The Missing Hokage

07: Hokage for a Day


The group woke with the sunrise and, as he had for the past few days, Naruto summoned a group of horse-sized toads for them to ride on. During the ride, he was abnormally quiet and it was beginning to worry his traveling companions. They had been so busy recently that he'd hardly had time to actually give their situation any real thought. Now though, with nothing to do but ride until Tsunade decided they'd gone far enough that day, he could take the time to actually think about things.

After taking the time during their down time sailing between Fire Country and Sea Country to figure out why Tsunade, Shizune, and Hinata had agreed to leave with him it had taken Anko beating the idea into his head—literally—for him to realize that they actually cared about him. And while the boy could be dense or a bit of an idiot on occasion, he was nowhere near as stupid as his actions and attitude would lead one to believe. The problem was that he had little to no experience dealing with people, since the adults of Konoha had tried and for the most part succeeded in isolating him from the rest of the village.

By the time he'd gotten old enough to question it or try to fight back, it had been too late and the boy had nearly no idea how to interact with people. Latching onto Sakura—who, aside from Ino, was the most popular girl in their class at the time—had been an act of desperation in the hope that if he spent enough time around her eventually others would notice him as well. This was what had also triggered his acting out against the village that ignored him by trying to make himself impossible to ignore. He began pulling pranks and generally being loud and obnoxious, and when he had received his first orange outfit as an anonymous birthday present it had been the most perfect thing in the world for being noticed, being a solid bright orange that drew the eye like nothing else—that, and no one else in the village could claim to have a similar outfit, nor would they want to.

After time, acting and dressing like an idiot had become second nature to the boy. This did not help his studies any, which were already hindered by his inability to read nearly any of the material. It wasn't until Iruka became their sensei and started forcing Naruto to attend review sessions after class that he began to understand half of the things that were being discussed at the time. By then, it had been too late to fix anything and he had failed his first genin exam, bumping him down from the class with Team Gai and putting him in the class with Sasuke and the others for over a year and a half since the academy usually graduated genin before the end of the school term. That had stopped when he'd been moved down a class and Iruka decided the class wouldn't be ready in time for the usual genin exams and so had postponed them for six months—and his hunch had proved true when over half the class failed the the exams at the normal time that Iruka had let them take just to prove his point.

And now that Naruto finally had not one but several people who actually wanted him to learn something—and who weren't forced to fight him to make him learn it because he was too embarrassed and stubborn to have to review material he should have gotten earlier—he was finally able to start becoming a serious shinobi. Looking back on himself even as recently as the chuunin exam, Naruto realized that he'd been a joke at the time and if it weren't for Kyuubi—indirectly forcing his chakra reserves to surpass nearly everyone in their village and directly by allowing him to use its youki—he'd be dead several times over by now. And even that hadn't stopped Sasuke from going to Orochimaru out of a desire to avenge his family by killing his brother and a willingness to use any means necessary to get there.

And on the subject of the Uchiha, Naruto was a little lost. Surpassing Sasuke and showing everyone just how great he could be if given the chance had become his goal since being put on Team 7. Except that hadn't happened. Sasuke had always been one step ahead of him—even Sakura had been ahead of him where it really mattered. At the time, all he'd really had going for him was more chakra and more stamina than any of his teammates including Kakashi-sensei. And their cycloptic jonin-sensei had been pretty lazy about teaching them anything. Mostly their team went out and completed missions as 'team building' exercises, Kakashi more concerned with getting them to work together than improving their individual skills. The only time he had really taught them anything useful had been in Wave, and that had been because they were facing a potential rematch with Zabuza and Haku at the time.

During the chuunin exams, Kakashi had taken Sasuke to train him how to use his Sharingan and had handed Naruto off to Ebisu, who wanted nothing to do with the boy and would have ignored him if he hadn't been ordered to help by the old man. Jiraiya had taken over his training and the boy had learned more in the month before the final stage of the chuunin exam than he had in all the time since becoming a genin—no, even before that including most of his academy years where Iruka wasn't his sensei. But even the perverted sage had been a lazy ass about training—preferring to peek on naked girls and having to be constantly bribed with sexy no jutsu to convince him to focus his attention on training the blond for more than five minutes at a time. But now, he was traveling with a group of people who actually took their training seriously.

Tsunade was brilliant when it came to medical jutsu, even if she could be a bit absent-minded at times the woman knew her stuff and knew how to hold his attention long enough to teach it. Shizune was no less brilliant, having more book-knowledge just waiting to be taught so long as he asked the right questions. Anko was a godsend—in the short time since she had joined, she had given him more ideas for improving his lousy chakra control than he'd ever had. And she was no slouch when it came to taijutsu and general physical training either. Even Hinata had been more help than some of his past instructors—she had given him a new chakra control exercise and always patiently explained any of the material they were learning that he didn't understand.

Thinking of Hinata brought with it another whole set of problems that the boy didn't know how to handle at the moment. The girl was nice, way friendlier than Sakura had ever been at her nicest, and didn't get upset over every little thing he said or did. She was pretty too—even more so than he'd thought, having gotten a better look at her without the jacket she wore full time hiding everything from view. And while dealing with people as anything other than a happy-go-lucky idiot may not have been his strongest skill, the boy was neither stupid nor unobservant. He had recognized her last night as the girl he'd seen dancing on the water on his mission with Team 8—he had to admit that he was pretty dumb to have not realized it sooner—and that had lead to his inadvertent dive into their fire. Well, at least some good had come out of that.

It was that, Shizune's little hints, and Anko again literally beating the idea into his head that he had come to the realization that she liked him. Not just liked him as a friend, but actually liked him, maybe even loved him. And he didn't know how to respond to that. He'd never even known what love was until meeting Tsunade and Shizune and getting a small dose of it from them every now and then, but it was nothing like what he had seen from some of the couples around Konoha when they thought no one was watching—or just didn't care—and what he suspected Hinata wanted from him. He wouldn't know what to do with a girlfriend even if he had one. All that time spent asking Sakura out was mostly either for attention or out of habit. And then there was the fact that she knew about the fox—had known for some time, apparently—and didn't care. She saw him as Uzumaki Naruto, not as Kyuubi no Kitsune, not even as its jailer. Just Naruto. And that was perhaps the most wonderful, most frightening thing about her.

"You ok up there?" Anko asked from her position behind him. They were sharing a trio of toads since that was easier and less noticeable than half a dozen of the brightly colored animals jumping all over the forests of Fire Country. "You're being too quiet and it's beginning to worry some of us. We're starting to wonder if we should start expecting a prank soon."

"Nah, I'm not planning any pranks today," Naruto said, turning his head enough to shoot her and the rest of Team Hokage a grin. "I'm working on a secret jutsu."

"Oh really?" Anko asked, not buying it but willing to let the boy bullshit his way out of the situation. "What kind of jutsu?"

"The secret kind," Naruto answered, ducking the woman's half-hearted swat at his head.

"If we ride the rest of today instead of stopping to train, we can be in Otafuku Gai before lunch tomorrow," Tsunade called from her place on a toad behind Isaribi. "Do we keep going or stop?"

"Keep going, we'll just find a place to stay and kill time in town until we need to leave," Naruto called back, getting nods from Anko and Hinata.

"Well if that's the case, we're going to have to stop for a break soon. My bladder can't take too much more of this bouncing," Shizune said from behind Hinata on their own toad, getting a nod from the girl in front of her in agreement.


Several miles north-west of Team Hokage and much later in the day, Jiraiya was beginning to regret his decision to accept the position of Rokudaime Hokage. Looking out the window at his teammate's mostly-carved face on the monument, the sannin sighed out a breath of frustration. "What have you gotten me into this time hime?"

A few moments later, a knock on the door preceded Umino Iruka's entrance to the office. "You asked to see me, Hokage-sama?"

Jiraiya nodded. "I'll get right to the point. Frankly, I need help. This place is impossible to run by myself without running myself into the ground in the process. It happened to Sarutobi-sensei and it was happening to Tsunade before she left. Naruto trusts you—kid wouldn't shut up about you, actually—so I'm pretty sure I can too."

"You would like for me to take Shizune's place?" Iruka asked, getting a nod in answer. "I would be honored to."

"Great," Jiraiya grinned. "The first thing I'm going to do is try to take care of this bullshit some of the council have gotten into their heads about Naruto."

"You're going to try to lift the banishment?"

The sannin nodded. "I don't think they're going to go for it. That's where you come in. I need a message sent to the Daimyo and I can't go myself, so that leaves you. Danzou, Koharu, and Homura are ignoring several of the laws and are playing too fast and loose with Tsunade's orders separating her group from Konoha and Fire Country. I know they sent Anko out with orders to kill Naruto and my contacts tell me that they sent another operative out to kill whoever survived."

"They did what?" Iruka asked, worry and anger written on his face.

"Apparently she decided she liked her odds better with Tsunade's bunch than trying to come back here where the council could potentially order her own execution. Not that I blame her, to do otherwise would have been stupid." Pulling out a scroll, Jiraiya handed it to Iruka. "Enclosed are copies of Tsunade's orders and a few other odds and ends. It's sealed to only open under the Fire Lord's personal seal. I need those orders verified and I need you to get back here as soon as possible."

Taking the scroll, Iruka nodded. "Anything else?" Seeing Jiraiya shake his head, Iruka left the office and made his way home to pack for a journey to the capitol.

Thinking over his next move, Jiraiya signaled the ANBU in the room to his side. "Tenzou, I need you to do some house cleaning for me. I want Danzou's people out of my ANBU. Have a team of ten loyal ANBU ready by the time Iruka returns. We're going to need a show of force when those orders come back with the Fire Lord's seal on them and I've got a good idea of where to start. Before doing that though, Gai's team recently returned from a mission, right?" Getting a nod in answer, Jiraiya said, "Have them meet me here as soon as they can. I have a mission for them."

Half an hour later, Team Gai—minus Gai himself, as the jonin was still out on a separate mission—entered the Hokage's office. "Hokage-sama," the three saluted.

Jiraiya waved them off. "Cut that crap out. I've got a mission for you three," he said, causing the trio of teens to stand up straighter. "I want the three of you to head over to Otafuku Gai and keep an eye out for Tsunade's team. Word has it they may be heading back up this way and we know they've been there once, so they may return. You are to watch the town for Tsunade's group and make contact with them if they show up. Don't do anything to piss them off. Just let Tsunade know that I'm working on reversing the situation. If you can manage it, arrange for one of your team to stay with her group to act as a liaison to Konoha. Any questions?"

"Hokage-sama," Neji spoke quickly, "I, along with every active duty ninja of the Hyuuga clan, have been issued orders by Hiashi-sama that should we encounter Hinata we are to capture her and bring her back to Konoha and the clan—by force if necessary."

Jiraiya nodded. "Yeah, that goes against my own orders so ignore them. If Hiashi has a problem with it, tell him to take it up to me. Also, you are not to speak of this mission to anyone until you return and then only to myself unless I allow you to speak freely about it. If you manage to convince them to allow one of your team to tag along and someone here asks where they are, tell them that your teammate is on a mission assigned directly by the Hokage and speak no further of it. You guys understand?" he asked, getting a round of nods. "Ok, get going."

After Team Gai left, Jiraiya picked up one of the pictures still on the Hokage's desk from Sarutobi's last term in office. It was of Sarutobi and Naruto, the old man leaning over the boy, who was wearing his hat. Both were grinning at the camera. "What the hell were you thinking, letting it get this bad old man?" Jiraiya grumbled, placing the picture back on the desk. Standing, he cursed when he bumped the edge of the desk and sent the picture to the floor where the glass shattered and the picture came halfway out from the frame. "Shit," Jiraiya cursed, picking the frame and picture back up. A bit of writing on the back of the photo caught his eye and he turned it over to examine it more closely. "Hello," he mumbled, reading over the short coded message before placing the photo in his pocket and leaving the office.

Jiraiya made his way across Konoha until he reached the Sarutobi residence. Finding no one home, he walked in through the large home's front door. Once more looking over the photo to make sure he was decoding the message on it correctly, Jiraiya navigated through the house to Sarutobi's personal library. Under the fourth book from the right, on the fourth shelf down, he found a small key. On the opposite side of the room, hidden behind more books and a hidden panel in the wall, the sannin found a safe. Dialing in the combination, he inserted the key and turned it. The safe opened smoothly and Jiraiya found inside a large folder underneath a small box. Surprised that the place hadn't been raided by Danzou the moment Sarutobi died, Jiraiya had to assume that even the council and Danzou were wary of upsetting the village with rumors of a group of ninja under the control of someone other than the Hokage ransacking the Sarutobi family residence.

Taking out the folder and box, Jiraiya sat at the small desk tucked under a window in a corner of the room. Opening the box, he found a small scroll with a key ring tied to it. Pulling off the key ring and setting it aside, the sannin unrolled the scroll and began to read.

Jiraiya, this scroll contains my last orders to you as your Hokage, your sensei, and a request as your friend. As I am sure it will be you reading this since I have doubts that Tsunade will ever return to Konoha, especially not to take up the mantle of Hokage, I am entrusting Naruto to your care. As you are no doubt aware, Uzumaki Naruto is the son of Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina. Despite being away from Konoha at the time of his birth, I have a feeling you either already knew or suspected the truth of Naruto's parentage. After all, the boy is named for a character in one of your most popular books.

Contained in this scroll are directions on how to find and enter the Namikaze residence. If I am to die before Naruto reaches the age of majority, you are to use your own discretion in telling him of his heritage. I would have preferred to leave off on telling that for a few years yet, until he becomes stronger at least. Once word spreads that the son of the Yellow Flash is alive, we will no longer be able to guarantee his safety outside the walls of Konoha. However, should the council attempt to carry out the plans they have held for Naruto these many years—either to exile him from Konoha or have him put to death—you are to collect everything of value from the Namikaze residence and flee Konoha with Naruto. I fear that once I am gone, should you not move quickly even as formidable as the protections around that particular home are, Danzou will find a way inside given enough time. He can not be allowed access to Minato's techniques.

Train the boy as your apprentice, help him to understand Minato's techniques, and help him fulfill his dream of becoming the greatest Hokage this village has ever known. Do this for me, my student, and I will be able to rest easy.

The message ended there, and further to the side Jiraiya found the instructions for locating and entering the Namikaze residence. Reading it over twice just to be sure, Jiraiya shrugged before tucking the scroll into a pocket with the keys. Opening the folder, he smirked. Contained inside were transcripts of every council meeting to have taken place since Naruto's birth. Every attempt to bar the boy's progress or otherwise cut him off from the village by law was highlighted. Every last one of them had been shut down by Sarutobi before they could be made into law, but Sarutobi's own attempts to aid the boy had been vetoed by the council. Several instances where one clan or another—the Inuzuka and Hyuuga stood out the most—had tried to adopt the boy and had been denied by the council or the Hokage were also highlighted. Closing the folder, Jiraiya tucked that into his shirt as well and made his way out of Sarutobi's home.

Deciding to give the council one more chance before making his mind up about what to do about the situation, Jiraiya made his way back to the Hokage's office to ready his contingency plan in the event that they would not see reason. He found Yuuhi Kurenai waiting for him in one of the chairs outside the office. Seeing the serious look on her face as she stood to greet him, Jiraiya resisted the urge to leer at the woman. "Hokage-sama," Kurenai greeted with a short bow.

Jiraiya brushed past her and opened the door to the office, waving her inside. Closing the door, he waved for the ANBU in the corner to leave the room. Once he was sure they were alone, Jiraiya said, "Cut that crap out, would you? Makes me feel old every time I hear it." Unable to resist any longer, he did leer and added, "Well, except when coming from a beautiful flower such as yourself."

Kurenai rolled her eyes and took a seat across the desk from him. "I would like to request a mission," she said, getting right to business to avoid giving the older man further opportunities for his perversions.

"Let me guess," Jiraiya started, appearing to give the matter some thought, "you'd like to be permanently reassigned from your teaching duties to be poster-girl for Konoha?"

"No, Hokage-sama," Kurenai deadpanned, aware that he was baiting her but not in the mood to play games. "I would like to request that Team 8 be allowed to search for Tsunade-sama's group."

"I've already got Gai's team out trying to make contact with them. Besides, what would you do if you found them?" Jiraiya asked. Receiving no immediate response, he asked, "Try to retrieve the Hyuuga girl?" That got a nod. "Look, I know you're worried about your student but she's a tough kid, and she's with some pretty powerful friends. Besides, what would you do when you got her back—send her back the Hyuuga? You and I both know exactly what Hiashi has in mind in case that ever happens. He's already got half the clan out looking for her. He wants her back and he wants her branded with that seal. He needs to send a message to the rest of the clan that they can't just turn their backs on the Hyuuga."

"I know that," Kurenai grumbled. "What else am I supposed to do? In the short time since Tsunade-sama left, this place has begun falling apart. I loved this place once. I grew up here and Konoha has been home to me for as long as I can remember."

Jiraiya held up a hand, urging her to be silent for a moment. Pulling out ink, a brush, and a scroll he quickly scribed a seal onto the scroll and activated it, sending smaller copies of the seal spreading out across the room. "What's keeping you here?"

"I am a loyal shinobi of Konoha—" Kurenai started, only to be cut off as Jiraiya raised his hand for silence.

"Kurenai, I'm not questioning your loyalties." Seeing her relax some, he continued. "I want an honest answer: what is keeping you in Konoha?"

Kurenai gave the question honest consideration. She had no family left alive and the closest thing she had to a daughter or sibling was currently outside of the village and just a step above being a missing-nin. Of the friends she had, one had left Konoha and joined Tsunade's group, she hadn't spoken to another in nearly a year, and the last would probably want to stay with her family. She had no boyfriend, husband, or even a lover at the moment—she and Asuma were on another 'off again' phase of what barely even qualified as a relationship. The other two original members of Team 8 were nearing a point when she would be unable to teach them anything more without having them specialize in genjutsu, and from what she knew of the girl she didn't particularly like the newest member of Team 8 but had decided to be fair and actually try to teach the girl.

"I don't know," Kurenai answered slowly.

"What do you think about leaving some time in the future?"

Kurenai raised an eyebrow. "What are you suggesting?"

Jiraiya shrugged. "I'm going to give the council one more chance. If they agree to rescind the order banishing Naruto, then we'll see what happens from there. As you know, that's the only way Tsunade would ever come back. If they don't... well, I'm pretty sure there's room for one more Hokage in Tsunade's group. And I don't plan to half-ass any attempt at leaving this place like she did. If I go, I'm going to make sure this place falls down behind me."

"Would there be room for one more on this exodus?" Kurenai asked quietly.

Grinning, Jiraiya nodded. "Know someone who might want to tag along with a handsome young man while he makes his dashing escape from the jaws of oppression and tyranny?"

"Find me a handsome young man and I may know someone willing to follow," Kurenai laughed.

"Can you think of anyone else who might want to join our own merry little band of soon-to-be outcasts?"

"Perhaps," Kurenai answered thoughtfully. "How soon would you need an answer?"

"A couple of weeks, a month tops. I need time to prepare first and Tsunade left some unfinished business behind that I'd like to follow through on," Jiraiya answered.

"How many more people would you like to have?"

"As many as possible," Jiraiya answered. "Unfortunately, that isn't going to happen. It can't happen. We need to limit this to as few people as we can manage. I don't want the council getting wind of this until we're halfway to where ever we're going. If you're coming, I could use some help gathering stuff to take with us. We don't actually need to take anything now, but I'd like to have an idea of what we'll be carrying with us."

Kurenai nodded, standing. "I'll hold off on approaching anyone until you know for sure what's going to happen."

'That's fine. I'll clear your mission schedule until then. Maybe reassign you to strictly teaching duty for a while," Jiraiya said as she left his office. Placing his hand on the scroll he'd used to seal the room he applied chakra to it again, this time destroying the seals on the walls and on the scroll itself. A moment later, after Kurenai had left his office, a chuunin pushed a large cart covered in several boxes into the office. "What's all that?"

"The backlog of paperwork, Hokage-sama," the chuunin answered and quickly left the room so as to keep from being drafted into helping fill it out.

Taking one look at the stack of papers, Jiraiya laughed. "There is no way in hell I'm doing all of that."

When she stepped out of the tower/administration building, Kurenai saw that the sun was setting and it would soon be time for her to go to bed if she wanted to be up early to train with her team tomorrow. Deciding against putting in the effort to cook that night, she made her way into the business district of Konoha. The scent of ramen caught her nose and she followed it to a small stand not too far away. She brushed aside the curtains and took a seat on a stool just in time to catch the tail end of a conversation.

"Look, all I'm saying is that we should think about moving. I know you don't want to but this place just isn't the same without Naruto around," a brown-haired girl wearing an apron was telling an older man, who stood at the stove over several pots of ramen, getting them ready for the evening rush. She recognized the two immediately as Ichiraku Teuchi and Ayame. Noticing her other customer, Ayame blushed and hurried over. "Sorry about that. What can I get for you?"

"What would you suggest?" Kurenai asked, looking over the menu.

Beside her, a girl with long blond hair tied back into a pair of pony-tails answered. "Everything is good, but you should try either the miso or the beef today."

Kurenai nodded. "Miso it is then," she told Ayame before studying the girl a few stools down more closely. Something about the girl seemed familiar, just a little... off from what she felt she should be seeing. In addition, the girl moved like a ninja but wore no hitai-ate. She couldn't detect a henge or genjutsu being used either, or even any trace of chakra being used. As she finished what appeared to be her second bowl, something on the counter caught Kurenai's eye. "Where did you get that?" she asked, pointing towards a black coffee cup with a green leaf symbol on it.

"Like it? I picked it up earlier today," the girl answered, smiling.

Kurenai's eyes narrowed. "I'm sure you did. Except I know that cup. Anko tried to kill me when I put that chip in it," she said, pointing to the small piece broken off from around the lip of the cup.

The girl's grin widened, her eyes closing. "I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about."

Kurenai blinked, studying the girl's face more closely before blinking again. "Uzumaki?" she whispered, realizing what was off about the figure. She was expecting to see a trio of whisker marks on either cheek and they weren't present.

"Oh shit," the girl gasped, eyes going wide as she tried to bolt.

Kurenai's arm shot out and grabbed the other girl's forearm, pulling her back into her seat. "That is you, isn't it?"

"Careful!" the girl warned, jerking her hand away. "I'm delicate."

"Kage bunshin," Kurenai murmured, getting a nod in response.

"Anko is going to kill me," the girl—now identified as Naruto in his sexy no jutsu form—groaned. "She told me not to screw around. She told me not to get caught. And what did I do? I got caught. Shit."

Kurenai smiled, accepting her bowl from Ayame, who leaned against the counter between the two. "I'm surprised you didn't notice sooner, being a ninja and all," the girl smiled. "It was kind of obvious, the way he... she eats."

"Hey! What's wrong with the way I eat?"

"You eat like a pig," both women answered, causing the blond to nearly fall out of her seat.

"If you're here, where are the others? Where is Hinata?" Kurenai asked quickly, careful to keep her voice down.

Naruto shrugged. "Why should I tell you that? For all I know, you could be planning to attack us again."

"What do you mean?" Ayame asked in confusion, mirrored by Kurenai.

"You mean you don't know?" the blond asked. "About Anko?"

Kurenai's eyes narrowed. "We were told she left on a mission and went missing-nin to join you."

Naruto shook his/her head. "Nunuh. Council sent her to kill me. She didn't, obviously."

"Bastards," Ayame growled.

"What about—" Kurenai asked, only to be cut off.

"Hinata-chan is fine. They just set camp for the night a couple of hours ago. It's how I got here so fast. I was only about halfway here when they made camp. Anko got bored and started trying to teach me shunshin. Once I figured out the technique, I used that to get here."

"Shunshin should have taken you more than a couple of hours to learn," Kurenai pointed out in disbelief.

Another shake of her head met Kurenai's skepticism. "Only took me a couple of hours. It's kind of like kawarimi, except instead of using your chakra to switch yourself with something else and pull you across the space between you just sort of skip the first part."

"That's not how shunshin works," Kurenai pointed out. "It's a speed-enhancing technique used to enhance your natural speed. There is a bastardized version like the one you're talking about, but it's much harder to learn and perform. Most jonin only use it in emergencies if they know it since it requires so much chakra."

Naruto shrugged. "It's what Anko taught me how to do. It's pretty easy too. Well, I need to go. Anko will kill me if I don't get this thing to her in one piece soon," the blond yawned, putting down some money for the meal. Kurenai watched as the blond vanished. A moment later, the girl reappeared and rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment. "Oops. Forgot this," she mumbled, grabbing the cup and taking off again.

"So," Kurenai said quietly once she'd gotten over the blond's exits. "What were you saying about moving?" And though she had been distracted by the boy's reappearance in the village and his flashy exits, a question lingered in the back of her mind. She knew, absolutely knew he was using henge the entire time. The question was, why couldn't she detect the chakra use to hold up the technique?

Henge was a simple illusion, but even so simple a technique required a constant—if small—amount of chakra to maintain. And henge as anything but an illusion wouldn't make any sense—the technique would be too complicated, require too much research and precise control to pull off, not to mention the chakra demands required for something so complex. Sure, the Akimichi had their family techniques to alter body mass but—for the most part—they were altering their bodies proportionally to the desired expansion. That, and it took years to develop such techniques, which is why they tended to stay within the clans that created them and were not released into the general ninja population. And then there were the rumors that someone on Team 7 had transformed into a fuuma shuriken during Team 7's initial encounter with Momochi Zabuza during their mission to wave... Shaking her head, Kurenai put those thoughts aside for the moment. The answers wouldn't come until she'd had a chance to ask the boy herself anyway.

And elsewhere, between Konoha and Otafuku Gai, Team Gai called a halt to their run. "Set up camp or keep going?" Neji asked.

"We should show Jiraiya-sama that our flames of youth burn brightly by running all the way to Otafuku Gai!" Lee shouted, getting a set of matching glares from Tenten and Neji.

"Camp," Tenten answered simply. She was tired, dirty, and hadn't had a chance to relax good from their last mission before being put on this one. Well, at least they were going to track down the kunoichi she'd viewed as an inspiration to all kunoichi since joining the academy.

Neji nodded in agreement before activating his Byakugan and searching the area they were in to make sure it would be secure for the night. "I will take first watch. Lee, second. Tenten, third."

Nodding her agreement, Tenten unsealed her sleeping bag and passed out on top of it almost immediately, not even bothering to eat. Lee shook his head at his teammates' unyouthful actions before pulling out his own bedroll and settling down for sleep. It was some time later when Neji activated his Byakugan again for one last sweep before waking Lee when a speck of light caught his eye. Narrowing his eyes, he focused his vision further out. His eyes widened when he realized that it was not a light, but a chakra signature rapidly approaching their position. Realizing he wouldn't have time to wake his teammates, Neji pulled out a kunai and prepared for battle. A moment later, someone passed by overhead at an obscene speed Neji had only ever seen from Lee and their sensei, leaving a slowly fading trail of chakra in their wake. He blinked when he realized he recognized the figure rapidly leaving his field of vision.

"Lee, Tenten, get up!" Neji called out, already throwing on his pack.

"What is it? Where's the fire?" Tenten asked blearily, quickly resealing her bag as she noticed Neji making preparations to break camp.

"Uzumaki just ran by. We need to go now, before he gets too far away. The trail's already fading."

"What trail?" Lee asked, confused but going along with his teammates as they jumped into the trees following Neji's lead.

Popping a soldier pill, Neji focused on following the path. It seemed to be following a straight line directly towards Otafuku Gai. "He's using some kind of speed technique I've never seen before and it's leaving a chakra trail. If we follow—"

"We might catch up to Tsunade-sama and the others," Tenten nodded, waking up quickly. "Are you going to be ok to run the rest of the way?"

"I'll be fine for now. We can rest when we get there."

"Yosh! Let us—"

"SHUT UP Lee!" Tenten growled, throwing a kunai blunt-end first at her green-spandex clad teammate, silencing him. "It's too early in the morning for that."

"Sorry," Lee whimpered. "I'll be good," the boy promised, inwardly apologizing to Gai-sensei for letting the kunoichi on their team outshine his own flames of youth, even if she only did so on a few days out of every month.


Author's Notes: Not quite where I want this story to be yet, but rushing it will ruin the whole thing. Also, thanks to Perfect Lionheart for giving this story his official stamp of approval. If you haven't read his stuff, go do so now. I can hold off on putting out the next chapter until you get finished with that if you like.