The Protagonist System

“How in the world did you get assigned as a long term guard mission for your first team exercise?” Anko asked the sensei of the newly formed Team Gaara.

Yashamaru chuckled. “The Kazekage is my brother-in-law and he knows what you've done to train all three of his children up to Genin standard in only three weeks. That's nothing short of a miracle.”

Tsuru chuckled as well and hugged all three kids, whom looked very happy about the turn of events. “He wants us to keep bringing them up?”

“If you can do that in only three weeks, what can you do by the time the Chunin Exams start next year?” Yashamaru asked.

“We'll be promoted right away!” Temari exclaimed and her two brothers cheered.

“I think it's in Kumo next year, isn't it, Yui?” Tsuru asked.

Yui checked the paperwork on her desk and nodded. “That explains why Konoha is choosing not to participate in the exams next year.” She answered and was glad they had many friends back in Konoha that kept them informed. “It might hold the entire village back if they don't let anyone promote from the lower ranks for more than a single year.”

“Suna can't afford to do it again for a few years, not after this year's debacle.” Yashamaru told them and they all knew what he meant. There had been too many things happening that had tainted the results, even if all of the students still graduated.

“That's understandable. They need to wait for people to forget about how much bad attention it had.” Anko said and her new friends nodded. “On the plus side, the Kazekage kept the invading squads alive and is ransoming them back to Konoha.”

“That's such a relief.” Akiko said and relaxed into her seat. “I was worried he would make them suffer for the mistakes of the leadership.”

“As were we.” Naruto said and nearly everyone in the room tried to not stare at his adult form. Even Temari gave him a look that was a mix of regret and longing, because she knew that he had been the young boy she had a crush on only a few days ago when they had graduated the academy together.

“It's all right, Naruto.” Tsuru said and hugged him. “None of us blame you for how things turned out.”

“Speak for yourself.” Anko said and Yui gave her a pointed look. “What? If I hadn't stolen his first kiss, he'd still be the cute little rascal we all wanted to eventually grow up into what we desired.”

No one could refute that, not with his 6 foot 3 inch body right there for all of them to see.

Yui checked her paperwork once more. “Now that everything is handled and we're all here, we should pack up and head out. That nice fancy bridge isn't going to build itself.”

Naruto chuckled at her enthusiasm. “That reminds me. Did anyone ask you about the shipping business when you registered it?”

“About half of the people in the building when they heard about the services we offered.” Yui said with a laugh, making everyone smile. “We already have two contracts to deliver goods to the Hidden Rock Village in the Land of Earth and a message to bring to the Hidden Hot Springs Village in the Land of Hot Springs next to Wave.”

The other women, including Temari, made appreciative sounds at hearing that.

“It sounds like we're having a quick vacation before actually going to Wave?” Yashamaru asked.

“That's a wonderful idea!” Anko and Tsuru said at the same time.

“We'll get packed right away!” Temari nearly shouted and dragged her brothers behind her.

Yashamaru shook his head at her behavior and followed them. “We won't be long.”

Tsuru waved and gave the others a pointed look. “Don't waste time.” She said and disappeared, as did Anko. They were both eager to leave the Land of Wind behind.

“Akiko? What about your potential man?” Yui asked her and pulled out a nice bag to start piling papers inside.

Akiko gave Naruto a grateful smile. “Once we reach the premises we bought for the shipping business, Naruto agreed to allow me to return to keep contact with him.”

“We have permission from the various Daimyos to rent small buildings in their lands, thanks to their desires to have us work on their homes. Of course we're going to abuse that.” Naruto said and walked over to the filing cabinet. He lifted it for Yui and she held her bag open for it. The thing slipped inside the smaller bag without fuss.

Akiko huffed. “It's no wonder why the shipping business is taking off already if you showed off doing that when you registered.”

Yui grinned at her and closed the bag. “We each have a new trunk, too.”

Akiko laughed and followed her friend to her room to help her pack. Naruto went around the residence and gathered up everything they had brought or bought and packed it up as well. It could be sorted out later when he unpacked it wherever they stopped for the night. They would be using the teleportation circles to travel back to the Land of Rain and then it would be a short hop from there into the Land of Earth.

Going along and establishing outposts was really going to accelerate their plans to bring successful trade between nations that never had the means before. Either from bandits, rival factions, or other every day incidents that caused problems, they would all be bypassed with having a completely neutral company to ship things with.

Naruto popped into his own room and checked to make sure he didn't leave anything and then went out to the living room to wait for the girls to finish. He didn't offer to help, because he knew they didn't want him to see certain things that they weren't ready for him to see.

Once they were done, Yashamaru, Temari, Kankuro, and Gaara returned. They were dressed for travel and wore large backpacks, which Naruto offered to carry for them to the shipping business. They initially refused, then he showed them one of the trunks and the three siblings eagerly tossed in their heavy bundles. Yashamaru laughed and added his own bags, glad to be relieved of the burden.

The women returned soon after and added their own things to the trunk, surprising the newly minted Genin team that the small trunk could hold so much. They followed Yui to the new business and they went inside.

“Good morning, boss.” A pretty young woman said.

“Good morning, Juna.” Yui said. “We're heading out, so I'll keep in contact with you every day at noon.”

“Yes, boss. I'll keep the proper forms ready and the stacks of trunks properly marked for the clients.” Juna responded. “If their destination isn't already part of the route, I'll add appropriate time estimates.”

Yui smiled and patted her shoulder. “Thanks, Juna.”

“I'll be back here by tonight.” Akiko said.

“Oh? Is Moniku free tonight?” Juna asked.

“No, I'm doing another shift at the hospital.” Akiko answered.

“Ah, then I'll keep the door locked after business hours until you need to leave again.” Juna said and Akiko nodded.

The large group entered the back room and saw nothing but a bare wooden floor. Naruto locked the door and the only thing in the empty room was a large number 10 wrtten on the back of the door.

“I'm not going to ask what's going on.” Yashamaru said and looked down at Gaara's curious face. “Go ahead.”

Gaara turned and looked up at Naruto. “Are you going to use a secret ninjutsu for us to leave a closed and locked room with no windows?”

“Yes, we are.” Tsuru said and held a hand down towards the floor. She sent out some chakra and the group disappeared in a flash of light and reappeared in the hidden clearing in a small forest at the edge of the Land of Wind and the Land of Rain. “Welcome to Outpost 7.”

The kids gasped at the large number 7 on the back of the door.

“You have to teach us how to do that!” Temari shouted and everyone laughed, because she said that every single time she saw something new.

“Don't worry, you're going to be added into a lot of the secrets our family has.” Naruto said and Temari blushed, both because of his words and at the thought of becoming his family.

Tsuru opened the door and they filed out into the clearing. “Before you ask, we're on the border to Rain Country.”

Naruto took out a large cart that had been converted from carrying cargo to carrying passengers. He then proceeded to give a hand to each female, starting with Tsuru, and helped her up into the cart and sat her down.

“I've never seen a cart like this before.” Yashamaru said as he ignored Temari's heavy breathing after being treated like a lady and helped into the cart to sit beside the other women.

“It's modified with a person being able to replace the horses.” Naruto said and waved the man into the cart. “I can tell you about the specifics as we ride across Rain and into Earth.”

Yashamaru smiled and climbed aboard to st right behind where Naruto was gong to sit. He saw the pedals and was sure he knew what was about to happen. Naruto put their trunk of supplies into the back and climbed into the front part, sat down, and grabbed the handlebars.

“Hold on, everyone. Here we go!” Naruto said and started pedalling.

Everyone was surprised when they went faster than when a horse pulled the cart and the ride was a lot smoother.

“I think we all need to hear about how you did this.” Yui said, quite pointedly.

“It's great exercise and it works.” Naruto said, then explained how he had worked it out.

He didn't tell them he copied some old rickshaw designs that used a bicycle and a small cart, only up-scaled and he had integrated them to make them into a larger single vehicle instead, like a tricycle. Transfiguration and imagination were a very versatile combination and also let it not stand out from the local level of technology.

“Why didn't you do this before?” Anko asked. “If anyone knew you had these things available...”

Naruto laughed. “I didn't have it before and I was only a short kid a few days ago. There was no way to reach the pedals and steer at the same time, so why make it?”

“Because we could have pedalled.” Tsuru said.

“Not without learning to ride it first.” Naruto responded. “I can teach you, now that it exists.”

“How can you ride it so well if you only just made it?” Temari asked.

“You just answered your own question.” Naruto joked and she gave him a glare, so he laughed. “I know how it works and it's pretty easy to control. When we stop for the night, I'll show you how it works and give you all a lesson if you want.”

Temari, Tsuru, Anko, and surprisingly Yashamaru nodded.

“I think we can offer these things for sale as part of the shipping business.” Yui said as she thought about it. “It's fairly comfortable and can hold a good amount of people.”

“It could encourage tourism, too.” Yashamaru said, sharing his own ideas. “Having something like this, only modified slightly for use on the sand, would make people want to travel greater distances.”

“You'd need wider tires and thicker treads for travelling across sand. Maybe metal chains or spikes as wraps around the wheels?” Naruto suggested and then shrugged. “We can work on different kinds of tires for the different land types later.”

Yui and Yashamaru nodded and started whispering to each other about it as they travelled. The trip across the smaller Land of Rain went fairly quickly, thanks to the nice vehicle and Naruto's practically endless pedalling. They stopped a few times to check on their teleportation circles, while Naruto popped ahead to clear out any bandits.

It wasn't long before they entered the Land of Earth to head to the Hidden Stone Village and to make their very first delivery.

*

We stayed the night in the Hidden Stone Village and rented another small building. We would have to come back later to find someone to hire and run that branch of the business. There wasn't a rush, since we had made the delivery of goods and the man there was delighted to have the shipment a full week before it was supposed to arrive and there hadn't been any hijacking threats or bandit raids.

I didn't tell him I took care of them before travelling through the more risky areas and he paid us a bonus for having every container intact and not tampered with. He also asked Yui for a continuing contract every month for a similar delivery and she signed him up as our first repeat customer. Guaranteed delivery and reliability was apparently what every business wanted and almost never had.

We left there and continued our trip through several other lands, Waterfall, Iron, and Rice, to end up in Hot Springs. It was a little longer to go that way than if we had returned to the Land of Fire first and then went to the Hot Springs; but, I was setting up the shipping network anyway and everyone enjoyed the scenery and the places we stopped.

There were a few times where I culled the local bandits and some of the wildlife just enough to give the new Genin team a good workout. It also let them blood themselves in actual combat in safer conditions than if they had been alone. With so many adults around, they didn't have to worry about anything getting away or attacking them from behind.

Yashamaru appreciated our diligence and how we had set things up, too. He send the Kazekage a regular update and praised us for everything, including the shipping company's policies and abilities to make guaranteed deliveries. Even when we were stopped, no one saw the cargo unless we allowed it, which was something everyone liked.

The Land of Hot Springs was exactly as it sounded and we delivered the letter to the old lady that ran the largest resort. The land itself didn't have a Kage living in their hidden village, either. Their life of pacifism reflected their chosen form of relaxation, which their entire population was dedicated to. Everyone visited there at some point in their lives and some had many many times.

We checked in to the resort and I paid a hefty fee for the entire floor of private suites, which made everyone happy, because we had access to the private baths and didn't have to share with the public. This was going to be a great week for us all and we were going to enjoy ourselves. Who in their right minds wouldn't want to have a private party at the best hot springs in the entire world?

*

Yui was still feeling disbelief about what was going on. Akiko had already returned to the Sand Village for her date and she was left alone for the evening. It had been by choice, too. She needed to check on a few things, like Anko's odd behavior during the whole trip. Why was she giving Naruto bedroom eyes whenever he wasn't looking at her?

A bit of sneaking later, thanks to some secret lessons from Akiko, Yui managed to slip herself into the private bath that Naruto was using. She hid behind a rocky outcropping and peeked out at the steamy water and waited for her cute little barnacle to appear and she could tackle him and tease him about his little wiener and that she was going to make herself very happy with it when he was older.

“Ah, that was a nice cool rinse.” Naruto said as he opened the sliding door. “Thanks, Tsuru.”

Yui's mouth dropped open when a fully naked Naruto stepped out of his room and she almost choked on her own spit when her eyes dropped down to his little wiener. It wasn't little at all. Not at all! In fact, it was perfect. It also looked quite enticing and it wasn't even erect!

“You're welcome, darling.” Tsuru responded and stepped out as well. She was also naked and Yui didn't even notice. “Now sit on the side and let me take care of that for you.”

“Take care of what?” Naruto asked as he turned slightly to look at her, giving Yui a perfect profile shot of his manliness that was making her drool a little.

“This.” Tsuru said and her hand gently grasped him down there and he sprang right up for her.

Yui had to shove her fingers into her mouth to stop herself from crying out in surprise at how instant it was. Naruto had somehow became even more perfect and she felt herself grow wet as Tsuru played with him.

Naruto sat down and spread his legs, which Tsuru used to slide into the water and then her mouth was on him and she was sucking him off like a champion. Yui could see all of the action and she couldn't stop sucking on her own fingers as she copied Tsuru's movements. Her other hand also copied Tsuru's and dove into her own wetness to get herself off as she greedily watched.

Having a private party with Naruto would be the only thing Yui could think about for the rest of the trip.