Bag of Depravity
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Missing-Nin Chapter 7
🕑 Added 2025-07-12 07:25:36 +0000 UTCChapter 7
The Kazekage and the Fox
“Move,” Onoki said.
His arms were crossed, which seemed to be his default stance when not attacking. Naruto had plenty of time to get used to the old man’s habits over the last few days as he was chased around the Land of Rain. Onoki was stubborn to a fault.
“No,” Rasa said.
“While I am asking, get out of my way.”
“Or else what?” Gold dust shifted around Rasa like a dog eager to bite. “This is unlike you, Fence Sitter. This is my country, but Ame is not yours. If you cross that border Iwa will not enjoy the results.”
“Results be damned!” Onoki snapped. “He laid his hands on my granddaughter! Imagine it was your daughter that he defiled!”
Rasa did exactly that. He smiled.
“Unfortunately, I haven’t gotten that far yet. But it will come to that soon enough.”
“I told you no!” Naruto shouted.
Rasa looked down at him, still smiling. “That was before you came here for my help. Believe me, Naruto, we will be bargaining again. And this time, you will be mine.”
“...Fuck!” The ground underneath Onoki cracked and began to tear apart as his chakra lashed out, altering its weight. Clods of earth floated up, then crashed down as their weight doubled. The ground shook, forcing Naruto to hold Hinata tighter to keep her from falling. She looked terrified. As abruptly as it started, the Tsuchikage’s tantrum ended, leaving a graveyard of disturbed earth.
“I will remember this,” he snapped.
His diminutive body zipped away like a shooting star, disappearing into the thick mists of Rain Country.
Rasa’s dust lowered him to the ground, where he opened his arms welcomingly.
“Naruto! You’ll be coming back to Suna, won’t you? Now that you’ve come this far, it would be a shame if you ran off so soon…”
Honestly, Naruto was considering doing exactly that.
Please do. This one irritates me, Kyu said.
Everybody irritates you, Naruto thought.
Ah. I’m glad you noticed.
Naruto felt a tug on his sleeve. Hinata was holding the side of his shirt, attempting to hide her fear of the foreign kage in front of them. When Naruto left the Konoha, Hinata had been the shy next heiress to the Hyuuga Clan. Basically the last person he expected to see with a slashed headband. At first he had tagged along with that Konoha squad just to hide from Onoki, but when he figured out who their target was, his plans changed.
She must have run away recently if Konoha was sending a squad like that after her. It was possible she’d only been rogue for a few days. Naruto wasn’t interested in abandoning her, and a brief stay in Suna might be the best thing to calm her down.
“Sure, we’ll tag along,” Naruto said. “But only for a visit!”
“Of course,” Rasa said. “And if you happen to encounter anything you can’t bring yourself to leave behind, you can always extend your stay indefinitely.”
“I just said—”
“This way. We’ll arrive at the village within a day.”
Naruto growled at being talked over, but it was already too late. Rasa was leading them deeper into Wind Country toward the sandy dunes in the distance. Three golden discs formed an inch off the ground.
“Please, step on,” the Kazekage invited them. “We’ll make much better time this way.”
Once they had climbed onto the disks, the gold dust accelerated and carried them across the landscape at the speed of a mature shinobi. Rasa stood on the one in front, his arms in their trademark crossed pose. After about fifteen minutes, Hinata came alive like she was awakening from a stupor.
“Thank you for your help!” She bowed as deeply as she could without falling off her perch. “I would have died without your help. I’m—”
“Hinata, right?”
When she just looked at him, Naruto laughed nervously.
“You are, aren’t you? I mean, Hyuugas do look pretty similar. It’s been a long time… But that’s you, right? C’mon, you gotta answer me!”
Hinata had gone silent, accidentally making Naruto nervous that he’d gotten unrelated Hyuugas mixed up. “I’m Hinata!” she said. “I just… d-didn’t expect you to know me.”
“But we met,” Naruto said. “At that playground. I tried to stop some kids who were picking on you.” He rubbed the back of his head. “Man, I got my ass beat back then!”
Hinata averted her eyes, smiling softly. “You remember.”
“Of course!” Naruto boasted. “My memory’s better than anybody’s, dattebayo!”
Ridiculous, Kyu said. You would forget what happened a day ago without me to remind you.
Shh, Kyu! Just ignore it!
Naruto knew that his memory wasn’t one of his many strengths. It was just embarrassing to admit the reason he remembered Hinata was because almost no one was nice to him back then. He thought about their interaction in that park every day for a month after it happened, and even now he could picture it clearly.
“Hey, do you still have the scarf I gave you? It’s probably pretty small now, but seeing it again would be so cool!”
Hinata wouldn’t look at him. “No. It was taken— I lost it.”
“Aw. Oh well. Don’t worry about it, it was super cheap anyway.”
“Do you like scarves?” Rasa asked. “Suna has plenty we use to keep the sun off our necks. I could introduce you to the finest maker in the village.”
“Quit eavesdropping!” Naruto said.
Hinata flinched. “Naruto, sh-should you be talking to a kage like that?”
“What, this guy?” Naruto jerked his thumb toward Rasa. “Don’t worry about it, he loves me. The last time I was in the area, I accidentally stepped on a snake that was about to bite him. Now I’m basically his favorite person.”
“He treats you like this… b-because of a snake?”
“It was a venomous one!” Naruto said cheerfully.
“I assure you, my gratitude is entirely self-serving,” Rasa said. He looked over his shoulders, the darkened skin around his eyes making him resemble a nocturnal tanuki. “Everything I do is in pursuit of strengthening Suna. I notice that despite being a Hyuuga, you don’t wear that accursed seal. When Naruto chooses to stay, you’re more than welcome to join him.”
“Did you just say when?” Naruto squawked. “Quit getting ahead of yourself!”
“Thank you for your consideration,” Hinata said, lowering her head to the Kazekage.
Naruto watched her in his peripheral vision. Her fingers were clenched into fists. If he had to guess, the last thing she wanted was to trade Konoha’s chains for a new pair of shackles. Her politeness didn’t fool him.
Narutos quickly turned his eyes forward as dark moving shapes became visible. With Rasa’s help they had already entered the desert, leaving the border zone behind. Now a group was moving straight toward them.
“My attendants,” Rasa said. “In my eagerness, I left them behind. It seems they’ve caught up.”
The gold carrying the trio slowed down. It was obvious those approaching them were ninja. In the same way that Konoha taught Genin to walk up the side of trees, Suna used sand-walking for their chakra control exercises. A shinobi native to Kaze no Kuni never left a footstep when they traversed the dunes.
“Sir!”
Three ninja broke from the front of the group. From their outfits, these were the Kazekage’s personal guards. Unlike Konoha’s ANBU and their animal-themed masks, Suna’s equivalent wore bulkier human-like headgear. Based on puppets and designed with fear tactics in mind, each was made to look like a vengeful spirit come to life.
“Calm yourselves,” Rasa grunted. “I was successful and any danger is past. We will be returning to the village.”
His guards didn’t seem to know what to do. In addition to these three in their full garb, the group had an additional five ninja. Three were traditional Jounin dressed to handle the desert’s heat. One was a young blond woman, a couple years older than Naruto, running in a dress. It wasn’t even like Kurotsuchi’s that had been designed for combat. There was no way she could fight in that, even if the fan strapped to her back implied she was a ranged fighter.
In any other group, Dress Girl would’ve been the strangest one. In this group, someone else had her beat.
Wearing a full suit with coattails, a shaggy-haired redhead looked straight past his father and spotted Naruto. He quickly walked forward, putting a hand over his chest.
“It’s good to see you again,” he said.
The sand shifted restlessly around his feet the same way that Rasa’s gold dust moved. He had permanent circles around his eyes even stronger than Rasa’s. Gaara, the Kazekage’s youngest child, lowered his head to Naruto.
“Gaara! You’re looking great!” Naruto said, giving him a huge thumbs-up.
“Thank you. Are you ready to take me into your service?”
Naruto rubbed his head. “Nope! Still broke!”
“Very unfortunate, Sir.”
“You’re telling me!”
“You’re already acquainted with Gaara,” Rasa said. “I’d like for you to meet my daughter. Temari, step forward!”
The blond in the dress moved closer. Her hair ran down her back, swaying in the night wind. She closed her pretty green-blue eyes as she bowed to Naruto.
“My father has told me a lot about you. I hope that we can become closer.”
“Maybe,” Naruto said. “Quit it with the bowing stuff, too. That only works for Gaara.”
“If that’s what you’d like—” Temari’s eye twitched “—Sir.”
“Just use my name!”
Temari’s eyes flickered to Naruto’s left where Rasa stood, darting back to Naruto as quickly as they could. “I won’t forget this honor, Naruto.”
“We’ve dawdled long enough,” Rasa declared. “We will reach Suna tomorrow. Now that everyone is gathered, it’s easiest to run until the sun is up. We will rest through the afternoon and arrive in the evening. Move out!”
Now that they had joined the larger group, it became more difficult for Naruto and Hinata to talk. Her body was in no condition to run so Rasa carried her with his dust. It wasn’t like Naruto could start a private conversation either, because Temari was always nearby. Each time he tried, she’d jump in and turn the conversation to the best parts of Suna. By the time the sun was up she’d mentioned that she was single at least five times.
I wonder if the heat has evaporated all subtlety out of these people, Kyu said. That could explain a lot about Shukaku.
Just as the sun was starting to sing, the group stopped to erect a camp. The nondescript Jonin carried canvases to create shade. Gaara created pillars of sand to help support them. Soon, there was enough cover to get everyone out of the worst of the heat. They rolled out mats to avoid resting on the sand itself. Naruto couldn’t call the results ‘cool’, but it was a lot less scalding than taking on the sun’s full strength.
Rasa materialized more of his gold dust than he’d used since his standoff with Onoki. Using it, he created a tall structure separated from the rest of the camp by about fifty meters. He gestured with his hand toward the interior. Naruto took a quick look at Hinata.
“You should rest,” he said.
“I’m alright,” Hinata protested.
“Nah, you’ve pushed yourself enough. If you’re nervous around the Suna shinobi, just stick to Gaara. He’s my butler.”
Hinata couldn’t hide her confusion. “You have a butler?”
“Technically, not yet. Gaara’s waiting for me to amass my fortune, then he’ll come work for me! I helped him straighten his head out a while back. He was a problem child, if you can believe it. But now he’s super well-behaved. Hey, Gaara!”
Gaara looked over, cocking his head. Somehow, despite wearing a suit, he didn’t look visibly hot.
“Can you look out for Hinata for a little bit? I think your dad is about to drag me into his little house.”
Rasa was watching Naruto next to the golden structure he’d erected, Temari beside him. Gaara nodded, and Hinata reluctantly went toward the redhead. By the time Naruto reached Rasa and looked back, Hinata was laid out on one of the sleeping mats, already asleep. He knew she was exhausted.
“I was not about to drag you anywhere,” Rasa observed. “I was waiting quite patiently.”
“Sure, sure.”
Rasa had created an adobe-like building out of his gold dust. It had lots of windows and a tall ceiling to keep it from getting too hot inside. He’d even created stools and a small table, maintaining the shape of everything without any visible struggle. The man definitely earned his kage status.
Naruto sat down on one of the stools. It was exactly as comfortable as you’d expect from a stool made of metal.
“You really need someone in your family with the ability to control pillows,” Naruto said.
Temari laughed for over five seconds. She sat down on the sand right next to Naruto’s knee.
“Aren’t you hot?” she asked. “Foreigners always complain about the weather.”
“I’ve been all over the world,” Naruto boasted. “Wind Country is the hottest, but I’ve seen plenty of places that get close. I can handle some heat.”
“It’s very convenient,” Rasa said. “It means that he’ll settle in quickly.”
Temari smiled graciously. She accidentally brushed her shoulder against Naruto’s knee.
“Temari, why don’t you go rest with the others,” Naruto said.
For a second, her face lost its expression. “Did I offend you, Naruto? I didn’t mean to.”
“Nah, it’s nothing against you. Your dad and I just need to have a talk.”
Temari didn’t leave until Rasa nodded, at which point she stood and slipped outside. She was sharp. When Naruto told her not to bow, she stopped. When he asked her to use his name, she adjusted immediately.
“She’s a very attractive girl isn’t she?” Rasa asked.
He was sitting on another of the golden stools his powers had created. The natural smile Naruto typically wore disappeared.
“You’re trying too hard.”
“Can you blame me?” Rasa asked.
“...Not your motivations,” Naruto said. “But it’s a lost cause. I don’t like you.”
His face had become as cold as iron. Rasa smiled— matching his mood, grains of gold dust started to float off of his chair, floating toward the ceiling.
“Yet you saved my life nonetheless.”
“I wasn’t there to save you,” Naruto said bluntly. “I wasn’t even there for Orochimaru.”
“Irrelevant. Intentions don’t matter, only actions, and I owe you a debt.”
For a second, Naruto’s pupils dilated. Someone with quick enough eyes could have caught a flash of orange across his irises.
“Don’t try to make it sound noble. You just want my power.”
“Yes,” Rasa said. “That’s what it means to be a kage.”
Naruto stayed silent for a moment. Shall we slaughter him? Kyu asked eagerly.
Relax, Naruto said. Rasa is annoying, but he’s not an enemy.
Pity. You and your pesky morals.
“Done deliberating?” Rasa asked. “I’m familiar enough with Jinchurikis to tell when I’m intruding on a conversation.”
“Familiar with Jinchurikis,” Naruto said. “Is that what you call the awful seal you slapped on your son?”
“You managed to turn Gaara into a fine shinobi.”
“No thanks to you.” Naruto’s face was gloomy with an edge. “I like your son, Rasa. That’s why I brought him under my wing. Your daughter seems perfectly nice, when she’s not worried you’re going to punish her for not getting close enough to me. I hold nothing against your village. But do not for a second think that you of all people can chain me to it. Am I clear?”
The Kazekage had seen too many high-stakes negotiations to fold under pressure. “And what do I get for rushing to save you from Onoki?”
“I came to you because it was the easiest way to keep it from becoming a bigger incident,” Naruto said. “At most, you did me a favor. Consider us even for saving your life.”
Naruto stood up and left. It wasn’t just Rasa, every Kage he’d met on his travels put him in a sour mood. They were the ultimate shinobi not just in skills, but in mindset and ideology. In other words, they were the opposite of him, who hated the way this world worked.
“I suppose my village’s warm hospitality will have to be what wins you over,” Rasa said.
“...Don’t hold your breath,” Naruto said.
It was ten degrees hotter outside than when Naruto entered the structure. He jogged over to where the others were resting. By the time he got close, he was grinning.
Naruto dropped onto a mat beside Gaara, who silently acknowledged him.
“Not gonna sleep?” Naruto asked.
“I can’t,” Gaara said. “He’s scared to come out.”
Coward, Kyu snorted.
Hinata mumbled something in her sleep. Naruto glanced at her, then lifted his eyes to the horizon. He should be resting too. Before he could lay down, though, a column of kicked-up sand caught his attention.
About a hundred meters away, a merchant caravan with covered wagons rolled by. Naruto, Gaara, and the two Jounin keeping watch all observed the passing strangers.
“They have the mark of Mizu no Kuni,” Gaara said. “We haven’t seen visitors from that nation in years.”
“Maybe the civil war finally ended?” Naruto said. “It’s hard to tell with them. They keep to themselves so much, and everytime one war ends they run to start a new one.’
Gaara just shrugged. He was a great deal more stable than he had been in the past, but global affairs was an area he simply didn’t care for.
Naruto watched the foreign merchants for a moment, wondering what their homeland was like. The remote archipelago of Water Country was one of the few that he’d never managed to visit. When Naruto reclined, drifting off on his borrowed mat, he was picturing waterfalls, sandy beaches, and seafood.
