Much to the chagrin of the nine younger men and women accompanying Tsunade on her trip out to cast off the bounty that had been set on her head, she was partial to taking the quiet country roads of Konoha at a reserved pace (see: walking) instead of the faster tree-hopping that they all would have preferred to use to reach their destination.
It was extremely annoying because Tsunade insisted that this was time sensitive, yet she wasn't moving with any real sense of urgency. She didn't particularly like moving with purpose, preferring to exercise her right as client to travel as she wished at the speed that she wanted. In the end they were supposed to protect her until she did what she needed to do. She didn't need to acquiesce to them.
"Two days, eight hours, twenty-one minutes, thirty-six seconds." Naruto droned dully as he walked directly behind Tsunade, "That's how long we've been gone. We could have been there by now."
"-And halfway back." Sasuke added, feeling just as irritable as Naruto was, only he decided that he would suffer in silence and be passive-aggressive about his displeasure, "We've got more important things to do than walk through the countryside."
Kiba flicked the back of Naruto's ear and tried to throw an arm around Sasuke's shoulder only for him to slip out of it, "Oh will you calm down you pair of pink-eyes? What's the big hurry?" Both Naruto and Sasuke proceeded to answer.
"Pale, inky eavesdropping mystery guy and I've got other bad guys aside from him to keep tabs on."
"Spy in the village, and Naruto fought Itachi so I need to pick his brain to help me find him."
The feral boy blinked at the pair of quick answers from the polar opposites and had to admit that those were some equally pressing issues that were probably just as time-sensitive as the mission they were on, "Well hell then."
"Complaining about the current circumstances will not bring the mission to a close any faster." Shino stated from underneath his hood that obscured most of his face from view, "Why? Because I do not believe that Tsunade-sama cares about your problems enough to change her pace."
Nine sets of eyes looked at the twin pigtailed blonde woman at the center of the convoy, but Tsunade didn't even flinch or show that she found anything being said as important, "Now that's just not true." She said, disputing Shino's point, "I care. But the pair of Akatsuki problems aren't something that you can handle by being in the village anyway. And even if you were there, none of you would know what to do about the spy. Something like that is delicate work."
Ino's left eye twitched at the unspoken connotation, as she had been in Konoha T&I for almost the entirety of the vaunted spy's known presence in the village. It was a segment of the overall Konohagakure Intelligence Division which was somewhat responsible for the information that was lost, thus she felt a bit touchy on the subject.
While it wasn't really a shot at her in particular, and this much she knew, damned if it didn't feel like one.
"Delicate like interrogation you mean?" Ino said with a veiled raise to her voice, only for Hinata to make a comment on the other end of the escort party.
"Is torturing someone to pull secrets out of them really such delicate work?" Hinata remarked, feigning surprise extremely well. She seemed legitimately surprised at this 'revelation', thus no one else called her on it. Ino however knew better. It was her passive-aggressive way of picking fights with her verbally. And she was very good at it, "I'd have never thought so."
"It's more subtle than poking someone's organs with your fingers." Came Ino's rebuttal.
"I don't know. I think a lot of men would find a woman that can shatter their mind at a whim quite terrifying. Don't you think Naruto-kun?" Oh, that clever woman. Pulling Naruto into it. He wasn't even paying attention to the conversation for the most part. Instead he had been focusing on keeping his attention out around them, "N-Naruto-kun?" Ha. She still had a very real tic of nerves when it came to talking to him when his eyes were on her though. Talking to him directly was still her Achilles' heel.
"Huh?" Naruto said before the conversation between the pair of kunoichi caught up with him and he stitched the words together, "Oh. Now that I think about it, yeah. Ino-chan's mind stuff is really scary."
For a guy like him, losing control of his body and maybe even worse was like a nightmare. He didn't need to be reminded of just what he was capable of when he did so with the Kyuubi's chakra, so control over himself was everything to him.
"Yeah…" Naruto thought, looking over at Shikamaru for a moment before running a hand down the back of his neck, "Really scary." Hinata seemed to positively beam at him after he was done and he gave her a smile in return, though it didn't reach his eyes.
She realized this and felt some regret well up in her chest. She didn't want to be the reason that he smiled like that when the light didn't reach his eyes. It was of course unintentional, and Hinata would be sure to put it back for him once she had him to herself though.
And though Naruto didn't know what kind of context he'd said it in, an opinion expressed like that from him of all people actually hurt Ino a little bit, 'Goldie really thinks my jutsu is scary? That… something like that doesn't really mean anything, does it?' And that hurt showed on her face.
"What'll be scary is what'll happen if that bounty stays up for too long the way it is." Tsunade chimed in from her place at the center of everyone, "So keep your minds on the mission. You can play 20 questions in your treehouse after we get back to the village kiddies."
"No." Shikamaru warned sharply when he saw Naruto lift his fist to punch her in the back of the head to knock her out and carry her the rest of the way in order to let them go faster, "We don't need that troublesome drama right now. And besides… she'd peel the skin from your bones and put it right back again."
"Then there wouldn't be any real consequence of doing it, right?" Naruto argued in return. He kept his hand raised to strike until Sakura grabbed his forearm and lowered the offending appendage. Whether he was her regular teammate or not, she wasn't about to let him start a war in the forest against a Sannin, "Fine. I'll be good."
The only thing that kept him going was that he was doing this for Shizune. Not for the pay. Not for the rank of the mission. He was doing it for that sweet lady that spent three years keeping what was left of his sanity intact while he had been working for the daimyo.
Certainly she needed a break from all of the crazy if anyone in the world ever did, and for once she could stay in Konoha while someone else dealt with the brand of trouble that Tsunade stirred up.
Naruto was still more than a little irritable because Tsunade was not willing to let him smoke to pass the time of the damn trip, and no one was willing to defend his side of the argument. He was a man without a country as far as his nicotine went, and there was therefore no port in the storm for his growing ire in regards to this mission.
Sakura shook her head and let him go before moving back over to her team of Chouji and Sasuke, "Honestly, I thought the Guardians were supposed to be the epitome of professionalism. The best of the best to watch over the best man in the country. Didn't they teach you two about that?"
No, not really. After all of the constant training, the long-range travelling habits of the daimyo and his relatives keeping them oftentimes at work, and the nonstop near-death experiences from the daimyo's missions, learning how to act like a professional stiff was the exact last thing that came to the mind of any Guardian. There just wasn't any time for it. Thus the only professionalism that Naruto and Shikamaru learned was that it didn't matter how you got the job done as long as you got it done right.
Speaking of the job, everyone was just hoping that it would be over with by the end of the week.
XxX
(Konohagakure no Sato – Jounin Standby Station)
When the kids were away… the sensei still all had jobs to do because they weren't really responsible for any of their former students any longer and hadn't been for quite some time.
Kakashi really didn't do anything aside from working missions, standing around in Konoha Cemetery and in front of the Memorial Stone for hours, and training. When he wasn't doing those things he was catching up on his leisurely reading. And even when he was reading he did it in a place where he could be reached at a moment's notice if the need arose.
He wasn't really as hard to find as many assumed someone as aloof as him would be. Someone as dutiful as him could often be found just sitting on one of the semi-circular couches in the jounin lounge just waiting to be called upon. Copy Ninja Kakashi was oftentimes in demand.
Not today though. At a time like this, it was requested by the Hokage himself that Kakashi remain in the village. Known to only a certain number, Yamato was putting on the squeeze once and for all on all of this spy business. Once the perpetrator decided to make a run for it things would move fast, and quick responders would be needed. There wouldn't be many quicker to respond than Hatake Kakashi.
"Hello Asuma, Kurenai." Kakashi said without even looking up from his book. How he knew who was coming up behind him without hearing a voice or anything to set him off was beyond many of them that didn't know what the man was capable of.
"It's really annoying when you do that." Asuma pointed out, letting Kurenai sit down on the couch before he chose to do so himself, "It's not like we're trying to sneak up on you, so I don't know why you have to point out that you knew we were coming."
"It is kind of insulting." Kurenai added, hands neatly pressed in her lap.
"Oh, well look at you two." Kakashi said, still not taking his eye off of his book, "The baby isn't even born yet and you're both already in synch with each other enough to think the same." Asuma and Kurenai both gave him blank stares that he still didn't acknowledge by looking up, "…Yes I know. Even if you don't show yet. Don't ask me how."
"But I have to know." Kurenai said. She really had taken great measures to ensure that no one found out until her bump was prominent.
"Do you really want to?" Kakashi warned questioningly, tapping at his nose with one finger to say it without saying it, "I summon ninken and I picked up a trick from my dogs. I'd bet every Inuzuka in the village that's walked close enough to you can tell as well."
If that were the case then Kurenai needed to give Kiba more credit than she admittedly had in the past when it came to keeping his mouth shut from blabbing things like that, "I'm sorry I asked."
"I told you so."
Kurenai looked over at Asuma to take offense to any of this or defend her seemingly taking offense at Kakashi's perceptive abilities. Instead all she got from her lover was a shrug. What, was he supposed to punch Kakashi for that? She was the one that wanted to know how he knew. Asuma just thanked his lucky stars every day that Ino didn't seem to know, otherwise everyone within Konoha's walls would know within two hours whether they lived there or not.
One would think an interrogation specialist would be better at keeping things under wraps, but if it didn't have anything to do with village security it wasn't to be counted on.
"So." Kakashi said, trying to drum up some conversation with his fellow former genin instructors, "Tsunade-sama somehow managed to rope all of our cute little students into accompanying her to the ends of the planet? How'd that work out?"
Asuma held up a hand and started listing things off, "First it was my team since Tsunade seems to have some kind of weird sway over Naruto and Shikamaru. Then Kurenai volunteered her team so that she didn't have to run lead on another of their missions, thus covering her own tracks on being pregnant, something that seems irrelevant since Kiba probably knows about it from what you said. And I don't know how they got your kids to do it."
"Probably because Shikamaru got Chouji in on it and he convinced the others somehow, or Ino probably goaded Sakura into it, or I think Naruto probably waved the bait of telling Sasuke about his fight with Itachi in his face." Kakashi said, giving his take on how Team 7 wound up going, "That all sounds like things that would happen given the circumstances."
A nod came from Asuma as he fished a cigarette from his vest and placed it in his mouth, preparing to light it, "Uh huh, so we're missing someone from this shindig. Where's Gai? I haven't heard anyone shouting at the top of their lungs around any training areas lately."
It went unsaid outright, but when the look in Kakashi's eye subtly changed without him looking up Asuma picked up the gist of the reason why. When it came to Gai, he was one of the many actively hard at work dealing with Konoha's little problem.
XxX
(Elsewhere in Konoha)
"So you're saying that the mess that Naruto told me that he got into has nothing to do with the spy in Konoha?" Tenten asked, walking around the area of the Uchiha District that had seen Naruto, Shikamaru, Chouji, Kiba, and Sasuke chase after a mystery man mere days before, "That doesn't make a lot of sense. It fits right?"
The day before leaving on his mission, Naruto stopped by the weapons store he frequented as a genin, and while she didn't work there part-time any longer Tenten still spent exorbitant amounts of time there for her own various reasons. While he was there they caught up a bit and he regaled her with the story of how he and a few others got into a chase with some weird pale guy their age.
Tenten saw that as a boon to her own recently assigned ongoing mission and was quick to share this with her squad, most of whom agreed that it would be beneficial to take a pair of Hyuuga eyes and retrace the steps of the conflict. Only Gai disagreed, but he did so silently due to the fact that they had no other leads or ideas at that point.
"Any spy skilled enough to evade capture for as long as this one has would not allow themselves to blow their cover spying on a set of non-descript chunin." Gai explained while Tenten came across a big webbed footprint in the road that obviously came from one of Naruto's toads.
"Yeah, but Naruto isn't really non-descript." Tenten said to Gai's confusion before letting out a cough that sounded suspiciously like 'Kyuubi', much to Gai's shock. Though she didn't care much from the sound of things, "Blame Neji. He basically figured it out a few monts after the chunin exam where I got promoted. You know, the one years ago with Gaara and Fuu. You guys suck for not telling anybody about that by the way."
"It was for his benefit apparently."
"Nobody even told him, and everybody older than us knew anyway. Who was this benefitting again?"
At a loss for words, Gai merely fell back onto the old military default for explaining anything that he couldn't explain himself, "…It was Hokage's orders."
Oddly enough, Tenten accepted that, "You see, you could have just said that instead of wracking your brain trying to come up with a defense Gai-sensei. Just blame your superior. We do it all the time."
"Many of us would." Gai explained with a wise look to him as he did so, "But with the crystal ball of his no one can ever be sure if he is able to watch them or not. Then again if that jutsu allowed Hokage-sama omniscience we wouldn't be having this problem. So you probably have a point."
A static noise went off in both of their ears before a voice came up, "Gai-sensei, Neji and I have found something."
Hearing Lee's call through the short-wave headsets they had requisitioned for their current string of missions, both Gai and Tenten sped across the ghost town that was the Uchiha District eventually reaching a lone road with a beautiful lake off to the side, a lush forest around most of it, characteristic of much of Konoha's terrain.
In a matter of minutes they covered the necessary distance and located Lee and Neji, the latter of whom seemed to be staring at something with his Byakugan active, "I can see something odd under the lake. Something out of place."
"That is not all." Lee said in an unusually quiet tone, prompting Neji to continue.
"We are being watched." Neji said, taking great care not to speak too loudly or indicate any given direction with his movements, "At my count while Lee and I have been searching this area, six unidentified shinobi have taken up positions to observe our actions. They appear to be ANBU."
What were Konoha ANBU doing watching them? They were supposed to be the support to the ANBU, not the other way around, so unless there had already been some sort of operation planned in that area there wasn't any explanation as to why ANBU would be there.
Gai's fists tightened and Lee noticed the serious demeanor of his hot-blooded sensei, though he did not understand it yet, "You say there are six of them Neji-kun?"
"There were, but there must have been some watching you as well, because now I count nine." Neji restated, "In standard ANBU attire of black cloaks and themed porcelain masks. I am certain that they are ANBU."
"Can you look any deeper? Focus on one instead of identifying them all."
That question surprised the rest of Team Gai, as Gai himself was never usually so paranoid about… anything really. Most of the time it was hard for Neji and Tenten to identify Gai as one of the most dangerous men in the entire world, but just like that he would remind people that he was perceived as one of the very best and was famed for a reason.
Knowing by now when Gai was being serious, Neji picked out the closest of the scattered and hidden ANBU closest to him and focused on seeing through him as much as possible, "No ANBU tattoo on the shoulder, and some kind of seal on the back of the tongue." He abruptly turned to Gai who looked like a diviner at that point, "But how did you-?"
"They are not Konoha ANBU." Gai revealed to his students, "They're members of a branch of the organization that should no longer exist called Root. A member of this group is possibly the person that was forced to flee from your friends earlier this week."
An ill feeling settled in the pit of Tenten's stomach at the thought of people masquerading as real ANBU watching them, whether their intentions were hostile or not, "Why are we just finding out about them?"
"Because they aren't supposed to exist."
A frown came to the weapon-specialist's face at hearing that, as she seemed to be getting a lot of that lately. She started to reach for a weapon but a stern look from Gai stayed her hand. So they weren't going to fight them. What were they going to do then?
"We won't attack them first." Gai commanded, "If we do so we will be in the wrong. We will keep on to what Neji-kun and Lee-kun managed to find, and if they do intend to ambush us we can counter it."
"It is what we found that may be the problem." Neji said, beginning to piece some things together. An organization that wasn't supposed to exist needed to have ways to meet, or a stronghold, or something of that nature, "What Lee and I found underneath the lake is a concealed flood tunnel that should not be there. This is a natural lake."
He managed to possibly locate the entrance to the base of a fringe organization within Konoha. That would probably be impressive if it weren't completely irrelevant at the moment.
What better place to hide something like that than a place that people would rather forget existed at all? No one, even the vast majority of ANBU patrols ventured into the old Uchiha District. The only reason Team Gai had done it on this day was to try and see if what Naruto had told Tenten would pan out to anything.
"They are not going to let us leave are they?" Lee asked, understanding the situation entirely, "If they are not supposed to exist we are not supposed to find this entrance. If they are not supposed to exist all they have to do is get rid of us to keep it a secret."
"People will know that we're missing Lee." Tenten said with her hands on her hips, "There will be questions that certain people won't be able to answer."
"Yes." Neji said, shutting his eyes and turning his Byakugan off if only for a moment, "But if we disappear here and now no one will know that it was this 'Root' that did it." With the spy in the village any blame would go that way, and even those that know of Root would accuse the mole before a group that wasn't supposed to be intact, "If they can keep us from reaching the rest of the village they can do whatever they want."
So they were all in a situation.
Team Gai could either try to venture into the tunnel under the lake which would be suicide, or they could pop their heads back out and try to leave, thus springing the trap upon them. Either way they had to do something soon.
On the other hand, Root had to make sure that they got rid of them so that they managed to hide the location of one of the entrances to their base, but if they failed not only would the location be lost, but they could possibly begin a civil war.
In the end, Root blinked first and pulled back. Neji noted that they were slipping away and leaving them alone, getting as far away from Team Gai as they could, "They're letting us be." Neji informed the others, getting Lee and Tenten to let go of breaths that they didn't know they were holding in, "There are no more enemies in the area. But why would they leave when they had us nearly two-to-one?"
"They obviously realized that two-to-one or not they could not stand up to the power of Gai-sensei!" Lee exclaimed, emboldened by the near-miss that had just occurred. Needless to say his adrenaline had not died down yet, and it didn't take much to get it to spike to begin with.
Even Gai was beginning to slip back into his previous boisterous personality until Tenten shot them both back down to Earth, "They're just going to scuttle the entrance. Going down by ourselves would be stupid-." She stopped and paused to look at both Lee and Gai before shaking her head and continuing, "-And if we went back or waited on reinforcements that would be long enough for them to warn someone in their base to block it off."
"It makes sense." Neji said, once again peering underground with his Byakugan, "The tunnel starts at the bottom of the lake and goes on for quite some way even though not much of it is submerged underwater. Should we venture down there we could be buried."
And he wasn't even talking about the Root members themselves doing it. He could see the security measures set for intruders even from there.
A sigh came from Tenten as she drooped in a dejected manner, "So we never had a lead at all, just like Gai-sensei said?" They almost got into a potentially violent skirmish and they weren't even on the right trail.
Gai didn't say anything else, seriousness taking over his face as he looked off into the woods, 'This is going to be a problem, even if we avoided trouble here.'
XxX
(With Team Tsunade – Nightfall – Hi no Kuni – Okumizumi-machi)
As far as missions that caused them to drag ass went, this one could have been worse. Due to the fact that Tsunade had a taste for stopping in towns for the night they didn't have to camp out in the woods. They got nice, cushy accommodations for the night that they didn't have to pay for as Tsunade footed the bill for all of them.
And Okumizumi-machi (Seven Lakes Town) was a pretty great place all things considered. Especially the hotel that they had gotten rooms in.
It was a pretty big place that had a fully stocked bar in a restaurant setting and nightly entertainment, a very large outdoor public bath for guests, and a scenic view of one of the seven large lakes that surrounded the entire town.
Standard procedure security was still required though. Two would watch the entire hotel at all times while two would stay by Tsunade at all times, and those on the jobs would rotate every few hours.
With a yawn Naruto walked through the halls of the hotel they had procured rooms in for the night, having just come back in from outside where he'd been on evening guard duty, taking his shift with Shino who was also heading back in with him.
That had been kind of weird. With his chakra sonar and clones, and Shino's bugs nothing was really going to get close without one of them noticing it so they didn't have to focus that hard on keeping their eyes and ears open. They didn't really have much to talk about to pass the time.
Naruto would try telling Guardian stories, but he wasn't sure if Shino had any sort of taste for them since while he never told Naruto to shut up it was never clear if he was enjoying them or not. He didn't laugh or ask Naruto to elaborate on anything he said. He didn't even seem like he was paying attention.
"You know if I was pissing you off you could have just told me to stop talking." Naruto told Shino as they walked back to their respective rooms, "You didn't have to sit there for three hours and hear all of that."
"But I was listening." Shino replied, sounding a bit confused as to what Naruto was talking about, "Why didn't I offer anything in return you may ask? Because I do not think any stories I have amassed over the last three years could match up to the, ahem, 'White Eagle' mission."
"You can't ever talk to anyone else about that by the way, just me." Naruto commented, "I told you that in confidence. Shikamaru would murder me if he found out that someone that wasn't a Guardian knew about that. That wasn't really a banner day to be us."
"I honestly could have gone the rest of my life without ever hearing that story Naruto-san." Shino deadpanned, "You seem to have far less shame about what occurred there than a normal ninja would. Any particular reason for that?"
"My sensei is the Jiraiya. I ran out of shame years ago." Naruto emphasized as if that explained it, "I can't help it if we made really good male strippers for some reason. Apparently we were the best looking dude Guardians, so we were the diversion." Was Shino's body shaking?
"..." There was one more question that Shino really didn't want to ask, but if he was going to get a disturbing story he had to go all the way with it, "…Did you use your real name?"
"Nope. Stage name. Sergio Butterscotch." Shino visibly recoiled at hearing that. Either he just blocked a laugh or he threw up in his mouth a little. Either or was just fine. Thus it was time to go for the kill, "For the finale I poured butterscotch candies down my banana hammock."
Naruto didn't think he'd ever seen Shino walk so fast. He almost didn't hear him walk into the room that he was sharing with Kiba and Sasuke before he shut the door, but he could swear that he heard laughing and since they had been relieved of their watch by both Sasuke and Kiba it wasn't anyone else but Shino.
With a shrug, Naruto went on about his way and decided to catch a quick bath before turning in for the evening. His shift was over. He'd been the first on Tsunade duty with Sasuke and then flowed right into watching the hotel with Shino so his responsibilities for the night were over.
After popping into the room that was to be occupied by him, Shikamaru, and Chouji to grab a change of clothes, Naruto headed straight for the hot springs run by the hotel.
After relieving himself of his clothes, Naruto stepped into the empty male side of the springs and sensed around just in case. You never knew when someone would try their luck on you. In this instance no one was lying in wait to take his head off, thus he settled himself into the water and let out a content sight.
While Naruto would have rather been back at home resting in that hot spring instead of being on this waste of time mission, it was still nice. The mission was being dragged out due to Tsunade's reluctance to ever move quickly when she didn't have to.
His eyes drifted to the reed wall and idly entertained the idea of peeking onto the other side, but quickly rid himself of it. First of all there was no reason. Second of all he'd seen most of the women hanging around that hotel. Not really worth compromising some of his morality to see, and that was being nice about it.
The girls that came on the mission were already the best looking things in that whole place by far, and none of them were over there.
Another sigh, even louder this time, because sitting there alone was seriously boring.
"Is someone over there?"
What was this? A young woman's voice from the sound of things on the other side. She must have been by the wall too, and hopefully just as bored, "Yeah. Just hanging out… by myself." Naruto responded, "I'm about to f'n doze off here."
"I hear you." The girl said seemingly rather perturbed by her current circumstances, "The people I came here with are complete downers. One of them is a stiff that won't even talk or leave the room and the other won't get his ass out of the damn restaurant and go do something fun."
"Your boyfriend or something?"
"No, brother. Why, are you interested? I'll warn you that I live kind of far away from this place."
"Ha." Naruto laughed with a slight shake of the head, "You sound a tough kind of cute, but I'd be a crappy boyfriend. So what brings you out here? Work?"
"Yeah. You?"
"Pretty much. I'm travelling with this old lady that needs to take care of some personal business." Naruto said, alluding to Tsunade, "That wouldn't be so bad, but she moves so slowly, on purpose! It's annoying, we should have been where we were going by now!" He was never going to get over that, "I've got things to do at home."
"Good luck with that. I've got my own thing to deal with so here's hoping for me too." The girl on the other side said, "I'm looking forward to it though."
Well it was good to love one's work. That was what Naruto was thinking. He loved his job too, he just wasn't crazy about his current mission. A comfortable silence settled over both sides of the spring, but it wasn't as boring as it was before. At least until a door at the end of the female side of the springs slid open from Naruto's point of hearing.
"Oh, well it looks like we're not the only ones trying to get a late bath in." The first girl from the other side said, sounding like she had a grin on her face, "Welcome to the party. That makes it three on both sides."
"Really now?" The second female voice sounded a bit amused and friendly, "I hope I can get my spirits up here. It's been a long day." Wait, Naruto knew that second voice fairly well.
"Hey Sakura." Naruto ventured to ask from his side of the wall as he heard the second girl get into the water, "That's you over there right?"
"Hah? Oh! Yeah." Yep, that was Sakura if she actually responded like that to a question of who she was, and she continued on as if she recognized his voice too, "So you and Shino are done? That's good. Your teammate was looking for you earlier so you might want to handle that before you go to bed."
"Which one?"
"The most annoying one of course." Definitely Sakura, because that was a subtle jab at Ino, "I basically had to babysit her and Hinata all evening. So not the time or the place for that kind of thing."
"Why would you have to babysit Hinata? Ino-buta-chan I kind of get, but not Hinata." Hanabi told him that those two tended to get into it from time to time recently. It seemed grossly out of character for someone so even-tempered like Hinata.
"I won't say, but I will say that it's your fault and leave it at that." An indignant noise came from Naruto's side of the bath, not knowing why it was his fault and not liking the inclination, eliciting a giggle from Sakura before she turned her attention to the third amongst them with her in the woman's side, "I can see why Ino likes messing with Naruto now. There is a bit of a charm to his reactions."
Instead of answering first, the second girl that Naruto had originally been talking to in the hot spring went silent for a bit, much to the confusion of both him and Sakura. Only Sakura could see the girl though.
"Naruto…" Uh oh. No person had ever said his name in a thoughtful manner and had it lead to good things happening, "And Ino. Uzumaki and Yamanaka right?" Oh hell, "Come to think of it you look pretty familiar too pinky."
"Have I pissed you off at some point in the past?" Naruto asked as he slowly moved away from the reed wall, trying not to let his body stir the water too much and make it noisy.
The girl let out a chuckle that was pretty humorless and that only made Naruto more paranoid, "You almost killed my brother a few years ago."
Naruto stopped swimming through the spring for a moment to think, "You've got to be a bit more specific than that. I've almost killed a lot of people."
"Gaara."
Oh, there was no way anyone that had ever heard that name and seen that person could forget him. Those were some scary times, and that was the scariest kid that had ever walked the planet.
On the other side, Sakura let out a gasp, and Naruto no longer cared about keeping his leaving a secret, "Right…" Naruto said, trying to keep his voice cool even as he hurriedly dried himself off and got into a robe in record time.
Realistically there were three options. Option one, he could stay and try to talk it out. That did not seem pragmatic though since talking to him seemed like the last thing that this lady wanted to do, and what was he going to say? Anyway, who wanted to fight naked? No thanks. Also, the chances that she was someone that wanted to find Tsunade were quite good as well, because they'd definitely been moving slow enough for someone from another country to catch up, which meant that other people probably had the chance to catch up.
Which led to option two. He could fight. Not a good choice either, despite the fact that he'd probably win. But he seemed to remember that girl almost splitting him from shoulder to hip with one swing of her damn fan three years ago, and that had been the second closest to dying he'd come before leaving Konoha, so it stuck out in his mind. A fight here wouldn't leave that hotel standing when it was over, of that he was certain. Not with her techniques. And like moths to a flame, one destructive fight would lead to more, and if things were out of hand now they would get exponentially worse before the battle was over.
Thus that left good old option three. The perennial standby action that Team 10 had been built on from day one. Discretion being the better part of valor. If it wasn't a good time or place to try to reason or fight, why do either at all?
"Well, the talk was fun Suna-girl, but I think it's about time we get ready to hit that old dusty trail Sakura. You gonna be alright?"
Sakura understood what that meant as she eyed the girl sitting across from her in the bath. In reality, Naruto was asking her, 'Does it look like she's about to pull something? Do you need help?' Other than the straightforward stare that she was getting from the green eyes of the sandy-blonde woman in the water she wasn't making any move to try anything. Maybe because her fan wasn't anywhere near her or even in the room at all?
It wasn't as if Sakura was armed either. They were both pretty much naked in every sense of the term.
"I'm fine Naruto." Sakura assured him, "You're right, we should get going. Go ahead and tell everyone that it's better if we head out now. I'll be right behind you in a little bit."
Naruto didn't say anything else. He merely slid the door to the men's side changing room closed, effectively leaving Sakura alone with a potentially hostile enemy. But not for long as he took a deep breath to settle himself before rocketing down the hall to get everyone, starting with Shino and eventually getting to Tsunade. There was only one place she'd be at that time of the night.
XxX
Still in the bath, Sakura continued to stare at Temari through the steam of the hot spring, neither of them really blinking until Temari smirked, "So I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that since you're a Konoha ninja if I remember correctly, you're here for Tsunade too."
Sakura blinked before figuring that there was nothing to do now but deal with what was currently going on, "So that bounty really did get around fast. Naruto was right, why we were moving so slowly this whole time I'll never know." She groused before hardening her gaze on Temari, "I really can't let you kill Tsunade-sama."
"-Because Konoha wants her back right?"
A look of confusion spread over Sakura's face. They already had Tsunade. She was the entire reason that they were even there to begin with, "Uh, she's already a Konoha ninja."
"Please." Temari said skeptically, "Tsunade hasn't been an active Konoha ninja in over twenty years. She's basically an unaffiliated wanderer for all intents and purposes, and there's finally current enough information on her for other villages like Suna to finally locate her and recruit her."
"You really can't do that." Sakura warned, not liking the way this was going at all. Trouble, trouble, trouble, 'Why the hell did that old bat have to take her sweet time getting our asses out here? This is not good!" Inner Sakura raged in the regular Sakura's stead as she was busy thinking, "She's already with us."
Temari's smirk fell and the temperature of the open-aired spring seemed to drop a few degrees, "You found her? Well we just have to make sure you don't get her back to your village first. I hear that she hates Konoha, so if we can just stop all of you and escort her back to Suna that'll solve our little problem."
Sakura opened her mouth to continue to try and reason with the abrasive kunoichi, but quickly shut it when she realized that it was a moot point and that Naruto probably had the right idea originally. Reason didn't really push its way past mission orders for many people, "I'm not leaving this room am I?"
"Nope."
"Yeah I am… because I already left you see."
Temari wondered what Sakura was talking about until she noticed the slight continuity problems with the women's side of the spring. The steam in the air was slightly off and without missing another beat Temari threw her hands into a ram seal, "Kai!"
The genjutsu released to reveal that Sakura was gone and had barred the door leading back into the hotel before doing so. With an irritated growl, Temari bit her thumb and reached up for a small summoning seal on the back of her left shoulder to quickly procure her large iron fan, lifting herself out of the water with the intensity of her wind and drying herself off simultaneously.
"That bitch." Temari remarked, quickly getting to her clothes to try and get moving as well, "She prepared hand-seals underneath the water without me even knowing her arms had moved."
XxX
(Hotel Rooftop)
Kiba sat on the roof for this leg of his guard duty, Akamaru lying down next to him sleepily. The white ninken let out a yawn that got Kiba to rub him behind the ears consolingly, "I know boy. This is boring as hell. Don't worry. At least when Sasuke gets back the next patrol will be up to us." A grin crossed his face at hearing Akamaru bark excitedly at the mere prospect of the chance to get up and walk around looking for trouble.
In a swirl of leaves nearby Sasuke appeared and down to take a seat on the rooftop, staring out at the roads leading to the one that the hotel was on and the clearly visible rivers nearby. It really was a pretty place.
"You sure took your sweet time on that patrol didn't you?" Kiba said, interrupting Sasuke's quiet contemplation, "It doesn't take twenty minutes to circle the premises."
In all actuality Sasuke had been enjoying the silent tranquility of the night and the scenery of the area around the hotel. He didn't need anyone to hear that he'd been doing anything like that out loud or it would spoil his image, thus he fell back to his default reaction to such a thing; covering for his actions under a guise of professionalism.
"It's called being thorough. Take some lessons." Sasuke said, getting a narrow-eyed glare from Kiba, "Maybe it'll help you get promoted faster this time around." He finished with a smirk.
"Really?" Kiba replied with a twitching eye, "Is that why you haven't made jounin yet? Oh, no wait. It's because you still suck at leading teams. At this rate Naruto or Shikamaru are going to get the nod over you like Neji did."
"I will cut you."
"I'll cut you!"
Akamaru's head popped up as quick as lightning, something that did not escape Kiba or Sasuke's attention as the large canine started whining.
Kiba started looking around and sniffing at the air himself, "Akamaru says he can smell some seriously strong chakra nearby."
"So?" Sasuke said, raising an eyebrow at how defensive Kiba seemed, "Naruto's around here somewhere, so is Tsunade. And then there's me." While it wasn't modest he wasn't going to act like his chakra wasn't strong. Even without ever using it, the Cursed Seal he received years ago seemed to augment his reserves, "Are you sure it's not something like that?"
"Akamaru's used to the chakra of the rest of you by now." Kiba explained, "But this one's like Naruto's. Kind of. I don't know how to explain it."
"Jinchuuriki." Sasuke said as if cursing bad luck or something.
"Yeah, that's it!" Kiba exclaimed with a snap of his fingers, "How'd you kno-oooh?" He then realized that there was another scent amongst them and wondered how someone got that close to them and almost let out a quite unmanly squeak upon turning in the direction of the person up there with them, "Aw… son of a bitch."
Some people you didn't forget upon interacting with them, even if it was only once, even if it was only in passing, and even if it was years ago.
Nigh-untamed red hair. Seafoam green eyes with black rings around them and a thousand-yard stare that would give an ANBU chills. Red kanji for love on the side of the forehead. Most notable of the features of this young man was the big-ass gourd on his back that looked to be made of sand.
Sabaku no Gaara.
He wasn't even looking at them at first. Instead he was looking up at the moon with a complete disregard for who else was up there with him. At least until he turned one of his eyes toward them. It damn near made Kiba feel twelve years old all over again, "So…" Kiba tried to say, getting Sasuke to palm his face at the fact that Kiba had said anything at all, "Nice night huh?"
Gaara's eyes turned back up to the sky and took note of the heavenly bodies above, 'Full moon…' He thought to himself before closing his eyes and speaking, "I hate the nighttime. I'm unable to sleep."
"Way to piss him off Kiba." Sasuke said completely under his breath, knowing that Kiba's enhanced hearing would pick it up even when Gaara did not. Of course the first thing that Kiba would say would be about something that Gaara didn't like, "Idiot."
"I remember you both." Gaara said, now turning fully toward the pair of Konoha ninjas, "I remember everything about those days in Tetsu no Kuni. Tell me… where is Tsunade?" His eyes seemed to try and bore holes through their soul as he tried to interrogate them with his killing intent, "Do not lie to me. This is a long way from Konohagakure. There is no reason for a ninja to be in this place other than the same reason that I am. You are aware of the bounty as well aren't you?"
Both Kiba and Sasuke stood in place until Kiba gave a pat to Akamaru and the ninken darted off of the roof. Sand rocketed out of Gaara's gourd to try and stop him but before it could cut Akamaru off from getting away, Sasuke and Kiba intercepted with a combination of a Tsuuga and a fire wave unleashed by a swing of Sasuke's gunbai.
"Really not gonna let you do that." Kiba warned with a bit of a snarl. He had seen what Gaara could and would do to people caught in his sand. Like hell he was going to allow such a thing to happen to his dog.
Gaara didn't seem to be very discouraged by his first wave of sand being blocked by the Inuzuka-Uchiha makeshift combination, bringing it back and letting more sand than before billow out of his gourd, "I'll say this once. You should get out of my way or I'll kill you."
All Sasuke did was narrow his eyes. Akamaru would go and tell someone else what was going on and the appropriate measures would be taken. Even if they couldn't deal with Gaara, it would matter in regards to the mission. He was there for Tsunade, so all that mattered for them was getting her away.
"Don't you get it? This isn't the chunin exam from years ago, we're all grown now!" Kiba shouted out with a glare, "You can puff your chest out with the death threats all you want to. Nobody's afraid of you anymore!"
If he cared one way or another, Gaara didn't show it outwardly, "You should be."
Gaara's sand drew back like the hands of a boxer getting ready for one big punch, and both Sasuke and Kiba saw the practicality of fighting someone like him somewhere else. Anywhere else for that matter. Because a rooftop had to rank right up there with the top 5 worst places possible to try and fight with Gaara.
XxX
(Elsewhere in Okumizumi-machi)
For two of the members of the Kumo squad put together to try and retrieve Tsunade, they had never been that far outside of Kaminari no Kuni before. Deep in the heart of Hi no Kuni, it was a bit strange for them.
First of all there were a lot more trees than they had expected, even for a country that housed a hidden village named for being hidden in the leaves. Karui and Omoi figured that the trees had been just a Konoha thing. But most of the countryside was covered in lush greenery. A stark contrast to their country to be sure.
"This is supposed to be the place." Darui said, followed by Karui and Omoi as Samui walked next to him, "Every little bit of tracking her down took her in the direction of this town. There isn't another around for quite a ways. At least not any town where someone could find Tsunade."
"Tsunade's a Senju right? The Shodai Hokage's granddaughter?" Omoi asked, looking around at the trees that sat in the background behind the buildings on the street that they were on, "What if she doesn't want to hear what we have to say? The Senju Clan is famous for Mokuton, so maybe she'll sic an army of trees on us. Or since she's related to the Nidaime Hokage too maybe she'll drop an entire lake on our heads. I mean, they're everywhere around here, and you've seen the sizes of those things!"
"Nobody's going to drop a lake on your head dumbass." Karui chided, cursing Omoi's tendency to over-think things ad nauseum, "She might even like what Kumo will have to offer. Those wars were a long time ago. And I don't think Tsunade was in Konoha back when we were fighting with Konoha all of the time." There was a touch of confidence at the thought that Tsunade would at least hear out what the Raikage had to say.
"Kumo wound up killing the Nidaime Hokage." Darui pointed out, forcing Karui's point to die right then and there, "That was still a long time ago… but ninjas do tend to hold grudges. I'd just be ready to turn and run if I were you."
All of a sudden Samui stopped walking and looked up to see an entire platoon of dark-clad figures leap overhead. The civilians on the street level of the town along with the Kumo contingent did not notice the movements in the dark of the moonlight night. The suspicious folks above didn't even allow themselves to cast a shadow on the street. But a well trained ninja could feel it.
Luckily, they didn't seem to be there for them, because they had been moving with purpose. And that purpose didn't seem to be diplomatic in the slightest.
Unluckily, if that were the case there was only one other person in that town worth sending an entire squad of what Samui presumed to be ANBU from some village for.
"That…" Karui said after trying to get a rough count of just how many she had just seen flying overhead, "…Was a lot of bad guys."
"Indeed." The soft-spoken Samui said before addressing the others, all of whom had seen the potential bogeys after they had passed overhead, "Could anyone tell what village they were from? It was too dark for me to see."
All she could see was that the cut of their cloth moved the same in the wind, meaning that they were uniformly garbed. She got a round of head shakes in the negative, eliciting a quiet curse from her under her breath.
Darui let out a sigh before motioning for the others to follow him. They were going to have to be in a hurry if that had been an assassination force from some village meant to take out Tsunade. At least if they managed to take them down and keep her safe that would hopefully get them in her good graces.
"At least this mission won't be so dull anymore."
XxX
(Inside the Hotel – 1st Floor)
Naruto had managed to quickly get Shino from his room, and by then Sakura managed to catch up to them, fully dressed with hair that was still quite wet. From there they had grabbed up everyone's gear and had started heading down to the one place where they knew Tsunade was and had been all evening long.
The bar.
"Where the hell is Shika?" Naruto asked, having sent his clones around to locate the lazy young man. He knew that Shikamaru wouldn't subject himself to the troublesome practice of heading down to the restaurant area if he knew Tsunade was there, not when it wasn't his shift to watch over her, so he had to be somewhere else in the hotel, "Nobody's got time for this!"
"I don't know!" Sakura replied just as worriedly as Naruto had. Fighting wasn't going to be good. If one group from an entirely different country that wanted Tsunade tracked them down, Murphy's Law stated that they most certainly wouldn't be the only ones. And that Temari girl had to have been pissed when she broke that genjutsu, "I haven't seen Shikamaru since we first got here! Why's it so hard to just run away?"
"We're not running away!" Naruto snapped, "Uzumaki Naruto does not run away! He just tactically retreats!"
"Naruto-san." Shino said quietly, indicating Akamaru sliding into the lobby on the slick hardwood floor, almost slamming into the front desk before barking upon spotting them. It would have been funny to watch if things hadn't been so serious at the moment. The girl behind the desk shouted out something about pets but it went unheard, "Akamaru, where's Kiba?"
Akamaru just grabbed Shino's hand and dragged him into the restaurant, remembering the request he'd wordlessly received from Kiba on the rooftop.
XxX
With a yawn, Shikamaru rubbed the back of his neck as he languidly walked through the halls of the hotel looking for his room. He'd just gotten through taking a nap out by one of the huge lakes that gave the town its name, and now it was time to get to sleep in an actual bed. With nine of them watching Tsunade one of them would have to fall on the grenade of not taking a shift at all.
He was just the man for that job.
At an intersecting hallway, Shikamaru came to a stop when he almost bumped into a quite livid-looking blonde girl with her hair in four tails, holding a gigantic iron fan. She made to shove him out of the way so that she could continue on, but trying to lay an unkind hand on Nara Shikamaru at this point was a tall order and he basically slinked right out of her way, almost making her fall when she had expected to make forceful contact and touched nothing.
She actually stumbled into the wall and bemoaned her misfortune on this evening. First those two Konoha ninjas managed to get the slip on her from the onsen, and now she was made to look like a klutz by this random guy… that wasn't that random.
"Don't I know you?" Temari asked, and somehow Shikamaru had managed to make it a good distance down the hallway in the second it took her mind to process a sense of familiarity. Someone was light on their feet.
Shikamaru knew her for sure which was why he'd walked so fast after passing her by. He had the memory of a damn elephant, and forgetting the scariest two days of his life up until that point was something that a goldfish probably wouldn't do.
He didn't turn around. He remembered exactly who that girl was the moment he had seen her, and he really wished that she would have forgotten about him. Really, he wasn't spectacular enough to remember after three or four years was he?
He did freeze in place however. Why, in hindsight he had absolutely no idea. The smarter thing would have been to act like he hadn't heard her or thought that she was calling out to someone else. That ship had sailed though.
Nevertheless he couldn't just stand there not saying anything. That never helped, "…No. You don't." He said, only to curse inwardly when he heard the sound of iron slamming on the floor.
"Yes I do!" Temari shouted, pointing at Shikamaru at the end of the hallway, "You're the lazy-ass from that team of Konoha rookies that almost got my brothers killed! Your buddy already ran away with some pink-haired girl just a minute ago!"
"…No. I'm not." Shikamaru tried again. Naruto ran away from a fight? Awesome. Although in hindsight Naruto never really had a problem with hightailing it out of a bad situation, and getting into a fracas inside of a hotel was definitely a bad situation. He never called it what it was though, which was running away. He called it tactically retreating.
"Yes you are! Now where's Tsunade, because I'm so not in the mood for this!"
That made two of them.
"I don't know who you think I am. I'm just trying to get to my room." 'So I can go out through the window down to the lobby and get everybody else.'
A tick mark formed on Temari's head as she had suffered through enough games from these shifty Konoha ninjas, "This is so not my night! Fuuton: Kakeami (Wind Release: Cast Net)!" With a grand swing her open fan, Temari sent a tight net of razor-sharp wind that fit the contours of the hallway flying at Shikamaru. He was not going to dodge around that, and he wasn't fast enough to make it down the hallway in time to turn a corner.
She was right. He didn't do any of that. Shikamaru turned left and booted open the door to a room before running inside and letting the net of wind pass by. A scream of surprise came from a woman inside of the room before a man spoke up, "What are you doing? This is our room!"
"Sorry! Emergency!" Shikamaru's voice echoed out from inside of the room before the sound of glass breaking came from within.
Temari quickly reached the doorway and stuck her head inside to see a couple in the moonlight from outside underneath the sheets looking quite mortified and angry at the intrusion on their intimacy. The bastard had cut through their room and gone through the window.
Looking outside, Shikamaru was running while picking shards of glass out of his face and muttering to himself why he didn't throw something through the window besides himself first. He threw himself out of the window? That was admittedly manly. Temari had to concede as much.
Still though.
"Tell me where Tsunade is you bum! Kamaitachi no Jutsu (Sickle Weasel Jutsu)!" Temari jumped out of the window and once again gave her fan a swing, sending gale force winds Shikamaru's way as he continued to evade her, much to her anger.
Taking cover behind the wall of one side of the hotel, Shikamaru sent out his shadow to catch Temari in once she landed, hidden in the very shadow of the hotel itself. But she remembered what the Nara Clan specialty was and pushed herself back into the air with a movement of her fan that she then used to glide above.
"Crap." Shikamaru said to himself, not thinking she'd be able to do that while falling. That was a really agile move to make.
"Nice try." Temari taunted from above, "But I remember that jutsu even if I was never caught in it myself. I'm not dumb."
"How about this then?" Shikamaru asked, switching hand-seals to the bird seal, "Kage Nui no Jutsu (Shadow Sewing Jutsu)!" From the shadows of the hotel, multiple long black tendrils flew up at Temari that forced her to grab hold of her fan again and fire down wind to pin them away from her, "I don't know why this is happening to me, but I don't care. You're the one that wanted to fight."
Shikamaru had to cut his attack short before he had achieved the desired results when his ears picked up a rapid clicking noise and he remembered her brother, the puppeteer ninja.
But was his luck really that bad? Was it really so terrible that he would piss off one of the most dangerous women in Sunagakure and then have to contend with her brother at the exact same time?
Any sense of optimism had long since died in the mind of Nara Shikamaru, therefore yes. His luck really was that bad.
Dropping his hand-seal, Shikamaru turned and extended a long blade from the sleeve of his black jacket to bat away a dozen poisoned kunai sent his way by a pseudo-human puppet in a tattered black cloak.
"Thanks for coming Kankuro." Temari said, semi-jokingly, semi-honestly as she had seen the entire thing from above.
An annoyed grunt came from Shikamaru as the puppet Karasu landed and he found himself between the deadly weapon and a wind-manipulating kunoichi, "This is bullshit." He groused under his breath, "I thought this kind of shit would stop when I came home from the capital. I really did. And I was really looking forward to it."
"You wanna quit?" Temari asked mockingly as she landed on the ground in a flourish, "All you have to do is just get us to Tsunade. That's all. We don't really care about you or any of your Konoha ninja comrades."
"Look lady." Shikamaru said with a careless hand on his hip despite his current situation, "I might be a lot of terrible things. A human sloth, a smart-aleck jerk, a ninja with the lowest sense of drive ever seen in the Elemental Nations, the former number one coward of the Guardian Ninja, and a decent amateur male stripper." That last one got Temari to raise an eyebrow questioningly but he did not elaborate, "But if there's one thing I'm not it's a guy that'll cop out and give up something that'll endanger my mission or my friends."
"We'll see about that." Kankuro's voice echoed out from nowhere.
"You're hiding right?" Shikamaru said, seemingly turning his attention away from Temari entirely, "I'm talking to the puppet guy."
"I know that!" A red-faced Temari snapped at him in return. Honestly, what an infuriating man.
The sight and sound of his riled up sister elicited a chuckle out of Kankuro before he decided to answer, "Yeah, and?"
"If you're hiding that means you're hiding in the dark." Shikamaru said before trailing off, "…In the shadows. Do you really think you're safe where you are? That you're going to stay away from me for that long?"
"Big talk for someone that's trapped."
"About that." Shikamaru said before quickly forming a ram seal before anyone could react.
Near where Temari had landed on the ground there was a tag hidden where no one could see it and it went off in a big flash of blinding light that forced Temari to tightly shut her eyes and instinctively swing her fan in case of an attack. But a few seconds later she opened her eyes to find no one there. Not even Kankuro's puppet, "Kankuro! Where'd he go?"
XxX
(Inside the Hotel – Restaurant)
Naruto, Sakura, Shino, and Akamaru bolted into the lounge-like restaurant that had been Tsunade's place of relaxation for the evening. Quickly spotting Chouji, Sakura and Shino went to get him while Naruto and Akamaru went over to where they could see the kanji on the back of Tsunade's green jacket at the bar.
"Please don't be drunk. Please don't be drunk. Please don't be drunk." Naruto said to himself, finally reaching Tsunade's stool as she seemed to be enjoying her drink, "Tsunade-baachan, we've got to go. Right now. Drop that drink or down it quick, I don't care. Just get up."
Swiveling around in her seat, Tsunade actually surprised Naruto by not appearing to be sloshed despite the fact that she had clearly been drinking, "Where's the fire brat?" She was of course hoping that there was no literal fire, but with ninjas you never knew.
"You know that guy from the chunin exams that tried to turn into the Shukaku in the middle of the arena after I beat him?"
"Yes?" The freaky mass-murdering jinchuuriki from Suna. Kind of hard to forget that guy, even if she didn't fight him.
"His brother and sister are here somewhere. So he is too. And they're here for you." Tsunade probably would have preferred a literal fire at that point.
"Crap. I thought we'd have more time." She said to herself, frowning deeply as she crossed her arms over her ample chest in thought, "How fast did they travel to get here from Suna? Even if the bounty reached Sunagakure at the same time as Konoha it takes three days to even get there from the desert."
Naruto rubbed Akamaru's head as the dog kept whining about something, "I think Kiba's in trouble, because Akamaru's always with him and he ran into us in the lobby without him."
Without his noticing, a slender figure draped its obviously female form over the back of Naruto, pulling at his whisker-marks from behind, "Goldie-kun… where you been all evening?" Oh Kami. Naruto glared straight ahead at Tsunade because he knew she was responsible for this somehow, but had to cut that out in favor of the girl rubbing her cheek against his, "I haven't seen you since we got here."
"Get off of Naruto-kun's back." Hinata managed to say evenly, though her voice had a bit of a chill to it. She sure as hell wished she could be that comfortable putting herself in such a situation. It did look rather nice, "What do you think you're doing?"
"Ino-chan, not the time." Naruto said, though he could smell alcohol on her past her normal floral scent.
Yes, she was clearly inebriated, "Yes the time!"
Sharp and aware blue eyes shot to Tsunade who had the good grace to look sheepish, "What the fuck did you do? Why is she drunk? Sakura couldn't have left you thirty minutes ago and if Ino was drunk I'm pretty sure that would have come up in the hot spring!"
"You were with Sakura in the hot spring? I'll kill her!" Ino then noticed that Sakura was in the general area and quickly amended her previous statement, "Just kidding."
"She's a lightweight." Tsunade defended even though she knew there was no defense for letting her guard get sloshed, unintentionally or not, "Three cups of sake, that's all it took, not even the hard stuff. She hasn't even had anything in ten minutes." Even the Hyuuga girl had just as much at the same time and seemed just fine from where she was glowering at Ino for hanging off of Naruto's back.
Ugh, whatever. Ino was probably going to end up on his back for safety purposes at some point anyway if she had to use her clan jutsu, so this was just skipping the middleman, "Look, I don't care right now. Can we go? Please? Right now!" He was asking, but his face held the look of if she said no he'd try to punch her out and drag her out.
He'd seen this particular action movie before a dozen times over and even lived it a few times, and he already had the script committed to memory so to speak.
He knew how it ended if things kept going the way that they were. This was classic clusterfuck scenario. The stars had aligned to screw him again.
Everything seemed to be going wrong with no logical explanations for half of the things happening around them and the whereabouts of half of their crew. Bad guys were in the breach, and there were always more than the ones that you could readily identify.
Tsunade was aware of this stark reality of their luck too, and a part of her had to wonder what the hell she'd been thinking and what else she expected out of this. Why'd she pick the biggest hotel in the town to stay at for the night? She was a bountyhead for goodness sake! These were the situations that slumming would have been appropriate for! That way when they destroyed something they wouldn't have to pay for as much.
Damn her love for living lavishly. That bar was great. Top-shelf booze for sure, and from all over the world too.
"Right. Let's go." Tsunade said, downing the rest of her drink before standing up and slamming her hand on the bar, getting the attention of everyone there. But she only needed a few, "Shino, Hinata, Akamaru, you three with me. We're heading out. Brat, go get your teammate and give the girlie on your back some of this." She said as she handed Naruto a small sleeve of powder, "That should sober her up in five. Chouji, Sakura, same with Sasuke. Go get him, then catch up. If either of you find Kiba take him with you, if not he can track us by scent."
There was a joke in there somewhere about Tsunade carrying a ready-remedy for getting blitzed, but now was not the time for it.
Because the electricity died at that moment and every light inside of the place went out.
People in the restaurant not of the shinobi variety started panicking until the sound of something smashing into a thousand pieces shut them all up. That of course would have been the bar that Tsunade had hit the first time to get the attention of her ninja, "Everybody shut the hell up." She said in a dark tone, and it got the results that she wanted. Dead silence.
Seriously. They would need their hearing to be on point. For those of them that couldn't see in the dark (Hyuuga), smell things out (Akamaru), or otherwise sense the chakra of the enemy (Naruto, Shino), it would probably save a neck or two.
The quiet dragged out for quite some time, and since none of the sensors were reacting it was clear that whoever their assailants were weren't there in large enough force to justify attacking a squad containing Tsunade. Someone wasn't about to wait around and play kunai pincushion though.
"Fuck this." Naruto said before a massive boom could be heard, creating a wickedly large hole in the wall leading outside, moonlight pouring in. Without missing another beat, every Konoha ninja in the room spilled out into the night air and took off from inside, "Kiba and Sasuke were on guard duty, so check the roof first!"
If bad guys got inside and cut the power that meant that there was something else occupying their attention to keep them from stopping such a thing or tipping them all off in advance. It was probably why Akamaru had come to them before anything in the restaurant had even happened.
Sakura and Chouji darted off to locate their wayward teammate and the Inuzuka Clan member of the entire squad.
Naruto created a clone that went off to try and find Shikamaru, with directions to create more clones with the chakra that Naruto had originally enabled it, "Shino, Hinata, Akamaru, we need you guys to stay with Tsunade no matter what in case something else happens. You guys can tell if anything dangerous is coming better than us. If we need to fight, me and Ino-chan can handle it." When she sobered up of course.
Nobody else was speaking up trying to get things in action, and they were all the same rank, thus Naruto was the first barking orders. He wasn't even aware that he was doing it, it just came from him. And there were no objections thus far so he figured that it was cool.
"Hinata, did you see who was after us?" Shino asked, never getting sight of the individuals despite getting some intel from the bugs he had dropped from his body throughout the hallways. They were all high-level shinobi from the read that his kikaichu got on them.
A nod came from the Hyuuga princess, her Byakugan still active, and with good reason to have it as so. Even at a distance she could see the enemy forming up at the hole in the wall of the hotel that Naruto had created for the Konoha party to leave through.
A feeling of dread crept into the pit of her stomach when she was able to make out the masks on their faces, "ANBU. A lot of them. Twelve-. No, sixteen by my count. I think there might be more coming since they're not after us yet." But there was something strange.
Each village's ANBU were uniformed differently. All of them had masks and most of them wore cloaks over their actual uniforms, but that was basically the only similarity in appearance that they held between the villages.
Konoha ANBU had animal stylized masks, black pants, black tight short clothes underneath grey body armor, metal arm-guards, and spiked sandals along with the tattoo on their shoulders.
Suna ANBU had masks reminiscent of demons and monsters, wore turbans to cover their heads and hair, and had the body armor in a sandy color that covered their shoulders instead of just their chests.
Kiri ANBU were usually heavily dressed for the climate that they operated in. Their masks had slits for eyeholes and random patterned markings instead of more descript things like in the other villages as well as a marking indicating that they were from Kirigakure.
From their shared stories over the years none of them had ever seen Kumo ANBU, so they didn't know what they looked like.
But Iwagakure ANBU they did know. As Academy Students there were only two ANBU uniforms they were taught to recognize on sight. Konoha's own, and Iwa's. A remnant from the last costly war that Konoha had found itself in before their generation entered the halls of the Ninja Academy.
Iwa ANBU had uniforms consisting of red pants, tightly woven, tough red under-outfits that were said to be able to stop the tip of a kunai from penetrating them and thicker burgundy body armor over that. More designed for heavy combat than for precise engagements the way most ANBU units were.
That was what Hinata saw.
Not only that, but mixed in with them there was one clothed differently. She'd never seen the kind of outfit belonging to the last ANBU before. Black pants, and a short black jacket that cut off halfway up the ninja's torso. The mask and cloak though were definitely from Konoha, but the uniform underneath wasn't, and he had no tattoo, "Is he a fake or is he really from Konoha?"
XxX
"We didn't have the hotel locked down before one of them broke the wall." One of the Iwa ANBU reported over short-wave radio as more of his comrades arrived on the scene, "How did they know that we were coming?"
"I never trust these joint assignments. I feel like we've always got a sword at our backs."
All eyes were directed to the ANBU from Konoha garbed in the black cloak. If his voice showed any nerves behind his mask he didn't show it, "We are for Konoha, but our aim is not any different from yours. You want Tsunade dead for your own reasons. Our master wants her dead for ours."
"That doesn't make any sense. She's the best medic-nin in history and the Sandaime's student. Why would the Hokage want her dead?"
"The Hokage is not my master." The Konoha ANBU said with a biting tone to his words, "Tsunade has not claimed our village as her own in twenty years and her actions have not benefitted us in any way in just as long. Her legacy is obsolete and her name is more of a detriment than anything else to us now. She is a problem. The only value she has left to Konoha is to fund my masters black ops with her bounty which will be split with Iwa. In this endeavor we are partners, and per my master's previous agreement with your Tsuchikage I will lend my assistance to help you overcome her. Anything you need to know to win against her. But stay away from the jinchuuriki."
None of the Iwa ANBU said anything as they all moved out, noting that the Konoha ANBU remained behind them far enough to assuage their fears that he wouldn't betray them mid-mission. Even so, mistrust ran deep. And all of them had the same thought.
'These Root ANBU are seriously freaky.'
Speaking for their standards, that was saying something.
XxX
(With Sasuke and Kiba)
"Why are we still running?" Sasuke asked quietly as he and Kiba were fleeing the scene through the trees around the hotel, "Weren't we buying time until Akamaru warned the others? We've led him far enough away from the hotel where they can all sneak out and get away." If anyone hated retreating more than Naruto it was Sasuke.
"You wanted to fight that guy on a fifty foot rooftop?" Kiba asked incredulously, "Suicidal much?" He said that, having been the one that had originally called out Gaara for threatening them, "There's no room to move up there! How were we going to keep away from that sand?"
"No, I'm not suicidal." Sasuke replied a bit offended at what Kiba had been implying. If anything he knew he had more tactical savvy than Kiba did, so he didn't want to hear that out of him, "I have Sharingan and hawks to keep away from him just fine."
"I don't!" Kiba griped back at him, "I'm an Inuzuka without my ninken! And even if you let me fly on your bird again, he has a giant sand raccoon! Are you fucking mental? We need space!"
"Even so… you do kind of have a point." Sasuke said, admitting that biju beat hawks any day. Even summoned hawks, "If we'd have stayed up there that hotel wouldn't have been standing for five more minutes. I'm sure of it." Gaara peeled the tile off of the ceiling going after Akamaru in the first five seconds. That wasn't really a good sign for how well that building was going to stand up to what it would take to fight back against him.
Both of them found their progress inexplicably brought to a halt, and both prepared to start thinking panicking thoughts until they realized that sand hadn't captured them. Nothing seemed to at first glance, until the shadow from a tree seemed way too long for how the moonlight was casting it.
"Ugh. What are you guys doing here? Not that I don't want the help."
"Shikamaru?" Sasuke said as he felt full control of his body come to him once again, "Wait. You're in a fight too?"
"Temari and Kankuro from Sunagakure if you remember those two." The down in the dumps look on Kiba's face couldn't be hidden, even if he had been able to keep something like that from Shikamaru, "No… don't you tell me what I know you're about to say. I don't want to hear it."
"Gaara's here too." Kiba said, wincing at the same time as Shikamaru, "I knew you'd remember that guy."
"Damn it."
"And he's probably looking for us right now." Sasuke added coolly, though he kept his eyes peeled in case someone felt the need to surprise them.
"Double damn it." Shikamaru said as a follow up. But then again this wasn't all bad. At least now it was three-on-three. That was something. Even if those two weren't his first choices for teammates, "They want Tsunade, so are we leading them away from the hotel?" Nods came from both Sasuke and Kiba, "Alright. They don't know just how many we've got. Temari saw Naruto and Sakura, but she and her brother don't know you're here yet."
"And Gaara doesn't know who else is here other than us two either." Sasuke concluded in Shikamaru's stead.
This was good. They could use this. Normally squads didn't run much more than four to a team. So if they were found, the Suna kids would think that there would only be one more dedicated to staying with Tsunade as opposed to six more. Seven counting Akamaru.
In the instance that they got past them and somehow reached the main team after a potential battle was fought and the Konoha side lost (not that Sasuke would ever acknowledge the fact that he could lose, even in a hypothetical situation), they would misjudge the amount of guards that Tsunade would have. People had been killed due to far less vital misinformation in the past, so why not?
"You thinkin' we should make a stand or something?" Kiba asked when he saw Shikamaru in a position of deep thought, "Because I'm game. I wish Akamaru were here, but I'm still game."
"A stand implies that we're going to lose." Sasuke said with a smirk, "Are you saying you're about to get your ass kicked?"
"Don't put words in my mouth jackass!" Kiba snapped, still speaking under his breath, "So where are we doing this Shikamaru? You're the smart one."
The entire time he'd been thinking about what to do. He wanted to stay amongst the trees if that were a viable option, but in all honesty it wasn't one. That Temari girl used wind to cut things and create storms. She was also a hothead. And if she was anything like Naruto when he got a bit heated there was a good chance that she would-.
"Kuchiyose: Kirikiri Mai (Summoning: Quick Beheading Dance)!"
-Bring the entire place down to find them.
XxX
(With Naruto and Tsunade)
The one thing that Naruto had to say about all of his team members that were running with him was that they were all in shape, because they were cutting a murderer's pace through those woods to the south side of the town, the agreed upon direction that they would all meet up at in case things caused the team to fracture.
Shikamaru and his contingency plans.
"Does everyone remember what to do in case we are forced to move from the meeting point?" Shino asked as they all continued to move, "If the ANBU Hinata found are really after Tsunade-sama there will be a good chance that some of us will have to divert them to keep them away from her."
Everyone nodded. There was an old fishing village miles west of Okumizumi-machi that was abandoned when that town had become prominent. Fishing could still come from the new village and conveniently use the lakes but remain close to a great place of commerce and to sell their catches. It was mostly a ghost town used to store old boats and other water-faring things now after falling out of use.
Still riding on Naruto's back for the time being, Ino held her head with a pained expression, "Oh my head." She said, "I'm never drinking anything again. It's not worth it. It's definitely not worth it."
Tsunade smirked a bit but held back a laugh. That powder she gave Ino sped up the time it would take to flush the alcohol out of her system. It also magnified the hangover process in exchange for getting rid of it far faster than was natural, and it took time to get used to the effects. She should have just been grateful that she didn't throw up on Naruto's head from how they were moving.
Come to think of it… if they kept moving at the pace that they were moving at, they'd make it to the place they needed to go just before dawn. That would take a few hours, but they were up and running anyway, so why not just go straight there and nip the whole thing in the bud?
"Should we split up?" Naruto asked, breaking her train of thought. Getting Tsunade away was the main thing, so as long as they did that everything would be fine, right? "My Henge is pretty good. I can lead them away pretending to be Tsunade-baachan and the rest of us with a few clones."
They'd probably catch on not long after actually seeing him, but by then he'd have led them along so that what was left of Team 8 and the real Tsunade could get away.
Team 8 was a tracking-specializing team, so if any squad knew how to cover its tracks it would have had to have been them. But they needed the room to do it, and if there was anything that Team 10 was especially good for it was stalling and diversion. Naruto kind of blew that out of the water because he fought like a tank as well, but stalling and diversion was the major thing.
And if it worked well enough, they could trap them and take a bunch of them out. Sure, Shikamaru could have been ultra-useful in that situation, but it wasn't as if Naruto and Ino were strategically helpless without him. Their plan of action would just be a lot more bare-bones.
A large team of ANBU was no joke, even for someone like Tsunade, who while she could probably take them on would be putting the younger ones at great risk by stopping to fight them. And with Suna apparently hot on their heels to boot it would probably turn into a marathon. It was complicated in that she wasn't the leader of any of them, but she knew more about being a ninja than they did.
Tsunade knew Naruto's body of work better than anyone else, and figured that the offer wasn't misplaced noble bravado… for the most part. There was still a lot of that in there though, and a part of her flashed back to what she was told about her granduncle Senju Tobirama and how he died. Her eyes quickly flashed to the necklace that used to be hers around Naruto's neck before her face toughened up.
"What are you asking me for kid? I'm not the leader of this mission, I'm the client." Tsunade said with a falsely dismissive air, "You're just supposed to protect me while I travel. How you do that in the end is up to you." She glared back at him slightly, but there was no heat behind it, "Take care of that necklace just in case you really need to sell that you're me somehow. If you make my necklace smell like cigarettes before I get it back I'll beat your narrow ass."
She gave him that damn necklace for a reason, because she believed he'd survive no matter what. If things got bad he knew full well how to make a break for it and keep himself safe.
The grin on Naruto's face was basically him believing that she had taken off the leash so to speak, and with that he took Ino and headed off to make the best case of sidetracking an ANBU that he could think of.
With that being done, the trio and dog kept running in an uncomfortable silence. Shino was simply thinking about how to handle a squad of over a dozen well-armed, highly trained ANBU and probably a jinchuuriki-led team to boot. Hinata let out a gasp and came to a dead stop on a branch, getting Shino and Tsunade to do the same slightly ahead.
Turning around they all saw her looking back from whence they came with a horrified expression on her face. Shino jumped back and put a hand on her shoulder to get her attention, "Hinata, what is it?"
Tsunade knew the look on her face. That was a look of someone that had seen something horrifying, 'I swear to Kami Naruto if you got yourself maimed or killed already I'll fix you and break you all over again.'
"The ANBU…" Hinata said quietly as if she couldn't believe what she was seeing, "…T-They're all being torn apart!" Really? Wow, Naruto was strong. That might really be the most badass thing that had ever happened. Was he Kyuubified? "Naruto-kun and Ino aren't the ones doing it. Two other men just destroyed them."
Ah, of course not. Little miss all-seeing-eyes would have known how close on their heels the ANBU had been, and would have warned them if they had started closing the distance. She could see 10 kilometers.
But then that begged the question of just who did it if Naruto and Ino didn't. Did the Suna kids and the ANBU bump into each other and end up with Gaara killing them all? That would have been the best news anyone had heard all night.
"I don't know what group-." She started to say before realizing that saying she didn't know something didn't help anyone. Being as descriptive as she could was the best option she had available, "One has a strange scythe for a weapon and the other has threads connecting his body… like that Dorobou boy from Taki from the chunin exams." She'd never forget that narcissistic psychopath, "They're both wearing the same clothing. Long cloaks with cloud patterns on them."
XxX
A sigh came from Kakuzu as he watched Hidan finish an impromptu ritual thanking his God for the bountiful slaughter he had just engaged in. He was blissfully ignoring the gore, entrails, and body parts that littered the surrounding tree trunks and branches.
"Are you done?" Kakuzu asked flippantly as he casually tossed aside a porcelain mask that had belonged to some out of place ANBU. Weird. The rest were from Iwa, but one seemed like a fake Konoha ANBU. Meh. Probably Root, "You just blew whatever jump on catching up quick that we had."
"It doesn't matter. It's a bunch of chunin with her. One of us by ourselves could handle this." Hidan replied, grinning down at the pilfered internal organ in the palm of his hand before he extended it to Kakuzu, "Here you go you old fucking heathen. I know how much you like collecting hearts and stuff."
Kakuzu normally carefully took them from the chests of his enemies with his Jiongu threads so that they remained intact and still beating when he used them for himself. Hidan on the other hand had just brutally carved it out of one of the ANBU's chests with an extendable pike.
"…Thanks." Kakuzu said, taking the bloody heart from him. He waited for a pleased Hidan to turn around so he could throw it away out of his sight. It was a thoughtful gesture as far as Hidan went, but completely useless, "Can we go chase Tsunade so I can get my millions now?" Not just from the bounty, but the necklace that she wore… oh. He'd have so much money to hoard when he found a buyer for that thing.
"Oh hell yes. I'm getting the killshot just so you know. I'm gonna savor that one."
"No, I'm taking her organs. Do you have any idea how good that woman's heart must be?"
Continuing to argue into the night, the two Akatsuki members left seventeen bodies worth of blood and violence behind them and continued onward to do the same to a group of Konoha ninjas and a world-renowned legend.