Naruto paid attention to none of the man's speech of funerals as he studied his opponent, as he tried to analyze his enemy. Raiga was only an A rank ninja so he should not be this good, that meant he had some kind of gimmick or something that was giving him an edge in this battle. He eyed the sack that was on the man's back, Raiga had been awfully protective of it; he would bet his fortune from his book Loveless that whatever it was that was helping him was in there.
Naruto immediately put a plan into action to separate Raiga from whatever was in the bag, throwing several kunai at the man who deftly dodged or blocked them, but that was okay. These Kunai were not meant to hit, but rather to hide one of Naruto's Hiraishin kunai. Naruto took one of the frog Kenjutsu kata stances as he disappeared in a bright yellow flash and reappeared right next to Raiga. He slashed the bag off the man's back and kicked the man in the stomach sending him flying to the ground and then knocking him out with a kick to the head.
He caught the bag and set it on the ground frowning at how it felt. The bag had something roughly shaped like a human and was breathing. He undid the bag and opened it opened it up, only to find himself staring into a pair of red eyes. "A child?" Naruto questioned. "You were the one giving Raiga that edge in the battle weren't you?"
The little boy said nothing, Naruto sighed knowing he wasn't going to get any answers out of the boy and refused to torture a mere child. He created aKage Bushin and began to give it orders, "seal Raiga's head in a scroll, burn the body."
The clone saluted and was about to go off when a voice stopped him, "NO!"
Naruto looked at the kid again, "excuse me?"
"Don't don't kill him, Raiga is all I have in this world. He's the only person to ever want me for something," the boy said, tears running down his eyes.
Naruto looked at the kid as he remembered another person who had the same fanatical and loyal devotion to another. It was the person who had told him what it meant to be strong and set him on his path, Haku. He saw the same eyes in this boy that he saw in Haku's almost four years ago when he had met him in the clearing during the wave mission. Naruto closed his eyes and sighed, "Very well." He turned to his clone, "Seal him in a prisoner transportation scroll, we'll take him to Kiri and ask if he can't be given a pardon."
He turned back to the now stunned kid, "Hey kid what's your name?"
"Uh… Ranmaru," he said.
"Well Ranmaru it's your lucky day as I happen to be friends with the new Mizukage so he may just get off being killed. However both of you will have to come with me so I can give my account to the Mizukage myself." Naruto stood up and lifted the boy on his shoulders; deciding he didn't want to walk Naruto sent a pulse of chakra through his seal towards Mei's Hiraishin kunai letting her know he was on his way. "Hey kid you might want to hang on tight this is going to get a little disorienting.
"Wha"
Ranmaru didn't even get to finish as Naruto and he disappeared in a bright yellow flash, they reappeared nearly a second later. Ranmaru looked around extremely disoriented until he heard a cry of 'NARU-KUN!' and turned his attention to the source. A beautiful red haired woman wearing the Mizukage robes, said woman who looked like she was about to tackle the blond shinobi but stopped when she noticed Ranmaru's presence.
"Naru-kun who is this?" Mei asked as she looked at Ranmaru with her head slightly tilted to the side.
Naruto gave her a smile, "Mei-hime this is Ranmaru, Ranmaru this is Mei-hime," Naruto said introducing the two. "Ranmaru is the companion of Raiga Kurosuki," Naruto stated as he watched Mei look at him with interest.
"This I need to hear," Mei said with a smirk as she sat down on the couch and gestured for Naruto to take a seat.
Setting Ranmaru down on the couch Naruto took a seat next to Mei, right before he pulled Mei onto his lap and began to explain how he had gotten into a battle with Raiga. Mei wrapped her arms around his neck and rested her head on his shoulder as she listened with a large smile and rapt attention as Naruto told his tale, she had always found it amusing that the blond was such a good story teller. Even more amusing was that unlike others she knew the blond shinobi was actually telling the truth without any serious embellishing, since he was far too modest and found it embarrassing to be considered a hero. As she listened to Naruto finish his story as well as his request she closed her eyes as she thought about what he was asking, in truth she was actually pleased to know that it might be possible to get another of the Kiri no Shinobigatana Nananin Shū in her ranks. While the war was over and she had more shinobi then she expected to have, any help she could get to bolster her ranks was appreciated.
"I will ask him if he would like to rejoin our forces," Mei said after a moment much to Ranmaru's joy. "Having another member the Kiri no Shinobigatana Nananin Shū will greatly help to bolster our ranks and since Raiga left during Yagura's reign the man's bounty holds no real value."
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