to each other. "Eh, these pants and shirt aren't good, but they're something, and that's better than nothing," Temari decided.
Elsewhere, in two separate locations, Shion and the original Naruto were picking out classes.
See other episodes by Sapphire Cat
(Posted Tue, 28 May 2013 09:09)
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