DISCLAIMER: I don't own Naruto, Naruto belongs to Kishimoto
The sun, began to set but the wind was raging, blowing so furiously as if it were a sentient being. The whole village was subject to its rage and it blew across. People began to wonder when did it get so windy. However the rookies ignored it as they ran through the village attempting to find Naruto. All of them were running and they had been doing so for the past hour. But they would not give up so they channeled Chakra into their legs and ran as fast as they can. They searched many locations but they could not find him. Hinata and Neji used their Byakugan but he was not in range. They searched everywhere from the Heads of the Kage, to the training ground but they could not find him.
"Man, where is he, It's not like he disappeared" said Kiba with Akamaru barking in agreement. "Maybe he left the village to look for Sasuke" Ino said "No the village would have reported it sometime ago" Shikamaru replied.
"Are you sure Shikamaru, I mean this is Naruto we're talking about here, the kid who pulled off so many pranks. " Chouji replied. "Point taken, getting caught especially in Naruto's case would be too troublesome."
Neji then said "Well wherever he is isn't here, we checked out almost all the places that he is seen, what is one place we haven look for him at?"
Everyone thought for a moment then Sakura said "ICHIRAKU!"
Everyone said "HUH?"
"Naruto always went to this ramen stand called Ichiraku Ramen, Ramen is like ramen is mother's milk to him and he always kept talking about I went there once after finally agreeing to go on a date with him the people there are nice."
"You went on a date with him?" Hinate asked
"Yeah pretty much" Sakura answered
"Oh ok" Hinata said, and although she did show it, she did feel inferior to Sakura.
"Come on lets go there then, maybe they know where Naruto is." Tenten said.
Everyone nodded and they went to
At Ichiraku Ramen
"Oh hi there Sakura, nice to see you again." Aymae said giving a genuine smile "She then looks at the others right beside her "Are these your friends?"
Sakura said "yep, these are Ino, Shikamaru, Chouji, Lee, Tenten, Neji, Hinata, and Kiba."
"You forgot about me" said Shino causing everyone to sweatdrop
"Oh sorry" Sakura said waving apologetically
Shino introduced himself "I'm Shino Aburame, nice to meet you"
Ayame said "It is nice you too and all of you, now I know you came to me for something and I know it's not Ramen."
Sakura said "We were wondering you saw Naruto lately"
Ayame nodded no in return and said "I haven't really seen him for a couple days now, and the last time he was here he really wasn't himself, he was so quiet and didn't really speak, all he did was say hi, order, and left. Even my dad thought it was weird." Ayame was worried for Naruto, unlike about most of the villagers she saw Naruto as a boy who had a dream and thought of him as a little brother of sorts, she knew about the villagers abuse of the boy but sometimes there were things even she thought he was hiding.
"I could ask my dad if he saw him today but he's out at the moment." Ayame said
"So you too huh, we've also seen Naruto acting weird and not himself." Kiba said
"IT IS SADDENING TO SEE HIS WILL OF FIRE BURNT OUT, HIS EYES SHOW NO YOUTH!" Lee said with tears coming down from his eyes. Everyone sweat drops at that.
"Well if we'll have to find Naruto somewhere else, then we will, cause there is no chance of finding him here" Ino said.
`After saying their goodbyes to Ayame they once search for Naruto over the village, they then decided to ask Iruka-sensei if he saw Naruto and received the same answer. After an hour of searching they still had found no absolute trace of him, it was like he wasn't even in the village to begin with. It was frustrating for all of them some of them mostly Kiba, Sakura, and Ino vowing to kill Naruto for going on a wild goose chase to find him with Shino just making a 'hm' sound and Lee referencing youth again, Neji not saying anything, Shikamaru muttering troublesome, while Chouji was just eating chips while Hinata was just twiddling with her fingers.
After a moment, while they were walking Shikamaru groaned and said in frustration "It's been hours and we still haven't found Naruto yet, honestly right now it is just completely troublesome to try and search for him now."
"Maybe we should just give up Shikamaru, he probably just doesn't want to be found" said Chouji
"ABSOLUTLEY NOT ABANDONING THE SEARCH FOR NARUTO IS NOT AN OPTION, IT IS HIGHLY UNYOUTHFUL AS COMRADES AND AS FRIENDS" Lee yelled.
Tenten then supported Lee "Lee is right; we can't be giving up yet. We do care about him don't we?"
"None of us here are renouncing our friendship Tenten, but we completely have no trace of him I've used my Byakugan several times and he is not in my radius. Hinata did too, the same thing happened with her." Neji said
"Well Kiba, did you and Akamaru have any luck?" Sakura asked.
"Sorry, but I have nothing it's as if he disappeared. There is no scent of him, if I had a piece of his clothing or anything he had there would have been a chance." Kiba said
"S-S-S-Shino did yo-y-you find a-a-a-a-anything at all with y-y-your b-bugs?" Hinata asked
"No there is nothing, my bugs have not found anything so far." Shino said.
"Well, its official we can't find Naruto at all, we might as well try again tomorrow." Ino said
"Good, cause any more walking would be too troublesome for m-"
"ARF ARF!" Akamaru says then starts to growl
"What's up Akamaru?" Kiba asks
Akamaru growls more and then jumps off Kiba's head and starts running. Everyone is confused for a moment but Kiba breaks the silence and says "Come on guys Akamaru has picked up something."
Everyone nods and starts running to follow Akamaru.
"I guess this is the break we need, this probably would get so more troublesome and I'm already late for dinner as it is." Shikamaru says
They follow Akamaru as they made one left and kept running down the street, all of them were now pushing chakra into their legs to continue running as the fatigue started to kick in. All of them wondered if they had finally caught on and got a clue of where Naruto might have been and could start from there, some of them would not show it but they were worried for the blonde especially he all changed their lives for the better.
After making a right, they stopped and started to catch their breath only to look and have their eyes widen and jaws open in complete horror and disgust. What they saw a street with lanterns and banners for the upcoming annual festival for the Nine-tails defeat. But the illumination they spread with their majestic lighting only brightened the way for what was on the ground.
It was a brutal mess of large amounts of blood, wooden planks, kunai, knives, cleavers, glass, and stones along with burnt out torches scattered around and that went down the entire street. As they looked at the sight, they wondered what happened here and who was involved as it looked like a fight however as they got closer Chouji saw some sort of ripped material.
"Hey guys, there is something here, it looks like cloth."
"It could have been part of someone's clothing Chouji what color is it?" Shikamru says.
"I don't really know, there is a lot of blood on it so it's hard to tell." Chouji replies.
"Let me see, Chouji," Neji put his hand out and uses his Byakugan to see, he never really thought he would have to use his dojutsu just to look at a piece of cloth but it should have been simple. However after 3 seconds of looking at it he starts to look horrified and everyone sees it.
"What is wrong n-n-n-Neji" Hinata asks.
"The clothing is well…..Orange" Neji says looking petrified.
Everyone at first does not know what he is talking about but in a second they realize what he meant.
"Orange? You're sure?" Shikamaru asks
"100% the cloth is orange and we all know who wears orange." Neji answers
"It can't be him, Was he part of what happened here, or was he the vic—" Sakura says
"GIVE ME THAT" Kiba yells and takes the bloodied cloth from Neji's hands and bends down to put it near Akamaru for him to smell it. After a couple sniffs Akamaru gives a confirming bark.
"You're sure Akamaru?" Akamaru gives another bark.
"The scent from the cloth….. it's Naruto's " Kiba turns back to the rest of the rookies and confirms.
Everyone's heart had stopped beating at that moment and stood shocked after hearing the confirmation. Hinata's skin started to pale in horror after hearing what Kiba said. For 10 seconds which felt like hours nobody said nothing until Hinata yells out "Byakugan!"
The Veins around her eyes start to enlarge and pulse as the concentration from her intensifies as she starts to look around. Everyone looks as the timidness attitude from her is suddenly gone and replaced with a new look of determination.
"There is a faint trail of blood leading west, let's go now!" Hinata commanded, everyone despite being surprised at her newfound courage, nodded and then followed her in the direction she was going. As they ran the tensity in the atmosphere around them had increased and it felt like their hearts and body had stopped functioning completely. Step by Step, breath after breath and many thoughts of what would have happened to their blond haired blue eye friend they all could not help but worry for him especially after the great changes he made to this village and personally to them. His determination was unflinching and his kindness was almost universal. His heart was bigger than the village combined by tenfold but even then they knew he had to have some sort of weakness beside his great strengths that he wasn't willing to show.
After what felt like hours of running on the soft dirt that covered the ground in the village they encountered an apartment of what looked like where their friend probably lived they went up the stairs and then they went up the stairs. Hinata had shut of her Byakugan to recover the chakra she spent.
"Is this where he lives" Ino asked
"Yeah pretty much" Shikamaru replied "Kiba do you know if he is here."
"Yeah Akamaru can smell his scent now, it's really strong here and getting stronger the more up we go." Kiba replied.
"Hmm Strange" Shino said
"What's wrong Shino" Sakura asked.
"My bugs are getting highly erratic for some reason and I do not think it is pleasant."
"Neji, can you use your Byakugan to see if he's here. Hinata is still recovering chakra" Tenten asked.
"I was just about to do that, BYAKUGAN!" Neji said as the eyes around his veins had tensed up and enlarged.
After a moment Neji had a shocked expression on his face and then turned back on his heel and said "WE HAVE TO GO NOW!"
"Why what's happening?" Chouji asked as they started running up the Stairs
"NOT NOW" Neji yelled.
They ran up the stairs until they stopped on a certain floor and then they stopped at the third door at the end of the hallway. Neji then kicked down the chair but they looked inside and their face were in absolute horror as what they saw, they would not forget as Hinata yelled.
"NOOOOOO! NARUTO!"