The dark wood of the Senju Fortress main door groaned under Naruto's palm as he pushed it open, and he didn't wait for it to slide smoothly on the rails but instead threw it wide open with his shoulder as if he were entering his own run-down apartment rather than a historic mansion.
"We're here!" he shouted into the interior, causing his voice to bounce off the walls of the empty hallway before stepping aside and making an exaggerated gesture to his companion. "Come in, come in. Welcome to the secret base of operations... which well, isn't so secret anymore because you're here."
Tenten crossed the threshold cautiously while hugging her own backpack as if it were a shield, allowing her brown eyes to roam over the high ceiling, the polished wooden beams, and the hallways that seemed to extend eternally into the darkness.
"This is... ridiculous," Tenten blurted out letting out a breath. "I knew the Senju were important, but this isn't a house, Naruto, it's a headquarters, which makes me wonder if just a few people and a pig really live here."
"And sometimes it feels small when Grandma Tsunade starts throwing furniture," Naruto replied laughing while kicking off his sandals and leaving them scattered carelessly. "But you get used to it, so relax. Hey, do you smell that? I think Shizune-neechan is cooking something."
Tenten wrinkled her nose to sniff the air.
"It smells like... roast meat? And something sweet."
"Victory dinner!" celebrated Naruto raising his arms. "Come on, leave your things there since no one is going to steal them! Well, maybe Tonton if you have food in your backpack."
"I have ninja tools, not snacks," clarified Tenten leaving her things neatly by the wall and aligning her sandals next to the disaster that were Naruto's. "And speaking of which, where is the famous pet? I thought that..."
A sharp squeal, similar to a boiling teakettle but with legs, cut off her sentence: "BUHIII!"
A pink projectile shot out from the side hallway and skidded on the waxed floor with hooves tapping frantically, revealing Tonton, Shizune's pig, who was wearing a huge blue ribbon tied around her neck and an expression of porcine panic.
"Come back here, you vain little piggy!"
Shizune appeared a second later with her hair escaping her ponytail and a stiff-bristled brush in her hand, running as if her life depended on it.
"Tonton! If you don't let yourself be brushed you're going to look like an old rug in front of the guests!" shouted Shizune, ignoring Naruto and Tenten while chasing the animal toward the kitchen. "Hi Naruto! Welcome, sorry for the chaos! Tonton, get away from that vase!"
Both disappeared around a corner followed by the sound of ceramic breaking and a shout of frustration from Shizune, leaving Tenten staring at the empty hallway and blinking slowly.
"That was... the Hokage's assistant?"
"That was the head of security in her natural state," said Naruto with total seriousness while nodding. "Tonton is fast, so fast that I once tried to catch her to put a Hokage hat on her and almost broke my nose, so let's go to the living room before they destroy the kitchen."
They walked toward the main room where Hinata was sitting in the center of the tatami in a lotus position with her eyes closed, appearing to meditate although the stiffness of her shoulders suggested she was actually standing guard. Upon hearing footsteps she opened her eyes, and her white pupils locked onto Tenten with a mix of recognition and surprise.
"Naruto-kun," Hinata said with her soft but clear voice, standing up with a fluid movement. "And... Tenten-san. I didn't know you were coming today."
"Tactical surprise!" announced Naruto dropping onto the nearest sofa and stretching out his legs. "We need help with the cargo for the trip to Suna and who better than the queen of storage."
"Hello, Hinata," greeted Tenten feeling suddenly self-conscious under the pale gaze of the Hyuga. "I hope I'm not bothering you, but Naruto insisted I come to coordinate because he said you had logistics problems."
"Logistics? We definitely need help with that," said a voice from the kitchen accompanied by the sound of metal against metal.
Sakura appeared in the doorframe wiping her hands on a kitchen towel, sporting a white smudge of flour on her forehead and an expression of relief upon seeing the newcomer. Her green eyes scanned Tenten and she gave her a kind, albeit tired, smile.
"Hello, Tenten, it's good you came," Sakura said with a warm tone, very different from her usual scolding of Naruto. "You're just in time because the truth is we're a bit overwhelmed with the preparations."
"Hello, Sakura," replied Tenten, visibly more relaxed at the welcome. "Naruto asked me to come help with the heavy equipment and transport seals, and I assumed you could use an extra hand so you wouldn't have to carry everything alone."
"You can't imagine how much I appreciate it," admitted Sakura letting out a sigh and lowering the towel. "Tsunade-sama wants to send medical supplies and diplomatic gifts, which means huge boxes that need professional sealing to survive the desert, and I can barely handle the medical organization, so your expertise saves our lives."
"I'm glad to be useful," said Tenten smiling with more confidence. "If you seal medicinal herbs poorly they dry out and if you seal water poorly it rots, but don't worry because I'll make sure everything arrives intact."
Hinata stepped forward and nodded gently, joining the atmosphere of cooperation.
"It's a relief to have you here, Tenten-san," said Hinata. "With your help on transport we can concentrate better on surveillance, so it's much safer for everyone."
"Exactly, welcome to the transport team," Sakura finished winking at her. "Now make yourself at home, although I warn you that the mission 'advisor' usually steals food."
Before the conversation could advance, a side door opened with a slight creak and Karin came out adjusting her glasses with her index finger, wearing a loose t-shirt and shorts with her red hair messy as if she had just woken up from a nap or an intensive study session.
Karin stopped dead upon seeing someone new and took a half-step back, hiding slightly behind the doorframe while her red eyes scanned the room shyly, passing over Naruto and Sakura before stopping on Tenten.
"Naruto..." Karin whispered without raising her voice much, avoiding direct eye contact with the newcomer. "Are there... visitors? You didn't warn that someone else was coming."
"Ah, Karin! Don't hide!" exclaimed Naruto sitting up straight. "This is Tenten, the weapons expert who is coming with us to Suna!"
"Weapons expert?" repeated Karin adjusting her glasses again, looking a bit more interested although she still maintained a safe distance. "Oh... that sounds useful, I guess. As long as you don't leave sharp things lying around like Naruto does with his kunai..."
"And who are you?" asked Tenten curiously, noticing the redhead's reserved attitude.
"I'm... well, I'm Karin," she murmured crossing her arms over her chest as if protecting herself. "I help detect chakra so we don't get taken by surprise, and I try to make sure Naruto doesn't do anything stupid, although it's a full-time job."
"Hey, I don't do stupid things!" protested Naruto. "I'm the mission leader!"
"You're the advisor," corrected Sakura and Karin in unison, though Karin's voice was barely an amused murmur.
The main office door flew open hitting the wall with a crash that made everyone jump, and Tsunade stepped out looking like someone who had spent three days arguing with stubborn elders and had just run out of sake.
"Noise! Too much noise!" bellowed Tsunade rubbing her temples. "Can't you be in the same room for five minutes without shouting?"
Her amber eyes swept the room stopping on each of them until reaching Tenten, at which point Tsunade blinked and her expression of irritation slowly changed to one of evaluation, drawing a slow and predatory smile on her lips, the smile of someone who has just found a useful tool.
"Ah... the scroll girl," said Tsunade lowering her voice to a dangerously soft tone. "Tenten, right?"
"Y-yes, Hokage-sama!" responded Tenten squaring her shoulders instinctively to stand at attention.
"Perfect," said Tsunade clapping once. "You arrived just in time to save my sanity, so forget the greetings and courtesies."
Tsunade walked toward them passing right by Naruto and grabbed Tenten by the shoulder to turn her toward the end of the hall.
"Come with me."
"Eh? Where to?" asked Tenten while being dragged along.
"To hell, or as I call it, Auxiliary Warehouse Number 4."
Tsunade stopped in front of a double door of dark wood at the end of the hall that was sealed with a paper tag that seemed to be decades old, a door Naruto had never seen open.
"Naruto, Sakura, Karin, move it," ordered Tsunade without looking back. "You're coming too, and no one eats dinner until this is resolved."
"What? But the food is going to get cold!" protested Naruto.
"Then work fast!"
Tsunade ripped off the paper seal with a sharp movement and pushed the doors, causing a groan of rusty hinges that filled the hall followed by a cloud of dust that made everyone cough. The interior was dark, but when Tsunade turned on the light, the horror was revealed: it was a huge room, crammed from floor to ceiling with wooden boxes, mountains of unrolled scrolls, rusty weapons, glass jars with dubious liquids, and piles of old clothes, as if someone had shoved everything they didn't know where to put in there for the last fifty years and then shaken the room.
"This," announced Tsunade pointing at the mess with a grandiose gesture, "is the place where supposedly the grade-A emergency medical supplies, the spare weapons from my grandfather's era, and if the inventory records aren't lying, several cases of my special reserve sake that I hid before leaving the village are located."
She turned to Tenten crossing her arms.
"Naruto says you're an expert in logistics, so prove it. I need you to organize this dump so I know what's useful for the trip to Suna, what's hazardous waste, and where the hell my sake is, and I want it done yesterday."
Tenten looked at the mountain of boxes threatening to collapse and swallowed hard.
"Hokage-sama... this would take an entire Chunin team days."
"You have two hours," sentenced Tsunade. "And you have three assistants, so use them. If you don't finish, you sleep in here."
"What?!" exclaimed Karin covering her nose and mouth with her hand, visibly distressed. "T-there's too much dust in here... I'm allergic and I can't breathe well in places like this..."
"Use your chakra to filter the air!" snapped Tsunade. "Sakura, use your strength to move the heavy stuff! Naruto, use clones to... I don't know, be useful! Tenten, you direct! If something explodes, it's Naruto's fault."
With that, Tsunade turned around and walked out with her sandals slapping the wooden floor.
"And if you find the sake and a single bottle breaks, I'll use you for target practice!" she shouted from the hallway before disappearing into her office.
The four remained standing in front of the open door staring into the abyss of clutter until Hinata, who had stayed in the living room, peeked timidly around the corner.
"I... uh... will help Shizune-san set the table," she whispered, and wisely disappeared toward the kitchen escaping the battlefield.
"Traitor," murmured Naruto.
Tenten took a step forward entering the room as dust rose around her feet, and looked up evaluating the stability of a stack of boxes that reached the ceiling.
"This is a nightmare," she murmured. "There is no classification system, there are weapons mixed with medicines and that over there looks to be... expired explosive tags?"
"Expired explosive tags?" asked Naruto approaching with curiosity. "Does that explode harder or not explode?"
"It explodes when you look at it wrong," warned Tenten stopping him with her arm. "No one touch anything until I say so."
Sakura rolled up her shirt sleeves and sighed. "Right, let's do this because I want dinner. Where do we start, boss?"
The word 'boss' seemed to activate something in Tenten, causing her posture to change and she stopped being the girl from the weapon shop to become the master of tools, her eyes shining with a manic light of organization.
"First let's clear the central area," ordered Tenten pointing to a free space on the floor. "Sakura, I need you to move those big boxes over there, but be careful because the wood looks rotten, so use your chakra control to distribute the pressure and prevent them from breaking."
"Got it," said Sakura approaching a pile of boxes marked with a faded red symbol, concentrating chakra in her hands to lift them as if they were feathers despite their weight.
"W-watch out!" warned Karin from the door, adjusting her glasses nervously and not daring to fully enter. "I can feel unstable chakra in there... if that falls, we blow up the mansion."
"Karin!" called Tenten. "I need your eyes. Scan that pile in the back and tell me what is safe to move and what is a death trap, classifying by chakra type: weapons, seals, or medical."
"Ugh, this is gross, there are spiderwebs everywhere," complained Karin entering with hesitant steps.
"Naruto," said Tenten turning toward him.
"Ready for action!" responded Naruto making the clone seal. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"
Twenty Narutos appeared in the room filling almost all the free space.
"Mistake!" shouted Tenten. "Too many, there's no room to move! Dismiss half!"
"But more hands is faster!"
"More hands is more probability of knocking over that tower of rusty kunai! Keep five and make a human chain from the back to here to pass things!"
The work began and Sakura lifted boxes that weighed tons as if they were cardboard.
"N-not that one!" squealed Karin pointing at a green box and backing away scared. "It has liquids and smells like acid!"
"Naruto number 3, catch!" shouted Sakura tossing the box gently to the first clone.
The chain of Narutos worked with surprising efficiency passing objects from hand to hand until leaving them at Tenten's feet, who was a whirlwind of activity; she pulled a giant scroll from her back and unrolled it on the floor with a fluid movement of her wrist.
"Here we go!"
A clone passed her a box of kunai, Tenten touched the box, touched the scroll, and applied a short burst of chakra, causing the box to disappear inside the paper converted into an ink kanji with a loud poof.
"Next! Bandages!"
Poof!
"Next! Old scrolls!"
Poof!
"Wait!" shouted Karin with a trembling voice. "That red box! Stop!"
Naruto number 4 already had the box in his hands and froze.
"What's wrong?" asked the clone.
"Active chakra!" explained Karin covering her head. "It's a sealing trap! If you open it or seal it wrong, it releases a cloud of gas!"
Tenten approached with sweat beading on her forehead and looked at the box, noticing it had a paper seal stuck on the lid that was half peeled off.
"It's an old containment seal," analyzed Tenten. "The chakra adhesive is failing, so Naruto, don't move a millimeter."
"My nose itches!" complained the clone trembling.
"Hold it!"
Tenten took out a brush and a jar of ink from her pouch and, with a steady hand, drew a counter-seal on the wood of the box surrounding the old paper.
"Sakura, I need a constant chakra flow on the edge of the box to stabilize the internal pressure, now!"
Sakura ran over and placed her hands on the sides of the box without touching Naruto, allowing a soft green glow to emanate from her palms.
"Ready," said Sakura focused.
"Karin, tell me when the flow stabilizes," asked Tenten finishing the drawing.
Karin narrowed her eyes and peeked cautiously from behind Sakura. "The flow is erratic... wait... Sakura is calming it... a little more... Now! It's stable!"
"Kai!" shouted Tenten striking her own drawing with two fingers.
There was a blue flash, the old paper burned turning to ash, and the box sat still.
"Whew..." the Naruto clone let out a breath. "Can I scratch now?"
"You can," said Tenten wiping off the sweat. "That box goes to the 'Dangerous' pile, so put it in the corner carefully."
They continued working and the dynamic changed, ceasing to argue to move like a gear where Karin detected shyly, Sakura stabilized or moved the heavy stuff, Naruto transported, and Tenten classified and sealed.
In a dark corner, behind a pile of moth-eaten blankets, Naruto found something and pulled off a dusty tarp.
"Hey guys! Look at this!"
Underneath was a tower of polished wooden boxes with the Senju clan symbol engraved in gold that smelled different, smelling of expensive alcohol.
"The treasure!" shouted Naruto.
"The sake!" exclaimed Sakura.
"Don't touch it!" ordered Tenten. "That is the priority objective, so Karin, is it safe?"
Karin approached sniffing the air delicately. "It has no traps, but the chakra... is old and strong. It's high-quality alcohol."
"Good," said Tenten. "Sakura, you carry it because I don't trust Naruto's clones for this. If a bottle falls, Tsunade-sama kills us."
"Got it," said Sakura lifting the first box with reverence.
"I'll clear the way," said the original Naruto kicking a pile of old clothes to clear the path.
"Careful!" shouted Karin. "There was a glass bottle there!"
"I saw it, I saw it!"
They worked for another hour and the room, which before looked like a dump, was now empty except for three giant scrolls on the floor labeled: 'Weapons', 'Medical', 'Misc/Trash', and the stack of sake at the door. Tenten dropped sitting onto the 'Weapons' scroll breathing heavily, with dust smudges on her face and messy hair.
"We're done," she said looking at the empty space.
Sakura leaned against the wall, exhausted but smiling. "That was... intense, but you're fast, Tenten. I've never seen anyone seal with such speed."
"We had help," said Tenten pointing at Karin. "Without your radar we would have blown up three times."
Karin adjusted her glasses and tried to hide a small smile of satisfaction by lowering her gaze, although she was covered in gray dust.
"Well... I guess it wasn't bad," Karin murmured quietly. "You guys... were useful too."
"And my clones were great, right?" asked Naruto lying on the floor making a dust angel.
"They were useful," admitted Tenten, "as pack mules."
"Hey!"
"Dinner is ready!" Shizune's voice came from the hallway.
"Food!" Naruto jumped up with dust falling from his clothes. "Let's go!"
They left the room closing the double doors and in the hallway found Tsunade waiting, who had changed into more comfortable clothes but whose gaze remained sharp as she looked at the empty room and then the intact stack of sake.
A slow smile spread across her face.
"Impressive," she said. "Less than two hours and the building is still standing."
She looked at Tenten.
"Good job. You have a talent for bringing order to chaos and it will serve you in Suna, because those old council members are messier than that warehouse."
Tenten blushed bowing her head. "Thank you, Tsunade-sama."
"Now, go wash your hands. And you, Naruto, shake yourself off before entering the dining room or I'll make you eat in the garden."
Dinner was a noisy and joyful affair with lots of food: grilled fish, miso soup, rice, and pickled vegetables.
Naruto, as was his habit, attempted a stealth maneuver and, while Tenten was distracted talking to Hinata about kunai types, slowly extended his chopsticks toward the bun-haired girl's plate where there was a golden, perfect gyoza on the edge.
Almost... almost...
CLACK.
Before his chopsticks touched the gyoza something struck his hand with a rapid movement, a silver blur.
"Ouch!" complained Naruto dropping his chopsticks and rubbing his hand.
He looked and saw that it had been hit by... a spoon? Tenten was looking at him with a metal spoon in her hand, spinning it between her fingers as if it were a kunai and smiling with a defiant and amused expression.
"My defenses are impenetrable, Naruto," said Tenten. "I have eyes in the back of my head for food thieves, so try it again and I'll seal your chopsticks inside a roll of toilet paper."
Sakura let out a laugh almost spitting out her tea.
"Good one, Tenten!"
Karin hid a shy smile behind her rice bowl while Hinata looked at Tenten and poured her more tea.
"Tenten-san is very skilled," said Hinata softly.
Naruto picked up his chopsticks pouting. "I just wanted to taste it! It looked lonely!"
"Eat your own, glutton," said Tenten, and with a quick movement put one of her own gyoza on Naruto's plate. "Here. But next time, ask."
Naruto looked at her surprised and then smiled.
"Thanks, Tenten! You're great!"
From the head of the table, Tsunade observed the scene while drinking from her newly rescued bottle of sake, seeing how Tenten, who had arrived nervous and feeling out of place, was now laughing with Sakura and arguing amicably with Naruto, and how Karin was lowering her guard little by little.
Tsunade took a long drink feeling the familiar burn of the alcohol.
****
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