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"Oma baby! So nice to see you again!"
Despite his exuberant greeting, Oma Desala did not rush into Naruto's arms as if he was a long lost friend, instead simply gazing at him with a neutral expression.
"So..." Naruto began and lowered his arms when it became obvious that he wasn't getting a hug or a response. "How've you been? Has anyone licked your ectoplasmic nipples lately?"
Resisting the urge to sigh and reminding herself that this was only to be expected from him, she answered with the characteristic calm of the Ascended. "I have been well."
"Clearly you haven't if there wasn't any ghost sex." Naruto refuted with a sad sigh for her. Immortality without sex was just plain depressing.
"I am not a ghost Naruto."
"I must disagree." He argued back. "You ascended at the moment of death, converting your body mass into pure energy, allowing your spirit to exist consciously in a non-corporeal state. That is more or less the definition of a ghost, making me technically correct, which is the best kind of correct."
"Is a ghost not incapable of affecting the physical world?" She asked pointedly despite her disinterest in playing these games with him.
In the ten cycles of Terra since she'd last spoken with him, Oma had come to the conclusion that trying to get directly to the point with him was apparently something that he saw as a challenge and would purposefully clog the conversation with sexual innuendo and digression.
She could only wish that she could speak to him in the same manner as she spoke to the occasional mortal that found one of her sanctuaries and began walking the path towards ascension, but that was just wishful thinking. Naruto wasn't interested in learning anything from her and would likely have little tolerance for metaphor.
"Obviously not since you can do it." He countered with indisputable circular logic. By the grin on his face, he no doubt knew that he was not being very persuasive and simply didn't care. "But this is no way to have a conversation! Both of us should be in the same state of matter for a proper one."
Wary of being forced into corporeality again, Oma tried to shift things in her favor. "Will you then discard the flesh and allow me to see the light of your soul?"
Naruto gave her an aghast expression and spoke in a tone of incredulity. "Woman, are you crazy? I did not spend years of my life sculpting this body to perfection only to abandon it now."
Before any counter argument could be made to the effect of him being able to rebuild it instantly at any time, of her existing as a non-corporeal form for millennia, or of the greater ease of conversation between two spirits, Oma experienced the familiar vertigo of being forced into a physical body.
A wolf whistle brought her attention back to him and she straightened up from where she'd been leaning on a nearby wall. While the meaning of the whistle escaped her, the leer as he looked her over did not.
Apparently she was back in her younger form, though it felt as if her breasts were somewhat larger than before, not to mention that there was a musculature to the body that spoke of dedication to physical exercise that she had never had. She barely remembered what her real body had felt like, but she knew that it hadn't been anywhere near this strong.
Perhaps the most glaring change from the appearance she took as an ascended being were the clothes she now wore. Instead of the modest white dress she was now wearing a sleeveless, skintight black vest that left her stomach bare and exposed far too much of her breasts to be comfortable. Aside from that insufficient article of clothing she only wore a matching pair of skintight black pants made of the same soft and rather comfortable material.
Oma felt terribly exposed with the way that his eyes roved over her barely covered body. Alteran society had favored lighter colored clothing that was not so blatantly sexualized. While they had mostly rid themselves of shame of the body, most chose not to expose themselves like this, nor were the Alteran people prone to leering appraisals of others. In short, this was the exact opposite of Oma's comfort zone and she would have likely felt less exposed naked.
"You clean up nice." He complimented, leer never leaving his face. "Do a little spin for me so that I can see if I got your ass right."
Brows lowering in a slight glare, Oma had to struggle keep her arms at her sides instead of using them to cover herself from his stare. Needless to say, she did not do a little spin for him.
Undaunted by her refusal, Naruto ploughed on relentlessly. "How do you like the leather pants and vest? I put a lot of thought into making those for you."
"These are made of leather?" Oma asked with her face going a bit pale.
"Yep, 100% processed animal skin." He confirmed with a smirk.
Oma felt a shiver of revulsion crawl up her spine at the thought that she had actually enjoyed the feel of the clothing if not their appearance. The Alteran civilization had stopped using animal hide as a raw material for clothing a long, long time before her birth, deeming it to be cruel, wasteful and unnecessary. The same went for food produced through the exploitation of animals. Aside from all else, even simple economics had made certain that such practices had been abandoned. With the technology at their command, the resources required to feed a single person with an animal's flesh would be able to feed at least a hundred people at the most pessimistic minimum. There had been a powerful stigma against it to the very end, so her revulsion was instinctive.
"Well I suppose that's not entirely true since no animals were flayed to make it." Naruto continued thoughtfully, as if he didn't notice Oma's distress. "I wonder if PETA would object to me making authentic leather and fur clothing if there are no animals involved?"
Already developing a headache from the constant bouts of randomness, Oma couldn't stop herself from asking something that she suspected she would regret. "What is PETA?"
"There were naked women involved, I'm sure you can draw your own conclusions." He replied airily.
Confused as to what connection naked women had with leather and fur clothing, Oma abandoned that line of inquiry before the horned man could make things any more unclear.
Giving a miniscule pout as his guest once again went silent, Naruto prowled around her in a predatory manner, put his hands on her hips and purred into her ear from behind. "Since you've decided to visit me again, and dressed so provocatively might I add, I'm going to assume you...want...something."
There was no restraining the sigh this time as she visibly held herself back from pointing out that it hadn't been her that had decided to dress like this. Nor did she give any outward hint as to how much the uninvited intrusion into her personal space bothered her. She'd come here fully expecting it to happen after all. "That is most certainly not what I am here for."
"And what if I..." He paused and pulled her against his chest, drawing a small gasp of surprise from her at suddenly having a naked chest pressed up against her barely covered back. "Don't give you a choice in the matter?"
"You will not do so." Oma said as firmly as she could, though there was still a slight tremble in her voice. It took all of the self-control she possessed to keep herself still instead of jerking away from him. It didn't help that the traitorous physical body he'd put her in was actually enjoying the way his forearm was holding her and the heat of his body against her back.
"Are you sure about that?" He purred into her ear again in a low rumble that caused gooseflesh to prickle across her body.
Not entirely. "Yes."
He didn't reply verbally this time, choosing instead to drag his teeth across the curve of an ear and sniffing at her hair almost curiously.
Oma simply closed her eyes and endured it silently, clenching her fists tightly the entire time. She had thought that something like this might happen, but she had underestimated how difficult it would be. The urge to bolt like a frightened deer was expected, but the slowly growing arousal was not. She had thought herself beyond such things, but was discovering that this self-assessment may have been in error and her lack of familiarity with having a physical body was only exacerbating the situation rather than helping.
The seconds ticked by agonizingly slowly as he stayed pressed against her back, occasionally giving her ears a lick or nibble, or dragging his hand across her hips and abdomen. Oma stayed stiff and tense the entire time, refusing to relax even as the arousal became as strong as the fear.
Much to her relief, he stayed away from her breasts and genitals. She wasn't entirely certain what would happen if his hands strayed there, but she didn't want to find out.
Ten years spent thinking and occasionally observing(from a safe distance), trying to understand him had led to this and she would not be sidetracked or frightened away again. The other Ascended feared Naruto and Xanna's greater power and had decided to stay away from them, but she was not willing to waste this opportunity to remedy the mistakes of the past. Oh they wouldn't say they were afraid, claiming that 'the Outsiders existed on a different level and were exempt from the law of non-interference', but she knew that they were simply unwilling to provoke the wrath of someone who may well have power enough to end their existence.
So here she was, enduring what most definitely counted as sexual harassments because she was unwilling to fall in line with their decision. More than one of them had none too subtly tried to convince her to leave it be, but were in the end restrained by their own reluctance to go against their self-imposed laws. Speaking to a higher being that already knew of them wasn't in violation of the law of non-interference after all. She'd done worse in the past.
The only problem was Naruto himself, because he made no sense and that which made no sense couldn't be influenced.
She had finally felt that she had a reasonably good assessment of his personality and had decided to appear now that he was on a different planet from his even more unpredictable wife. Naruto at least gave her something to think about, while Xanna kept too much hidden within.
The trick to Naruto seemed to be that he displayed several traits of a powerful predator, such as 'playing with his food'(for lack of a better term) when something or someone caught his interest.
The current situation being a fine example. He'd figured out or guessed that she was uncomfortable with his blatant sexual advances, so he continued with them until she fled, such as last time. Oddly enough he only displayed this tendency of predatory playfulness with women who were both old enough and willful enough, both categories that Oma apparently fit into.
Which was why she was merely staying silent and letting him do what he wanted in the hope that her lack of response would cause him to lose interest. She had seen that he had only minimal interest for women that threw themselves at him and he had certainly never forced himself on one as far as she could tell, so she'd felt that it was safe enough to do this.
Of course, there was a slight chance that she'd badly misjudged him and would up raped, but she'd been almost certain that that wouldn't happen.
That much at least she had been correct about, but she hadn't accounted for the possibility that he might actually be able to get her aroused. A foolish oversight, but nothing to be done about it now.
"Well somebody came here with a plan." He purred to her and stepped back, snapping Oma out of her thoughts.
She cringed internally at the interested note in his tone. She just knew that she could now look forward to more of the same whenever she was in a physical body around him. He was definitely far too much like one of the great cats that now lived on Terra.
It wouldn't be an issue if he just let her stay in an ascended state, but there was little hope of that. He clearly reveled in his physical senses and didn't like the fact that he couldn't smell or touch her.
"Have you been reading my mind again?" She asked with a frown, still feeling intensely disapproving of how casually he violated the privacy of people's thoughts.
"Didn't need to." He said with a wide grin. "You're both scared and turned on, but you didn't try to run or encourage me to do more despite your wet snatch and out of control heartbeat. You're actually breathing hard and shaking with the effort of staying still, so you're clearly up to something."
Oma felt the long forgotten and much disliked feeling of blood rushing to her already flushed face at his accurate assessment. "Must you be so crude?"
"Must you be so prude?" He tossed back mockingly, tossing himself into a comfortable armchair that had just now appeared.
"Have a seat." He offered as another one appeared for her.
Oma almost released a sigh of relief as she sat down, the shaking that afflicted her disobedient physical legs having made it uncomfortable to stand. The earlier arousal still lingered and made her entirely too aware of her rather exposed state of dress, but it wasn't so bad as to be hard to control.
"Tea?" He asked with a smirk, materializing a familiar tea set and pouring it into a cup for her and dumping the rest into an incongruous tankard for himself.
With a suspicious look at him, Oma took the cup and brought it to her mouth, surreptitiously sticking her tongue into it to test the temperature, remembering what had happened the last time. It was a much more reasonable temperature this time and she drank some of it, finding the flavor to be quite enjoyable.
Naruto grinned both at her caution and at the pleased little sigh she let out as the tea made it's way down her throat. The Ascended could yammer on about the benefits of leaving behind their physical bodies all they wanted, but he'd never believe that they didn't miss all the little pleasures they gave up by doing so.
"If I were to force myself on you right now, would it be rape or masturbation?" Naruto asked out of nowhere. "You know, since I was the one who created that body, which means that it technically belongs to me."
Oma looked at him very strangely and slowly put down her tea cup. Remarkably enough it had helped soothe her jangled nerves from earlier and the sexual charge in the air had dissipated in the more casual atmosphere. Despite the content of the question, he didn't sound at all threatening but rather curious.
"I would say that it would be rape, since I am the one occupying it." She answered cautiously, finding the philosophical tone of the discussion to be incredibly strange given what it was about.
"I suppose that you are technically correct." Naruto agreed with a smirk and brought the tankard of tea to his lips.
Lips twitching into a slight smile at what was now an obvious attempt to bring some humor to the situation, bizarre though it was. Deciding to go along with it she responded with his own words from earlier, even if she didn't agree with them. "Which is the best kind of correct?"
Naruto raised his tankard to her as if in toast and nodded with a broad grin.
"So what do you want?" He asked after another moment of silence.
Oma almost felt like slumping in relief that he was finally letting her get to the point. Both her and Ganos' encounters with Naruto had made it clear that immediately attempting to get to the purpose of her visit was doomed to end in ignoble failure.
"I was hoping to come to an arrangement with you." She said vaguely.
"I'm going to take a wild guess that you're not looking for a friend with benefits?" Naruto asked dryly.
"Friend with benefits?" Oma asked in confusion, the term being unfamiliar to her.
"You know...benefits." He leered.
Oma sighed at how he had once again navigated the conversation into the filth. "Does everything revolve around the act of fornication to you?"
"Everything, and I mean everything, is just a big dirty joke when you get down to it." Naruto asserted with authority. "Maybe you'll understand that when you reach a higher level of enlightenment."
She did not react to the backhanded insult, knowing by now that he was just doing it to get a rise out of her. Instead she pressed onward with her purpose. "The arrangement that I wished to reach with you would be thus; I would help you in the creation of your empire and in return you would speak to me about the nature of the Universe that is hidden from the Ascended. You may not have as much raw knowledge as us due to your youth, but I suspect that you can perceive far more than we do."
Oma ignored the nervous fluttering in her stomach as he didn't answer for a solid minute, instead simply staring at her unblinkingly with that predatory gaze. He was clearly considering something and the abyssal darkness in the slits of his eyes made her feel so very small and insignificant. The tension kept building until she broke out in a cold sweat for reasons that she couldn't even name.
Naruto paid no heed to her rising discomfort as he considered her proposal. He didn't for a second believe that what she said was the whole of it. He'd been deliberately creepy earlier and she wouldn't have put up with it if all she wanted was access to more knowledge. He knew what buttons to push in a woman's body to get her aroused even if she wasn't particularly interested and he knew that Oma most definitely was not interested. It should have driven her away even more effectively than her fear, but she'd stayed without so much as a word of protest to what he was doing.
She was obviously up to something.
It wasn't really hard to figure out what it was either. The Ascended had no motivations at all on the physical plane besides keeping their noses out of everything and enforcing their no interference law, which they had already tried and failed to do with him and Xanna. Oma was something of a maverick in the sense that she didn't entirely agree with their no interference policy. She didn't want to meddle with mortals, but felt that they should at least take care of the mess they left behind.
Offering to help with the creation of their empire in any capacity ran contrary to those beliefs and she wouldn't have proposed such a thing unless it would gain her something that she wanted. Considering how empty the lives(if they could even be called that) of ascended beings seemed to be, there wasn't a whole lot that she could possibly want.
She was trying to manipulate him. It was so cute!
Finally the silence was broken when he gave her another broad grin and spoke in a deeply amused voice. "Are you playing games with me Oma?"
Oma stiffened and responded just as stiffly. "My proposal is genuine."
"No doubt, but you didn't mention your primary objective." He pointed out gleefully. "You knew that you couldn't stop us from building this empire of ours, so you thought to use this arrangement to manipulate its growth into something more to your liking. I'm also thinking that you saw how helpful I tend to be to people that I like and were hoping to strike up a friendship with me so that I would want to get rid of Anubis for you. How marvelously underhanded of you! I honestly hadn't thought that any of you sulky poodles had it in you to try something like this."
Oma had gone pale as she'd heard all of her plans exposed before they'd even gotten started. While there was no plot to usurp their empire, she had hoped to influence its growth in a more positive direction. She hadn't expected to keep it secret for long, but by then Naruto would have hopefully seen that it benefited him to keep her around. Her hope that he would eventually do away with Anubis for her was spot on though. "H-how? Did you-"
"No, I didn't read you mind," He cut her off with an eyeroll. Honestly, did she really think that he went around reading everyone's mind? He needed to stop telling people that he could do that. "that would be boring. You're just predictable."
Though he had plucked the memory of her interaction with Anubis out of her head.
Oma was starting to get irritated despite her resolve to stay calm but nonetheless replied without rancor, though her voice was a touch colder than before. "And what will you do now that you know Emperor?"
"Firstly, I am going to salute you for even trying something rather than sulking in your own little corner of the astral plane like the other ninnies you share it with."
He did as he said he would, giving her a thumbs up and a cheesy smile that wouldn't have been out of place on the face of Maito Gai or Rock Lee.
"Secondly, I am going to offer you a mango."
Oma blinked as he reached into the air next to him and pulled a fist sized red-yellow fruit out of it, offering it to her. Robotically she took it and stared at it, frowning in further confusion as her stomach gurgled demandingly at the sight of it. It took her a few seconds to classify the feeling as hunger, having long forgotten what it felt like.
Under Naruto's expectant gaze, she hesitatingly took a bite of it, wary of another prank like the one with the tea he'd pulled at their first meeting.
She had not been at all prepared for the sweet, juicy flavor that exploded in her mouth and she very quickly found herself taking larger bites of the perfectly ripened fruit that was just firm enough to offer some resistance to her teeth.
Naruto looked on in bemusement, munching on his own mango, as a woman that hadn't eaten in well over ten thousand years more or less devoured the fruit. She was clearly trying to eat with some decorum but appeared to be having some trouble. He'd guessed that she would have a more extreme reaction than most to the tastier-than-normal fruit that Xanna had been fiddling around with, but he hadn't expected it to be quite this bad.
Genetically engineering the perfect fruit had become something of a hobby for his wife.
He handed the embarrassed looking woman a napkin to wipe her mouth once she was done, clearly able to see that she was restraining herself from asking for another.
"Was that a pocket dimension?" She asked instead, running her tongue across her teeth to keep the taste of the delicious fruit on it for as long as possible.
"Interdimensional Storage Locker." Naruto corrected. "Xanna and I keep our stuff in there."
"What can it hold? And what is its capacity? How is it sustained?" Oma asked, curiosity getting the best of her.
"It can hold anything, its capacity is infinite and it is sustained by our will." He answered with a smirk. "But don't trouble yourself with this astonishing achievement, because thirdly, I am willing to accept your proposal."
"You are?" She asked in surprise, having been certain that it would be rejected out of hand once her intention had been exposed.
She really would have wanted to know more about this 'Interdimensional Storage Locker' as he called it. It sounded suspiciously like a empty miniature universe they'd created for the sole purpose of keeping their things in, a use so incredibly frivolous for such a thing that she had trouble understanding it. Unfortunately, Naruto did not look willing to share any further information on it.
"Your attempt to manipulate me is adorable and I'm curious to see how exactly you plan to go about it." He informed her with a smirk.
Oma frowned slightly at his tone, feeling that there was something there that he wasn't telling her but unable to discern what it might be. The frown deepened considerably at his next words.
"I'm also very amused by your selfishness concerning the Anubis situation."
"Selfishness? I tried to help him, thinking that he had seen the error of his ways during his exile. He was dying and seemed sincere in his remorse for his past deeds."
"I'm not talking about that, that was just you being gullible and stupid." He said without concern for the way that her face tightened at the insult. "I was talking about how much of a spineless coward you are to try and get me to clean up your mess for you while Anubis uses his half-ascended state to seek out knowledge that will let him overthrow the other Goa'uld."
That stung her in a way that no casual insult could, because it had the truth behind it.
Still, it wasn't something that she liked to think about and the physical body she was occupying reacted to unwelcome stimuli in a predictable fashion. It felt a threat and released a flood of hormones in preparation for a fight.
Surging to her feet, she snapped angrily at the grinning horned man, his clear amusement at her reaction only fueling her anger. "All this subterfuge would not even be necessary if the others had simply descended him all the way instead of trapping him in between as a means of punishing me!"
"Very true, those heartless bastards." He agreed, grinning even wider at seeing how she was shaking with the force of her anger. Whatever Oma had been before her ascension, a fighter it was not. Too frazzled by her anger for that, though he supposed she might have simply forgotten how to control herself, but he suspected that his first guess was the correct one. "Why, just think of all the innocent lives that cloud of oily vapor has destroyed since then, all of which could have been prevented if they just descended him all the way and killed him."
Confused by his seeming turnaround, Oma simmered down a bit and did not reply, while Naruto blithely continued speaking.
"What do you think the Ori would have done in the same situation?"
"They would have descended him completely and had him killed." She admitted reluctantly. Their fanatically religious counterparts would never have tolerated the Goa'uld on sheer principle, much less a Goa'uld that had managed to ascend.
The Ascended did not like to think about the other faction of their race to have reached ascension and she was no exception to this. Their entire home galaxy was under Ori control, being slowly but surely populated by humans created by the Ori to fuel their power with worship. The Ascended refused to act against them aside from preventing direct actions, fearing that a war between their two factions would be disastrous. The Ori of course had no such concerns, refraining from starting a war only because the odds were against them for the moment, so they were content to gather power until that changed.
Moros, or Merlin as he came to be known later had known this and descended himself with the intent of finding a way to destroy them that way. From what she knew he had nearly succeeded before Ganos had stopped him.
Oma had the distinct feeling that stopping Moros from executing his plans would prove to be a bad decision sometime in the future.
"What an amusing example of evil doing good." Naruto sniggered.
"They would have only done so because they want everyone to worship them as gods and would tolerate none to challenge this."
Naruto simply shrugged at her response. Their reasons were irrelevant and they did technically qualify as gods, as did the ascended. Pointing that out to Oma would probably be unwelcome though.
Best save that for some other day when he was running low on other material to annoy her with.
For now, he decided to let go of the subject of Oma's refusal to take Anubis out of the equation herself, not wanting to actually guilt trip her into doing it. He had a pretty good idea why she didn't want to do that and it was certainly understandable, staying locked in combat with the half ascended Goa'uld for all eternity sounded like a shitty existence to him too.
"Have you ever wondered why you're always so irritable when I put you into a physical body?" He asked instead, forcefully changing the subject.
Taking a moment to regain her composure, Oma answered him calmly, glad for the subject change. "Because you make it your mission to be irritating?"
"True, but not the whole truth." Naruto told her with a grin. "It's also because that body is about a day away from starting its menstrual cycle."
In short, he'd given her PMS.
"You were using this body's hormonal imbalance to manipulate my emotions?" Oma asked, feeling the anger rising again. That would certainly explain why her breasts ached in the uncomfortably tight vest and why her abdominal area felt bloated.
"I was using it to make it easier." He corrected, not at all phased by her anger.
Taking a deep breath, Oma decided that she'd had quite enough of the horned man for one day...possibly enough for a few years.
"I believe I would like to leave now, the slow way this time."
"No sexy time?" He pouted at her. "There's another mango in it for you."
The only response was a downright angry scowl that he hadn't expected to see on her face quite yet. In some ways it was even better than if she had agreed to sleep with him.
Chuckling at the look, he disconnected her from the body and watched her fly away with a grin as it collapsed like the unguided puppet it was. A moment later it disintegrated into nothing, leaving behind no evidence that Oma had ever been here.
"Ah Oma," He sighed to himself fondly. "you're playing a dangerous game here. I love dangerous games."
He strongly suspected that aside from the previously mentioned reasons, Oma was also going to try and influence him to be a more ethical person. Something that was doomed to failure from the start. Even if he had been inclined to change, Xanna would never have stood for it. She didn't have a lot of tolerance for people with too many morals.
But at least the whole thing had provided him with some inspiration for what to put on the obligatory stone tablet! With a wide, anticipatory grin at what the future would bring, he started carving into the tablet with his claw.
As you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.
Nietzsche would be so proud that one of his most famous sayings was being used in outer space, or maybe he'd be mad...it was hard to say for certain. Of course, Nietzsche technically hadn't been born yet and word of Naruto's quote theft was extremely unlikely to ever reach him so it was all academic.
The point was that Oma wasn't the only one who could play that sort of game, except he'd be doing it in reverse.
Naruto idly wondered what Oma would be like as a hedonistic sexual deviant. He would enjoy finding out, provided he could corrupt her enough of course.
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The evacuation of Ratania proceeded without issue from that point on, it's population of approximately seventy thousand moving to Erius over the course of fifteen local days. For a Throne World, it was a tiny population, but Ratania was only called a throne world because Kuvera was technically independent and it was the only planet to his name.
There was unfortunately no way to get Kuvera's Ha'tak back to Erius undetected, seeing as it was on the other side of the Galactic Core and would need to cross the territory of several System Lords. Not to mention how long it would take to traverse that distance. In lieu of bringing it back, he'd blown it up with one of those silly spherical bombs that the Goa'uld used. Seriously, spherical bombs?
Sometimes, Naruto wondered whether the snakes got their inspiration from cartoons. It would almost make sense, if not for the fact that cartoons also technically hadn't been invented yet, at least not on Earth in this particular time.
Ah well, he already had the one Ha'tak from Zeus anyway and they were all pretty much the same. The fireworks at least seemed to have impressed Kuvera's former subjects and made moving them to Erius a little bit easier.
It was the largest population they had ever tried to move by a considerable margin, but it all went smoothly enough. Temporary housing was built for them while work was done on something more permanent.
There were still logistical issues to be dealt with of course, but there was a system in place by now. A somewhat crude system admittedly, but a system nonetheless. They'd be fine, it would just be more work than usual after one of these raids.
All of that could wait however, at the moment he was a lot more interested in seeing his wife again. This was the longest time that he'd ever been separated from her since they'd gotten married and he missed her. Sure, they could talk to each other no matter the distance, but it just wasn't the same.
So it was that Naruto found himself marching at a fast clip through the palace towards his wife. He'd have been running but she'd already given him a lecture about how Emperors do not run, they stride majestically and he had no desire for a repeat of that particular experience. Don't even get him started on the teleport ban and the need to be seen.
Regardless of Naruto's disgruntlement with the limitations his wife had placed on his means of travel from point A to point B, he still broke into a happy grin when he saw her sitting on her half of the Obsidian Throne(a name for it that he rather liked), apparently settling a dispute of some sort and looking spectacularly unimpressed by the two shepherds fidgeting nervously beneath her flat stare.
He couldn't blame her, he'd be unimpressed too if someone had come to him to settle a dispute over sheep. Alas, sheep tended to be quite important in primitive societies, especially ones as small as theirs currently was.
Her look shifted over to him with a smile of welcome, the type of happy smile she only ever gave to him. It softened the arrogant perfection of her face considerably and the two fidgeting peasants stared dumbfounded as the forbidding Empress became a woman that was happy to see her husband had returned for a few moments.
The moment passed when Naruto didn't stop his quick march towards her, making her expression shift into one of warning.
A warning that was pointedly ignored as he pulled her off the throne and into a kiss. No doubt he was going to be the target of some scathing barbs and exasperated looks for yet again ignoring her warnings about over effusive public displays of affection diminishing their authoritative presence or something to that effect, but he wasn't going to be moved on this one.
Returning his smoldering look with one of her own, Xanna spoke to the two uncomfortable shepherds without turning to look at them. "We will settle this tomorrow, you may make use of the guest rooms and baths for the night. Ask one of the servants to direct you."
Naruto didn't even wait for the two guests to say their thanks before he started leading his wife away from the throne room, his hand already sliding over the curve of her buttocks. She must have missed him as much as he'd missed her if she wasn't going to bother giving even a token reprimand to his form of greeting.
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