They had just about reached the border when Genma called for a break. The two six year olds had woken up and Genma prepared a simple breakfast over a campfire. The adults took turns and dressed as civilians. Naruto tried convincing Sasuke into playing with her, her stuffed frog against his stuffed crow. The Uchiha was silent, but Naruto persisted till he finally gave in. With the kids playing and burning off a little bit of energy, Genma spread out the map of the continent and it's islands again.

"Do we want to go the short route and go through the Land of Fang, or the long way through Earth?" asked Genma.

"Short," voted Raido.

"There is still a boat ride, so it doesn't matter to me. If we go through Earth and any of us get recognized, that will not end well," commented Guy.

"Especially since we have the kids with us," said Raido, glancing over his shoulder at the kids who were now playing tag.

"Fang is a little bit more open to outsiders. I guess we should fill up the canteens at the creek to keep up our water supply and start walking. We'll try for a ship at Moyagakure, but with us traveling as civilians and with kids that's still about a week's journey," said Genma.

"Since villages are usually spread out do you want to stop for the night at the first one we come to?" asked Raido.

"Depends on when we reach it," answered Genma. He stowed the map back into his bag and Raido went to go fill their five canteens up with water from the nearby creek when they heard the sounds of a skirmish. Raido fell back to guard the kids while Genma and Guy went to investigate.

They came across a caravan of wagons surrounded by dead bodies and what looked like Hidden Leaf ANBU at first glance. At second glance the two jonin noted the difference between ANBU masks and the masks the attackers were wearing as the attackers surrounded three kids. Two of the kids stood in front of the third, who was curled up on the ground. The two kids fighting, both boys, were using blades and what looked like ink. A tiger flew off the scroll in front of the smaller boy and took out one of the eight attackers. Genma and Guy exchanged glances. Genma made two clones and the four of them joined the fray, coming up behind the seven attackers. Genma, as a weapons and poisons expert, had poisoned weapons constantly on him and as he entered the fight accessed one of the seals in his civilian clothes and got a handful of kunai out of his pants pocket and without hesitation threw them into one of the attackers. They went down, and another one turned their attention to Genma. Thats when Genma heard it.

An Aburame? Interesting. Too bad Aburame vs Shiranui never goes in their favor thought Genma as he smirked, his hand flying flew the seals for the Summoning Jutsu. He slammed his hand on the ground in front of him and, after the smoke cleared, a spider almost as tall as Genma stood there, the sunlight reflecting off it's metallic purple hair.

"Little Shiranui. I assume I can feast on the chakra bugs?" greeted the spider.

"That was actually the plan, Murasaki," answered Genma as he jumped to defend the smaller boy from an attacker, poison senbon in his hand. Murasaki immediately started consuming the Aburame's bugs and they screamed in agony from Murasaki's poison. She swung one of her legs around towards the Aburame and released the hairs on that leg. They impaled the Aburame just as well as senbon or kunai would. By the time the body hit the ground the fight was over. Genma decided to focus on the kids while Guy searched the bodies for identification.

"What are your names?" asked Genma softly.

"I am Shin and he is Sai. We were supposed to help the attackers, but we couldn't hurt her. We protected her as best we could and so they turned against us, saying we weren't worth the training anymore," said the silver haired boy named Shin. With his hair color and skill with his tanto Genma could easily see the boy being a Hatake. With his black hair, black eyes, and pale complexion he could see the younger boy as an Uchiha if it wasn't for the weird ink jutsu he used. Genma had never seen that before.

"What about you?" Genma asked the pink haired girl trying to curl in on herself.

"S-Sakura H-haruno," stammered the girl, tears running down her face as she clutched her necklace. Genma's eyes went wide at the sight of the necklace before going to the wagons. All carried the symbol of the Haruno clan. All the bodies around the wagons had pink hair, a dominant trait in the Haruno clan. The Haruno clan was considered royalty among merchants as they traveled all over the continent selling their wares most of the year, but their base of operations was in the Hidden Leaf. For two clans of the Hidden Leaf, one a shinobi and one a civilian, to be massacred in less than twenty-four hours could not be coincidence. Genma frowned but was pulled from his thoughts by a loud voice.

"Dad! We got attacked by these two masked people and Uncle Rai said a lot of bad words but Uncle Rai beat them with Hyo's help and it was scary and cool all at the same time! Are you and Pop okay?! What happened?" said Naruto as she and Sasuke emerged from the woods on top of a black panther who was the size of a horse.

"What did I tell you about being loud, Cub?" grumbled Hyo, the black panther that was Raido's summons. Genma winced. Now five kids were going to be traumatized by murder and dead bodies.

"We are fine Naruto," answered Guy as Raido emerged from the woods. He did not look happy at all and had his sword thrown on his back. He all but stomped up to Genma with a 'what the hell happened' look on his face. When he got close to Genma Genma mumbled, "Check for other survivors."

Raido and Guy both did, discussing the attacks amongst themselves. They didn't find any survivors or any real identification, but they did find Land of Wind headbands. The two jonin exchanged looks, both worried.

Meanwhile Genma had introduced himself to the three new kids. He told them about the summons and pointed at the Leaf headbands Hyo had around his throat and Murasaki had on one of her front legs. Hyo let Naruto and Sasuke down, but him and Murasaki both stayed alert. After a minute the blonde girl approached the other three kids, dragging Sasuke with her.

"I'm Naruto Shiranui! This is my brother and best friend Sasuke Uchiha. That's my dad and that's my pop and that's Uncle Rai. They are all shinobi and me and Sasuke are gonna be shinobi. Are you? I'm gonna be Hokage when I grow up! Believe it!" rambled Naruto. Genma took advantage of the distraction and eased over to the other two adults.

"Well?" he asked. Raido shook his head.

"No survivors we can find or sense. It's odd though that we found Suna headbands on them when one of the people I fought was obviously a Hyuga. While we are on that topic can one of you please fix my arm?" said Raido as he held up his right arm. The tell telling bruises on it showed the blocked tenketsu. Genma muttered under his breath but unblocked them quickly.

"Murasaki took out an Aburame," commented Genma.

"The Hyuga and Aburame are all in the Leaf. Why attack the Haruno and wipe them essentially out? Why the Suna headbands?" inquired Guy.

"This doesn't bode well for the Leaf," answered Genma. He quickly unsealed the messenger hawk from the supply scroll as well as a blank message scroll. He quickly wrote a message to the Hokage and attached one of the Suna headbands to the hawk, using the headband. After sending the hawk off Genma turned his attention back to the five kids.

"Alright kiddos. Looks like we are camping nearby until we have word from the old boss man," said Genma as he and the other jonin started moving the kids and wagons away from where the fighting happened.

The hawk reached the Hokage Tower quickly. It pecked on the window to the office three times in rapid succession. Lord Third cleared out his office of everyone aside from Shikaku before letting the bird in. He erected privacy seals before he opened the note. He instantly recognized Genma's neat but rushed handwriting as he read the letter aloud to himself and Shikaku.

Lord Third,

We were almost to the border when we stumbled upon the Haruno Caravan under attack. The attacks looked like Leaf ANBU. One attacker was an Aburame and another was a Hyuga. They were in possession of Suna headbands. Unfortunately by the time we intervened all the Haruno clan was wiped out except for a child bearing the necklace of heir. She looks to be the same age as Naruto and Sasuke. She was being protected by two older kids, Shin, who looks like a mini Hatake, and Sai, who uses ink jutsu. Shin admitted that they were supposed to help the attackers but chose not to. Shin can't be older than ten, if that, while Sai can't be older than seven. The wagons appear to be intact, though the oxen pulling them are gone. What do you want us to do?

Patiently waiting for a reply,

Genma Shiranui

P.S. You implied I could keep any and all strays I found. Do these count?

The Nara in the room grimaced. The Uchiha Massacre was one thing, but a clan of wealthy civilian merchants? That was going to end with the daimyo wanting war against whoever did it.

"What do you think, Shikaku?" asked Lord Third, lighting his pipe.

"I think he wants a war but lucky Genma's group stopped it this time. The Haruno Clan is a huge loss to us, but luckily the heiress survived. The appearance of a possible Hatake and a possible Gaka are nice to have since they are close to extinction in the Hatake's case and the Gaka were considered completely gone with their loss during the Nine-Tails attack. I say give Genma custody of the kids and caravan. If nothing else the caravan can give them a cover if need be. Can a seal be made big enough to contain the wagons?" said Shikaku.

"Yes. I'll make the sealing scrolls if you fill out the guardianship papers and acquire two oxen. I believe the Haruno had twelve wagons this year, but Genma should only really need to use two at the moment. A strong genjutsu should cover the Haruno seals. Genma and the rest should be able to travel as a nomadic family with the wagons. Shin and Sai are too young to be very involved in this so if they have received training from him then I trust Genma, Raido, and Guy to undo it. They helped Kakashi after his father left after all," said Lord Third. Neither man pointed it out that Kakashi had still left the village, just quite a bit later. Both men sat down and started working on what they had to do for Genma's makeshift family. That afternoon two hawks landed at the makeshift camp.

Genma went to the hawks as Raido and Guy started cooking lunch for the kids. One of the hawks had a package and took off right after Genma cut the package off it's leg. The other held a letter from the hokage. Genma broke the seal on it and began to read.

Genma,

You are to continue on with your assignment. Sakura Haruno, Shin, and Sai are in your custody as of now. In the package is a scroll of legal documents stating this, as well as for Sasuke. Only use these documents if necessary. I have included storage seals for most of the wagons, as well as two oxen to pull the remaining two. Store the nonessential wagons and go onward under the disguise of a nomadic family. I have also included more supplies to cover the extra children. Be warned Genma. There are great powers at play here. Do not let those children be harmed in any manner. Once you cross the border and leave the Land of Fire, do not enter the Land of Fire again until your mission is completed. A body retrieval squad will be sent out tonight to collect the bodies. I expect you eight to be long gone by then.

Stay safe,

Lord Third

"Just what the hell is going on?" mumbled Genma.

A/N: Is there anyone you would like to see in this story? If so let me know in a review!