A/N: Okay, here we are with Chapter 7. It's a little shorter than some of the other chapters, but I wrestled for a long time about where to cut this one off, but I think where I did finally decide to end this chapter is the right place. One thing that's kind of getting on my nerves is switching back and forth between the two elements of the story--part of me feels like the story should be linear and try to keep both ends up to date with each other, but another part of me thinks I should just concentrate on one element per chapter. What do you think? Give me some feedback on how you think the story is flowing and how it might be good or bad. Thanks to all of you who are reviewing and adding to your Alerts and Favorites list. Talk it up in any forums--the more readers the merrier!

Disclaimer: Don't own it. Never will. Crap.


Yuuhi Kurenai leapt off the high branch and sailed forward toward the next tree. Even with her years off of active duty status, she was still keeping pace with her two companions, the Copy Nin Kakashi and the Hokage Tsunade. This mission was too important for her to let a little bit of fatigue to slow her down.

When Shizune had woken her last night it had taken more than a little convincing to finally get her moving towards the Hokage tower. It hadn't helped that the only thing Shizune would say was that Tsunade REALLY needed to see Kurenai in her office. Even so, once Kurenai was convinced it had taken even longer to wake up Shikamaru to come over and watch Hikaru, who was now almost a year old.

Even though Shikamaru had said that he needed to become a cool adult so he could protect her and Asuma's child, she hadn't quite expected the level of commitment that he had delivered. Knowing him as a child, she had not expected him to help her all that much, and had made a point of not asking for his help. To her great surprise though, he had shown up one day practically demanding to assist her, and was plainly hurt that she had not taken his promise seriously. Kurenai learned that day that perhaps she was a bit too quick to judge, and happily started to accept Shikamaru's help when she needed it.

That did not mean that some of his more deeply ingrained laziness had immediately disappeared, however. He still slept like a rock, and according to Shizune it had almost taken a rock to wake him. Once Shikamaru was there, however, Kurenai had left for the Hokage tower with full confidence that her daughter was in good hands and would be safe.

Once she had arrived at the tower and discovered the reason Tsunade had called for her in the middle of the night, she became once again the feared genjutsu mistress of Konoha, a Jounin in every sense of the title, in spite of her lack of training over the previous two years. Hinata's disappearance had hit her hard, as she had come to think of Hinata like a younger sister, and over the years the bond between sensei and student had evolved to a much more familiar relationship. Kurenai's only wish had been that she could provide for Hinata what she really needed most—a mother figure—but between missions and other distractions, Kurenai had only been able to do so much for the young heiress. And then Hinata had disappeared on the day of Sakura's memorial, and Kurenai had felt the loss as keenly as she had felt the loss of her own parents.

Kurenai glanced at Kakashi and frowned. As hard as the loss of Hinata had been on Kurenai, Kakashi had been nearly destroyed by the loss of the final member of his genin team.

Kakashi had always been eccentric—openly reading his dirty books, chronically tardy and with the worst excuses—but as his team had disintegrated, he had dropped back more and more into the depression that had ruled the early part of his life after his father had gone. Kurenai and the others—especially Gai—had tried to talk to him about it, but the only thing any of them could get out of him was that the loss of his team weight on him even more than the losses of his father, his teammate Obito, and his sensei, the Fourth. He saw it as his final failure—one that there might not be redemption for.

In his depression his had begged for the Hokage to return him to the ranks of ANBU, and for a short while his request had been granted. But after only three missions it was hard to ignore the change in Kakashi—he had been completely lost in his Inu mask, ceasing to exist as the cycloptic jounin. He completed his missions without any problems, but the after action reports from his team leader had indicated that he was unstable—it seemed like he was taking his grief and anger out on his targets. For ANBU, it was imperative that emotions be kept out of the job—it was fine to feel after the mission, but it could not be allowed to interfere in accomplishing objectives, and that was why the Hokage removed him from ANBU and placed him on a three month psychiatric probation.

The Kakashi that had returned to duty after that three months was much closer to the old Kakashi, but he still had a downtrodden and sad look about him. Kurenai, though she had never been very close with Kakashi, felt that they shared something in common since it was their students that had disappeared, and she tried to talk to him again.

He was surprisingly open the second time around, and they talked for many hours. Kakashi had confided in her that he felt that he had failed Sasuke by not reigning him in when he had the chance; that he had failed Sakura by not starting to prepare her earlier for her ninja career (he had been embarrassed to admit that he had not thought she'd make it past genin, and her progress as Tsunade's apprentice had dumbfounded him); but it was really Naruto's loss that bothered him the most.

He admitted that he had also not thought much of Naruto when he first met him, but over time it became apparent to him that Naruto had the makings of a great ninja, and even a Hokage, for one reason—Naruto was the essence of a ninja. He knew how to endure and to keep fighting, no matter what. Since becoming a genin Naruto had progressed so far beyond anyone's expectations that Kakashi had been inordinately proud of him—not because he felt that he had anything to do with it, but simply because he felt inspired by Naruto's mere presence. That was something that he had not felt since before the death of Fourth, the last man to truly inspire him.

Kurenai looked at Kakashi with searching eyes, wondering what he was feeling now. It was hard to tell with his usual mask covering his mouth and nose, but she could see that his eyes were hard-set and determined. He had recently started to keep his sharingan active constantly, in an attempt to build his chakra capacity and to change the dominance of his eyes so that he would no longer be forced to use only one at a time. It seemed to be working. Both eyes now held the same look, and she knew that a little bit of Inu had escaped, and that he was on the job now.

She looked ahead, following the green jacket of the Hokage as she leapt off another branch. It was nearing late afternoon now—the Hokage had briefed them and they had left immediately for Wave. They had been traveling for over twelve hours, halting only for necessary breaks for food and calls of nature. As the Hokage leapt again, Kurenai could see there was a bright light shining through the trees, glittering.

'Finally!' she thought to herself, 'That must be the ocean. We're almost there.'

True to her suspicions, within ten minutes the three ninja had broken out of the trees and landed on the shoreline of the continent. One mile to the north they could see the towering cement bridge that led to the island country. The three tensed to leap towards it when a speeding watercraft approached the shore, sounding a horn.

It continued its approach as they stood watching it, and they were able to make out two figures in the boat—both young men with dark hair. When the boat came close enough to the shore one of the young men called out to them.

"Hokage-sama! We're here to take you to the island—this boat is much faster than taking the bridge!"

The blond Hokage turned to Kakashi and Kurenai, grinning slightly. "I don't know about you two, but I think a nice relaxing boat ride sounds perfect about now. I'm not sure I'd be able to keep that pace up on hard concrete anyway."

Kakashi nodded. Kurenai smiled gratefully and said, "That does sound nice, Tsunade-sama."

In a single leap, the three ninja jumped out to the waiting boat, catching both youths off guard. Tsunade turned to Kurenai immediately, checking for chakra exhaustion and leading her to one of the seats in the back of the boat. Kakashi was about to sit down himself when a voice grabbed his attention.

"Kakashi-sensei? Is that you?"

Kakashi turned to the young man driving the boat and his eyes widened. "Inari-kun? My, you've certainly grown," the silver haired man smiled through his mask at the boy.

"Wow!" Inari shouted, "I should have known you'd come—it's because of Naruto-niisan, right?" At the mention of Naruto, Kakashi's smile disappeared and his eyes became shadowed, worrying Inari.

"I haven't seen Naruto in a long time, Inari. But yes, that is why I am here. I'm going to try to save him, at least."

Inari's confusion only grew, wondering what Kakashi meant by that last statement. Shrugging it off for later, he turned back to the controls of the boat. "Well, we should probably get going—the faster the better, right?"

While Inari started moving the boat out onto the seaway between the mainland and the Country of Waves, Kakashi sat down across from the other boy. "Hello, I'm Hatake Kakashi. I'm sorry, but I don't recognize you—are you a friend of Inari's?"

The second boy smiled and bowed as deeply as his seatbelt would allow him to. "It is an honor to meet you, Kakashi-san. I have heard all about you and how your team saved our country. Thank you, very much."

Kakashi chuckled and waved his hand, "No no, it wasn't really all that great. We just did what we had been hired to do."

The boy came up from his bow and smiled at the man. "That's not what I've heard, but thank you. I suppose I can say that Inari and I are friends, even though we only met for the first time yesterday. I'm Souda—I'm the fisherman's son that found the boat the girl was in."

Kakashi nodded in understanding. "I see. Well, it's good to meet you, Souda. Thank you for taking care of our friend—we really appreciate your help."

Souda opened his mouth to reply but was stopped when a shadow fell over him. He turned to look up at it only to come nearly eyes-to-chest with the blond Hokage. Flushing instantly, he turned his head away and looked at the floor of the boat.

"You're the one who found Hinata?" Tsunade asked. When the boy nodded slightly, Tsunade grabbed him by the arm and started to lift him out of his seat, causing him to unbuckle his seatbelt in a great hurry to avoid being ripped in half—her grip was strong.

"You need to come sit with us," she told him. "I want to ask you some questions." Souda nodded, looking back at Kakashi who merely shrugged.

The engine noise died down and Inari stood in front of everyone. "Everyone," he called, "Sorry to say this, but you all have to sit down and put your seatbelts on now—I'm about to start the trip to the island, and it's not a smooth ride at all."

Everyone nodded and did as he said. Once he saw that everyone was strapped in, he sat down behind the wheel of the boat and strapped himself in. He flipped a switch and the engine noise disappeared completely while a high-pitched whining noise started to build in its place. Inari threw a look over his shoulder and shouted, "Hold on!" before throwing the throttle forward to the stops. The boat quickly accelerated and sped off onto the sea at extremely high speed.

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By the time Inari had slowed the boat down and maneuvered to the pier by his house thirty minutes later, the Hokage had gotten quite angry. Inari had not been lying when he had said that the ride was not smooth, but Tsunade had not expected the boat to actually go airborne for brief seconds as they launched off of waves like ramps. Even though she liked to pretend she was younger than she really was, it was getting hard to deny that her body was not as resilient as it had been in youth, and those landings had given her a rare glimpse of that truth.

Still, it wasn't the boy's fault, and there were more important things to take care of. She had managed to talk to the other boy, Souda during the trip, and get the whole story out of him. He was a very respectful and well mannered boy, and she entertained thoughts of introducing Naruto to him when they got him back. There were no doubts in her mind—they were going to get Naruto back. But first, they would have to rescue Hinata.

They disembarked from the boat and walked quickly towards the house, except for Inari and Souda who ran off towards the town, no doubt to relax after waiting for them all day. Kakashi noted that the house had not changed in spite of the family's improved social standing, and it made him happy that some part of those days still existed. The door opened before they even left the pier, and a dark haired woman came running out to meet them.

"Hokage-sama," she greeted with a bow, which was quickly returned. "Please come in, all of you. She's woken up twice today, but never long enough for us to talk to her, just to give her some water."

"Hokage-sama, this is Tsunami—Inari's mother," Kakashi interjected as they neared the house.

"It's good to meet you, Tsunami. Thank you for taking care of Hinata for us. We owe you a debt of gratitude that we hope we'll be able to repay to you one day."

"Not at all," Tsunami insisted as they entered the house. "Kakashi and his team did so much for us, and besides—there's still the matter of the underpaid mission that my father contracted, so we can just call it even if you want."

"That's true," Tsunade acquiesced. "Still, you will always have a friend in Konoha." At that moment, the group entered the kitchen, and saw Hinata on the table, face down. Her breathing was shallow and she looked sickly, covered in a thin sheen of sweat. Tsunade swore.

"The wounds have probably become infected. I need to get to work right away. Kurenai, Kakashi, go get comfortable. This is going to take a while, I can tell already." She lifted the bandages off Hinata's back, carefully. "She's been cut by one of Orochimaru's swords, and the wound is festering."

Kurenai and Kakashi reluctantly left the room, led by Tsunami. "You must both be tired," she said. "We have some guest rooms, I'll take you to them. I'll come get you as soon as Hokage-sama is done."

They were shown to their rooms where they both quickly fell asleep, leaving one ear perked for Tsunami—they didn't want to miss a second when she came for them.

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It was long after dark by the time Tsunade finished, and she was exhausted. Orochimaru had a bad habit of poisoning his swords liberally, and there had been a lot to clean out of the wounds and Hinata's bloodstream before she could try to heal anything. Deciding that they would be better off looking into things further in the morning, and by that time Hinata should be well rested as well, she headed towards the room Kurenai was in to get some sleep.

She was surprised as she passed through the living room by Inari, who was still awake and appeared to be meditating.

"Aren't you up a little past your bedtime, young man?" she asked in her most matronly voice.

Without moving except for his mouth, the boy answered, "No, Hokage-sama—I still need to go get my grandfather. Thirty more seconds please."

The Hokage stood there, watching the boy meditate. True to his word, after thirty seconds had passed he opened his eyes and stood up. "Thank you Hokage-sama. I'm glad you're here," he offered her a bow, which she returned.

"So what did you mean you need to go get Tazuna—where is he? I haven't seen him all day. Was he working?" she asked.

Inari scratched the back of his head in a very Naruto-like way that almost made Tsunade flinch. "Not really—I think he was too ashamed to be here when you got here, so he headed out to the bar early. Not much was going on that he needed to be around today, so I think he's just been hiding."

Tsunade grinned mirthfully. "I see," she said. "Well, you should probably go get him then. I'm headed off to sleep—we'll start again in the morning, and try to keep Tazuna from disappearing."

"Hai, Hokage-sama," Inari said, heading for the door.

"One more question for you Inari," Tsunade called as he lay a hand on the door. "That was pretty lucky, you driving up when you did earlier today. How did you know where we would be?"

Inari grinned. "I can sense chakra—and between you, Kakashi-sensei, and Kurenai-san it was kind of hard to miss." He opened the door and stepped out. "Goodnight, Hokage-sama."

Tsunade turned back to the stairs across the room and started climbing them.

'Well, that's an interesting little tidbit. Who'd have thought?'

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Tayuya had engaged the closest attacker, leaving three unchecked. All of them apparently decided he was a big enough threat that all three should attack him simultaneously. Kyosuke wasn't really sure what to do, but when the first of the three tossed some shuriken at him, he instinctively caught them between his fingers and flung them back, catching the man in the wrists, arms and legs. He stumbled and fell to the floor, apparently disabled.

The other two didn't waste time covering the distance between them and Kyosuke, and he was quickly engaged in a taijutsu battle, fending off punches from one side and kicks from another. Kyosuke redirected a punch from his left into the right attacker's throat with a flat-palmed block, then threw his left elbow into the puncher's face, knocking him back. The right attacker choked and wheezed before falling to his hands and knees.

The one Kyosuke had elbowed in the face looked up and Kyosuke could see the cloth mask was glistening with wetness. He came at Kyosuke again, anger and killing intent visible in his eyes. Kyosuke calmly dodged his attack, reversing their positions and putting both of his masked assailants on one side. The one who had been punched in the throat was standing up now, but seemed a little unsteady on his feet, so Kyosuke leapt forward and planted a knee in the man's stomach, successfully driving the air out of his lungs and knocking him unconscious.

The second one, with the broken nose, had removed a kunai from his hip pouch and attempted to stab Kyosuke. He bent backwards in time to miss the downward fall of the kunai, and then grabbed the outstretched arm and wrenched the elbow around, forcing him to drop the knife. Still holding the arm, Kyosuke flipped the man over onto his back and dropped his knee into his solar plexis, driving the air from his lungs, and then tapped him in both temples simultaneously. Kyosuke watched as his eyes fluttered closed and he lost consciousness.

He was just standing up when an arm soaked in blood from the wrist snaked around his neck from behind. Kyosuke instantly dropped his legs out from under him, pulling his attacker over the top and allowing Kyosuke to roll him over a shoulder. The enemy rolled through the flip and came up on both feet, facing Kyosuke. He made a series of handseals and his fists were hardened into stone, then he charged.

Acting on instinct, Kyosuke brought his right hand back, fingers splayed, and felt something come to life in his palm. Not having time to look at it, he brought it forward and tried to catch the enemy's punch in his hand. To his surprise there was a dark blue glowing orb in his hand, and when it met the stone fist flying towards him he heard a cracking, shattering sound. The orb faded away and the stone-fisted man had fallen to his knees, clutching the stump of his right arm. The orb had completely demolished his stone fist, and the man had not been able to maintain the jutsu through the pain of losing his hand. Driving a knee into his head, Kyosuke finally was able to bring a halt to his flurry of motion. He surveyed the three incapacitated men on the floor, wondering at how he had been able to defeat them—he had barely thought about any of his movements.

'What was that?' he questioned internally. Flipping his palms up he stared at them. 'What was that blue sphere in my hand—how did I do that?'

A scraping noise from behind him reminded him of Tayuya's fight. He whipped around and was surprised to see her bound and held with a kunai at her neck.

"Alright you," the last of the masked men spoke. "I don't know who you are, but you'd better surrender unless you want to see her get hurt."

Kyosuke narrowed his eyes. Without any thought at all a small bit of energy left him and he felt part of his attention, or maybe his consciousness, go with it, and he instantly saw why. He relaxed his stance and his voice. "Sorry, man. I don't even know her," he grinned and rubbed the back of his head. "She's just the girl who checked me in to this hotel. You can have her, I was just trying to get some sleep."

Tayuya's eyes widened in surprise and the masked man's eyes rounded in confusion just as one hand grasped the back of his head and another reached around his forehead. Before he could react, the two hands pulled apart, spinning his head around and snapping his neck. He fell bonelessly to the floor, releasing Tayuya from his grasp. There was a slight pop from behind her, signifying the exit of the shadow clone. She quickly unbound herself and grabbed Kyosuke's shoulder, who had walked over and was looking down at the single dead body in the room. The action caused him to snap his head and look Tayuya in the eyes.

The remorse in his eyes surprised her.

'Does he actually feel bad about killing that jerk-wad? Great, just my rotten stinking luck to get stuck with some sappy, overly sentimental bastard,' she groused internally. Outwardly she spoke softly but surely, "Come on, you idiot. We've gotta get out of here before more of them show up, unless you feel like snapping any more necks tonight."

Kyosuke shook his head as she let go of his shoulder and ran out of the room. He followed, stopping only to grab his hip pouch from the table. They ran up the stairs and to the roof, where they leapt from building to building out of the city. They continued to run once they got to the forest and didn't look back for even a second.