Hanabi did not even give them a second glance as she walked on forward, almost never stopping to rest. The game lost its novelty even to Konohamaru as Hanabi was resisting all his attempts to find out the truth from her, and she had been quite well ignoring them.
They were now climbing a gentle slope up a forest path, and it was the third day of their journey, exhausted from their travels, Moegi was the first to finally protest.
"No one is asking you to follow me," Hanabi replied quickly, which in turn surprised the trio, as it was the first time she spoke to them since they joined her, it appeared that even Hanabi was getting tired of their constant distraction.
"Fine, I'm leaving," Moegi answered, she turned and walked off as sudden as how this adventure started. Udon was panting hard as he saw Moegi stomped past him, he gave a peek at Konohamaru, and saw the concern on his face. They had travelled quite a distance, though Konohamaru was determined to continue on, he was worried about Moegi's trip back to Konohagakure alone. Saying nothing, Udon nodded back at Konohamaru and turned to follow Moegi out of the forest. Konohamaru smiled, knowing that Udon would protect Moegi for him, and returned to his track. When he turned around, he was surprised to find Hanabi standing there looking at Moegi and Udon. Konohamaru smiled at her just as she noticed him still on the path walking towards her. Turning around, Hanabi (unwillingly) led Konohamaru up the hill, further into the forest.
"I'm concern about you, you know that?"
It was not a lie, it started out as a reason not to go back, but they soon realised that something serious was really going on, and this was not the same Hanabi they knew back home. Konohamaru knew that even Moegi had noticed that, and trying to stop her was her way to help, but Konohamaru felt otherwise, there was no point in stopping Hanabi in accomplishing what she set out to do, he could only follow her and make sure she made it out alive.
They soon came upon a familiar path which Konohamaru recognised, any further along the road, they would end up in a major trade road that would lead them out of Fire Country to Earth Country. As the sun was setting, Konohamaru was relieved to find Hanabi heading towards a small town called Clay Town.
Konohamaru figured that all these walking had finally tired Hanabi, especially when she tried to outrun them, she probably spent a lot more energy fruitlessly trying to put a distance between them.
Nothing was exchanged between the two as they finally set foot on civilisation for the first time in three days. Konohamaru was distracting himself by checking out the prices of all the inns and taverns, but to his surprise, he witnessed Hanabi walking past all of them. Something dawned on him, as he recalled of another exit from the town back onto the same road at the opposite end of the town. She was taking this route simply because it was a shortcut to her to walk through the town instead of circling around it!
"What's the rush?"
No replies, though he could see the weariness slowly creeping into her system, Konohamaru grumbled a little, but he knew he was not going to give up the chase just yet.
Suddenly, Hanabi cursed quietly under her breath. Konohamaru then noticed that much to her dismay, an unusually large crowd of people was gathering right in the street, thus effectively blocking their path.
Apparently, there were two fighters roughing up each other on the street, and cheering them on were the town folks. Curious, Konohamaru quickly ran up ahead and mingled with the group of audience. As Hanabi approached nearer, Konohamaru stuck out his head from the sea of bodies, and called out to them, "Hanabi-chan, you got to look at this! It's Kiba-san!"
Hanabi was no stranger to Kiba (and Shino), being her sister's teammates before her disappearance, Konohamaru's statement caught her attention. Pushing through to get a better look at the fight, she saw the older Kiba enjoying himself as he fought against a man twice his size. Kiba was not wearing his usual mission attire or his hitai-ate, instead were donning some greyish travelling clothes commonly wore by wanderers, and had also kept his hair long and bushy. Two large hounds sat down lazily at one corner, none of them was even watching the fight.
Kiba laughed as his opponent's piteous attempt to land his fist on the agile young man before sending a flying kick at the older man's chin, sending him to the floor. The crowd dispersed with the fight over, and Kiba motioned his hounds to follow him just as he walked off like as if nothing happened. Taking a quick look at the unconscious man, Konohamaru and Hanabi hurrying followed after Kiba.
"Kiba-nii-san!" Hanabi called out enthusiastically.
"Hmm?" Kiba asked, turning around before breaking in a laugh. "If it isn't Hanabi-chan!"
"Kiba-san," Konohamaru called out behind her.
Turning his attention to the boy, he asked with a straight face, "Do I know you?"
x
Kiba treated the two of them to a luxurious dinner at a local tavern, for a shabby-dressed wanderer, they were surprised to see Kiba taking out a large pouch of coins.
"Sorry for not recognising you, Konohamaru. Have not been home for past couple of years already," Kiba said while laughing heartedly, followed by a huge bite, chewing off a huge chuck of meat off the roasted drumstick.
"So what you doing fighting that man?" Konohamaru asked.
"Well, I caught him bully a little puppy, so I challenged him to a fight!" Kiba laughed. "As simple as that!"
Konohamaru observed as Hanabi picked up a conversation with Kiba, talking about everything, yet curiously, for two people known through a simple person, neither of them even went near the topic regarding Hinata.
"Where are you two heading, maybe we are going the same way," Kiba asked, placing a big plate of meat on the floor for his dogs.
"I'm going to Ravine Village," Hanabi said hesitating, her voice sounding very serious for a second.
Konohamaru noticed the sudden change of atmosphere. Kiba bended down to pat his wolf-like hounds, before suddenly saying, "So, you are going to look for her?"
Hanabi said nothing, but her expression told Konohamaru that she indeed had such intention. Instead of answering, Hanabi asked, "So you knew?"
"Yup, Shino had a tough time tracking me down, but he passed the message to me."
"Have you seen her then?" Hanabi asked.
"Nope, haven't really seen her yet," Kiba mumbled softly.
"Don't you want to see her again?"
"I afraid that I'm not as brave as you think I am, I don't know how to face her," Kiba answered sadly.
Seeing the rather uncomfortable atmosphere going around them, Konohamaru tried to break the tense ambience with a joke, Kiba expressed amusement at the joke, though Konohamaru wondered if he was even listening to the joke.
The conversation picked up elsewhere, talking about everything else. Finally, Konohamaru broke out a question of his own, "Kiba-san, have you seen Naruto-nii-chan lately?"
Kiba's face broke into an expression of twisted anger for a split second, before shaking his head smiling. Realising that he touched upon another taboo topic, Konohamaru kept quiet.
Pretty soon after that, the three of them retired into their rooms.
x
The next day, Konohamaru woke up to find the second bed emptied of its presence. Kiba left with a simple note pinned onto Hanabi's door, stating, 'Maybe I will go and see her one of these days. Good luck on your journey, Hanabi-chan.'
Looking at Hanabi reading the note as they discovered it, Konohamaru watched at the girl's serious expression.
"Are you alright?" Konohamaru asked, somewhat worried about what was going on around them.
Smiling, Hanabi nodded her head slightly.
The two of them left the town early in the morning, much to the disappointment of Konohamaru, exiting the town from the north-western exit, they chanced upon a curious pair of travellers.
Konohamaru widened his eyes in amazement just as Udon waved lazily back at him. Moegi put her fists at her hips while telling off Konohamaru for being late.
Though surprised as well, Hanabi smiled at the situation, knowing that at least Konohamaru had friends he could always depend on.