I grabbed a blanket off of the bed in my bedroom and covered the small shivering boy with it. He sat in the recliner in front of the fireplace, his expression was twisted in the form of a worried one as he shook. I tried countless times to wake him, but he never woke up. I sighed as I placed a warm cloth on his forehead.

Shoru looked like he was having a bad dream rather than him being knocked out completely. It looked like they knocked him out with genjutsu instead of doing it the old fashioned way like they did with Rubia. He tossed and turned as he shook, but never woke up.

But if this was a genjutsu, I had already tried to release it three times now. Whatever they did, It isn't normal genjutsu. It went a lot deeper than that.

I sighed as I stood up and looked at the time. 5:56 a.m. Great. I thought. It would be time for me to go to the shop for my first day of work soon. I really did not want to leave Shoru here alone, but if I kept him in my room, I'm sure he'd be alright. I just hoped he wouldn't wake up before I got back. Besides, I'd take a few breaks to come and check up on him.

I went in the bathroom to take a look at myself. I was a little tired from not having slept any last night, but it was no big deal. I've been on countless missions where I haven't slept for days and if that weren't enough, I also had three kids who were once babies that woke you up in the middle of the night…that should be training enough.

While in the bathroom though, I examined the wound on my forearm from the enemy ninja last night. It was all bandaged up, blood staining the bandages. Although it wasn't a serious wound, it was deep. I had spent a good amount of time trying to stop the bleeding last night, and not only that, but the needle that got me was filled with poison. Luckily not much and it wasn't a serious type of poison, so I was able to cut open the wound and get it out with ease. It stung a little, but nothing I couldn't handle. I changed the bandages to clean ones and undressed to get in the shower.

As I took a hot shower and ate a hot breakfast, the time to go to the ramen shop had arrived quicker than I thought. I laid Shoru in my room with a fresh warm cloth, formed into Hideo, and I was out the door in no time. I turned and locked the door behind me, only to be disrupted by a voice from behind.

"Sir?" a fragile voice came from behind me. I turned to see a little elderly lady outside the gate of my condo. She was very small and white haired, she held a cat in her arms as she looked at me with squinted eyes. "Young man?

I turned full attention to her. "Do you need something?"

"Well, I was just wondering if you know anything about what happened last night." she replied as she stroked her cats head. The cat purred at the gesture.

"Excuse me?" I asked acting as if I had no idea what she was talking about.

"Some young man took on a couple of ninja that were in our village last night," she explained. "do you know anything else about that?"

"No." I answered back simply. "who was it?"

"No one saw the young mans face," she said in a worried tone. "I wonder if he's after the village…" her facial expression was formed into a frightened face.

"I can assure you that if he was fighting enemy ninja in the village, he was trying to protect it rather than take it over." I said obviously referring to myself.

"I don't know," she said back as she stroked her cat again. "the police corps found a ninja in the ground this morning. His insides were all torn up!" she exclaimed. "that young man must have had a serious punch." she almost shivered.

I wanted to roll my eyes. No way a punch could tear someone's insides to pieces, it was obviously the chidori. But apparently no one saw the fight last night, which was a good thing. That meant people wouldn't be trying to investigate on Hideo. "He must have." I agreed anyway.

"But you know what the ninja was?" she asked as I began walking down the steps.

"What?"

"He was a rain ninja," she confirmed at the information I already knew. "a ninja from our own village…they must have been trying to fight that young man off, but lost."

"Or maybe the rain ninja turned on the village," I said as I walked towards her. "maybe the young man is the hero here."

"That is impossible." she shook her head. "our ninja have never betrayed their own village." she said as she looked down at her cat. "I don't know what happened, but I hope they catch that young man. I've made it far in my life, I don't want it to end just yet with a crazy kid running around…"

I sighed. "I hope they catch him too."

"Young man?"

"Yeah?"

"Be careful around here." she said as I walked through the gate. She looked up at me, I was much taller than her. "The village isn't what it used to be."

"What do you mean?"

"It used to be real peaceful around here. But I don't know. Now, there seems like theres too many secrets. Like everyone has something to hide. Your new to these parts, right? I've never seen you in all my time living here."

"I am new." I confirmed.

"Watch your back. This world is getting more and more dangerous every time someone steps out their doors. There's way too many people sneaking around these days. You understand?" she said as her hand started to shake while she continued to pet her cat.

"I understand." I said analyzing what she had said. So, even some of the villagers are noticing a little sneaking around…

"Have you a fine day. Don't work too hard." she said informally as she turned and continued her walk. I watched her walk down the sidewalk slowly for a moment as she held her cat securely to her. When she had walked some distance, I turned and began walking in the opposite direction.

As I walked, I thought about what she had said. Way too many people sneaking around these days. so some of the villagers must be noticing now. Of course, none of them probably looked too much into it, in fear that they might find something out that they didn't want to. However, that was quite the opposite with me. It was my mission, yes, but even so I was still curious as to what people were sneaking about.

And not only that, I had a little girl and a teenager out there somewhere in trouble. I had no idea where to look and time was an issue. I so badly needed to get answers from Shoru, but I was in a tight spot. And what if he didn't even know anything? Then I had nothing to go by.

I just hoped they were both still alive.

Shaking that horrible thought out of my mind, I tired to stay positive. They wouldn't kill them, right? Kiyomi seemed like she had valuable information. Well…for me anyway. I had no idea about them. I didn't even know why they wanted to kill her.

But I couldn't wait and find out until after she was dead.

But what could I do? I had to wait for a opening. I didn't have the first clue as to where they could be…

"Hideo?" a feminine voice called. This caused me to lose my train of thought completely as I looked in the direction to where the voice was coming from. I saw a blond haired girl and automatically recognized her to be Mesma.

"Mesma." I said plainly. "I was on my way to the shop."

"Oh, well we can walk together. I was on my way too." she smiled. She walked up and we began walking together. "How was your night?" she asked trying to start small talk with me.

"It was fine." I lied. "very relaxing."

"Well that's good." she said cheerily. "Mine was a bit rough."

"Why is that?"

Mesma avoided eye contact at my question. She touched her bottom lip with her tongue slightly and grabbed her left elbow with her right. "I couldn't sleep." she said plainly.

"Sleep problems, huh?" I asked acting as if I bought her obvious lie. "how long has that been going on?"

"I think it really started happening when I moved here," Mesma said looking back at me. "This place just isn't…"

"Isn't what?"

"Isn't…home." she said looking away again. I raised my eyebrow slightly to her, but didn't say anything to her comment.

"I see."

"I'm originally from the hidden mist village." Mesma smiled. "its my home there."

"Interesting," I said as I walked. I remembered fighting Zabuza when I first became a genin. That was so long ago.

"You think so? I learned how to do a little fighting there. I even became a genin." Mesma smiled bigger.

"Why did you leave?" I asked.

"I had to," she said. "my mother died there. There were too many memories for me. So I came here."

"I'm sorry to hear that." I said in the most sincere tone I could.

"Don't be." Mesma slapped her hand in the air. "she's in a better place."

"Yeah, I guess so." I said. For a few minutes we walked in silence. It was…awkward even. Finally I looked at her again and cleared my throat to fill up the silence. "so did you hear about what happened last night?"

"What do you mean?" Mesma asked, her eyes full of curiously yet…secrets as well.

"Apparently ninja attacked. One of them was found in the ground, his insides were all torn up. A lot of people have been talking about it." I explained.

"Wow…no…I, erm, didn't hear about that." she said biting her lip and looking away again. She was lying. Completely obvious.

"Kiyomi is missing…" my eyebrows narrowed. "you didn't hear anything?"

"Missing?" Mesma faked a surprise emotion. "Oh my gosh…no. I didn't know that…"

"So is Rubia. I wonder why…" I trailed off. Mesma didn't speak for a good few seconds and she touched her index finger to her bottom lip. She walked in a different way now and her eyes wondered everywhere except to me. These were obvious signs that she was hiding something. "Mesma?"

"She probably pissed someone off." Mesma crossed her arms as she said angrily. "she's real good at that."

"What?" I asked unbelievably. "How can you say that?"

"You must not know her too well…" Mesma rolled her eyes. "Anyway, I'm sure she's fine. She's probably not even missing, she's just hiding somewhere because shes scared…"

"Why would she be scared?"

"Because shes scared of everything…" Mesma rolled her eyes again. "And Rubia…well, shes a kid. She probably got lost in the woods or something. She'll be back."

"I doubt that, Mesma." I looked at her angrily. "Their really missing. The police corps have been looking everywhere."

"Well obviously not," Mesma said as she stopped. "If they looked everywhere they would have found them."

"Why are you being so hateful?" I asked coldly. "I know you and Kiyomi have some weird relationship, but don't you think you should be considerate that a teenage girl and a child are in danger?"

"I feel bad for Rubia. Rubia is innocent." Mesma said simply. "But Kiyomi…you don't know her. And she knows way too many things…whatever happens to Kiyomi, will be way too good for her. She's not who you think she is."

"How bad could she possibly be?" I asked looking into Mesma's eyes. They were filled with dread and despise towards Kiyomi.

"She knows way too much. Too much that could ruin everything." Mesmas eyebrows lowered.

"Ruin what? What's everything?"

"Nothing." Mesma turned. "Let's go. We're late." she began walking away to the ramen shop that was only a few feet in front of us.