A/N: I'm so sorry it took so long, but the story went on strike! Anyway, it's back now, and I'm not nearly as disappointed with this chapter as I was with the last one. I actually kind of like parts of it again, and that's a huge relief to me. Guess I just needed to give it a break. Anyway, thank you to everyone who's being so very patient with me, especially: Rangerfan58, DarkRavie, iNsAnE nO bAkA, KakashiKrazed, Julieanna333, WhyMustIWrite, Hiya120, sadisticmasochistkitsune, ShiroLight and InARealPickle.
And just for anyone who doesn't know: a 'gopher' in my area can also refer to an errand runner because he has to "go-for" things.
All the way back in Konoha, a hesitant knock sounded on the Hokage's office doors. Heaving a sigh, Tsunade called for the knocker to enter, carefully hiding the irritation in her voice. And then she scowled. "Damnit, Shizune, what is it now? I'm doing the paperwork, what else do you want?!"
The younger woman hesitated, but then she lifted her chin and walked in with a very familiar dog on her heels. The Godaime raised one eyebrow. "Another of Hatake's mutts? What's going on now - is he requesting something else?"
"Well actually, he's asking us to have a seal specialist look at a diagram he re-created, but that's not what I wanted to talk to you about, Tsunade-sama. I think we may have a problem much bigger than - and possibly even related to - Umino-san's dissappearance."
Curious now, Tsunade gestured for her assistant to close the doors and take a seat while she moved aside some of the mounds of papers sitting on top of her desk. Once they were both settled, Tsunade folded her hands under her chin. "Alright, explain. Now."
Taking a deep breath, the younger medic reached into one of the many piles of papers and - unnerringly, the blonde noticed with a flash of irritation - pulled out a map of the Fire Country. The two women worked for an instant to spread the map out on the desktop, and then Shizune looked her mentor directly in the eye. "Hokage-sama, I believe that our field teams' updates are being intercepted."
Eyes narrowing, Tsunade released a long, slow breath. "And you have come to this conclusion... how?" Shizune pulled a small scroll out of one of her sleeve pockets, handing it over as she pointed out a specific stretch of the map.
"Initially, I didn't notice anything wrong. Most of the missions in that area are minor, not important enough to monitor closely. However, when Hatake-san's second report came in this morning, I realized that Team 8 had yet to report even arriving at their target location. Believing that there must have been a filing error, I began looking through reports received in the last two weeks. When I realized that there was nothing lately, I became concerned and looked farther back in time. What I found was..."
The younger woman twisted her sleeve in her fingers, clearly upset. "Tsunade-sama, the only reports we have received from this area in the past two and a half months are from Hatake-san, and I believe that we only received those because he sent them via his nin-dogs."
Tsunade reached out, wordlessly pulling a cord to signal one of the Chunin pair assigned to... be her errand boys, since she had forgotten their original purpose. Izumo quickly poked his head into the office, only to catch the scroll tossed at said body part. "Gopher, take that to Jiraiya, you'll probably find him near the women's baths."
The man ducked out, muttering under his breath. "Go for this, go for that... remind me again why we don't we assign Genin for this?" His partner just shrugged, not having an answer for that himself.
Until their leader's voice called out. "And Izumo, Kotetsu - gather the availible Jounin and ANBU while you're out." Straightening, the two men cast each other startled looks and then flashed out, much more serious than a moment before.
-
Kakashi searched throughout the town, but he could not find any trace of the child he sought. 'Oh, come on!' he thought, once again fighting the urge to grind his teeth in frustration. 'How hard can it be to find one little girl? I just saw her a few hours ago!' As he reached the outskirts of Janga, the glint of water caught his eye, and inspiration struck. 'Wait, she was watching me, so... could she know about that place? She only tried to approach me after I got back from there, so maybe...'
Now that he knew where it was, it only took the Jounin a few minutes to reach the hidden cave with the speeds at which he could travel. And surely enough, when he arrived, he found a dark haired girl standing in front of the entrance. He jumped down from the trees, mildly surprised that the girl was not startled by his sudden appearance.
The two studied each other for a long moment, Copy Ninja and preteen facing off. Finally, Kakashi broke the silence. "Officially, Umino doesn't have any sisters."
The girl gave him a reserved smile. "Officially. So, Kakashi-san, why aren't you helping Iruka-sensei?"
"I would if I knew where he is."
Kakashi felt something go still inside of him when his light words brought a horrified expression to the girl's face. "You mean... the Hokage hasn't gotten our reports?! Konoha doesn't know?!"
Suddenly, it wasn't Kakashi-the-slightly-perverted that the girl was facing, but Kakashi-the-former-ANBU. "Doesn't know what?"
-
Iruka walked quietly, working harder than ever to keep his anxiety hidden as the group moved beyond the point where they could hear the voices and hammer blows from the worksite. He struggled to keep his steps to the slow, unbalanced plod of a common working man when all of his instincts wanted him to move smoothly and silently, weight balanced to be able to react instantly.
However, while the men with him were not shinobi themselves, the leader of the group had spent enough time around the proffession that he would recognize the shift.
But it was hard; harder than anything else he'd done on this mission. The shinobi in him wanted to be ready to fight - the tactician in him knew to keep his cover. But most difficult of all was the teacher, the brother and substitute father in him - that was demanding that he run back and get his 'children' out of this place right now.
But he had to wait, and to trust in his Hokage and his comrades.
-
Under the trees bordering Kunruya, however, the fading light was not yet dim enough to hide the three Genin's startled expressions. Kurenia held up one slender hand, silencing her team as they all looked to the strange shinobi-like boy standing among them.
Shin, for his part, looked at them in barely consealed shock. "What do you mean, 'what report'? You... you really didn't read it?!"
Team 8's leader shook her head, never losing eye contact with the boy. "Not only did we not read it, we never got it in the first place. All we received was our comrade's report that something in this town was wrong and needed investigating. But if you have more information...?"
The boy blinked a few more times, but to his credit the teen pulled himself together almost immediately. "Alright, to put it breifly: nine weeks ago, a small band of shinobi - four visible, probably about Chunin rank from the descriptions we could get - showed up without warning and abducted a lot of the local children. They used more genjutsu then anything else, Sensei says it's probably because it scared the civilians without causing any actual damage that could be tracked."
Kurenia reminded herself to question the boy on this 'Sensei' later - right now the town was what was important, so she let him continue. "They raided the town two more times in three weeks, and then things were quiet for a few days. The people started getting restless, wanting to send messengers to Konoha and ask for help. That's when these guys started showing up. They hit three times in the last five weeks, pretending to be shinobi and scaring the people into being compliant."
By now, Kiba and Akamaru were growling softly, and even Shino's allies buzzed restlessly with their master's anger. Hinata was pale, but her fists were clenched at her sides. But all three held their tongues, allowing their teacher to speak for the team. "Shin, do you have any clues as to the fates of the stolen children?"
The boy hesitated, but he finally shrugged halfheartedly. "Yes, and no. We know that at least one of them is dead, probably two. Sensei left me here because he sent a report to Konoha - I was actually just supposed to brief you all on any further developments, but when you didn't reveal yourselves, I thought maybe you weren't the team I was waiting for. So I watched and waited."
Kurenai nodded. "An understandable precaution, especially if the enemy is impersonating shinobi."
With a rather professional nod, the teenager finished his report. "Regardless, Sensei traced the kidnappers to a town called Janga, and found a hidden seal written in blood believed to belong to at least one of the missing. He did his best to neutralize the seal - and yes, Hatake-san is aware of the seal, although he doesn't seem to know any more about it than I do - and left a comrade of mine to watch over the area. He's trying to track the kidnappers and gather information... but Kurenai-san, Sensei believes that there are Konoha shinobi on their way to back him up. He doesn't know he's in this on his own."
Finally breaking the Genin's silence, Kiba cursed.
-
Jiraiyas glanced up as the Chunin flashed himself onto the writer's front porch, mildly interested as to why Tsunade's errand boy was standing on his steps. When the younger man thrust a scroll into his hands, the blurted explination only made him even more interested. "Hokage-sama wants you to look at this, and then come see her. She's gathering Jounin and higher level shinobi." And the young man flashed out again.
Setting aside his... work... Jiraiya curiously opened the scroll. He glanced down at the diagram - and the Toad Sage of the Sannin paled.