Disclaimer: I own neither Harry Potter, or Naruto. Any characters you recognize, I did not create, but any you don't, well then I take complete credit for those.

Warnings: mentions of death, fluff, OOC'ness, OC'ness, Gen.

Home Is Where The Heart Is

Shou giggled as Minobu scratched his nose and left a white mark from his flour covered hands. Once they gathered the ingredients, Minobu had offered to help Shou make the peach buns. Together they burst into the kitchen and in the process left a large mess.

"Well, I think that's the dough done," Minobu stated with a relieved sigh.

"I'm almost done the filling. Are you sure about this?" Shou asked.

"Yes yes," Minobu said with a wave of his hand. "I figure it will be just like making steamed meat buns. We just replace the filling and try to shape the bun into a peach like … shape," Minobu explained as best as he could. Shou knew he wasn't completely sure, but it was a better starting place than working with a bread recipe from Europe.

"I'll trust you," Shou stated simply, happy to have someone there to help him figure this out. "Do you cook with your mother?" Shou asked to get a conversation going. Minobu's face fell, and Shou instantly regretted his questions.

"No… my parents died when I was young. This isn't a safe place where we live after all… but I grew up with my uncle. He taught me many things, like how to enjoy the finer things in life…" Minobu trailed off and looked down at his slightly worn clothes, "-not that I've taken that lesson quite to heart, and among other things was how to make great meat buns." Minobu effortlessly diverted the conversation. Shou laughed quietly at Minobu's little bit of rebellion as the boy continued on. "Making meat buns can be considered an art you know. It takes a lot of time and patience in order to find the way to make a perfect meat bun."

Shou mentally gave a sigh of relief. He didn't like talking about his parents so he wasn't going to push someone to talk about their dead parents either. It was only common courtesy after all. But it seemed that while it still looked to hurt Minobu to mention them, he was still able to keep his upbeat personality and clear away any awkwardness. "Well let's put those perfect meat bun making techniques to work. What's next chef?" Shou asked, going along with his friend's game.

Minobu laughed. "First we need to cover the dough and let it rest and rise. After that we will split it into portions and let it rise again. So until then, how is your filling coming?" Minobu expertly wrapped the dough and set it aside.

Shou glanced down at his bowl and tried to push it aside. It hadn't turned out quite like he imagined. Minobu wasn't having any of that though, and reached around Shou's body and pulled the bowl back into view. A white, lumpy, watery mess met his sights and Shou flushed in shame.

"I don't know what happened," Shou quickly blurted out. "I boiled the lotus seeds like the merchant said and then took them out of the water and tried to ground them into a paste but they were so hard, so I boiled them some more, but they were still hard, so I tried grinding them with water and…well this happened."

Minobu gave him a kind smile. "These are your buns, who says you need to include lotus paste? How about we go back to the market and pick up some fruit and make a filling from that. It just needs to be sweet and delicious right? We can also try red bean paste."

Shou beamed at the older boy. "Peaches? Can we buy peaches and make these real peach buns?"

Minobu chuckled and turned away. "Sure. I don't know why peach buns excluded peaches to begin with anyways. Now let's go quickly. We need to prepare the filling as the dough rises."

Shou scampered off to his room to grab the money Neji left him for food and was by the front door in no time, ready to go and urging Minobu to hurry up.

o.O.o

"This is everything we know about the current situation, and our one and only lead. Should I go back to Konoha or do we send a message asking for information and keep investigating?" Kiba asked.

Neji sighed and rubbed his temples. "I don't know. I don't see how these two events connect. A young man has been paying off the villages, which is a fact. We are looking for a young man, with a large bag of money. The only grievance we can find between the villages is that instance when Gato controlled the East village, and the other two villages did nothing to help, even when they knew they needed assistance and that people were dying. But Gato is dead and he is the only one with enough money to pull something like this off that would have a problem with the townspeople. They have to be connected somehow but I don't see it because Gato is dead."

"Did he have an apprentice or something?" Kiba asked picking theories from the air.

"I don't know. We know nothing about Gato besides what we learned from Naruto. If he did have an apprentice, why now? Why after so many years did he return and target these three villages?" Neji asked out loud. He really didn't expect an answer, Kiba knew as much as he did, which was next to nothing.

"We won't know until we find more clues." Kiba pointed out.

Neji sighed again. "Which we won't find easily because the townspeople are hardly going to cooperate with us. There has to be something else we can do."

Kiba made a humming noise, and leaned against a tree. They were in a clearing that was perfectly positioned between all the villages including the one they were residing in. Depending on their next course of action they were able to travel to any single one village quickly.

"I think I like the 'go in, kill, and get out' missions more than these mystery ones," Kiba whined.

Neji scoffed. "Same, but I rather do these missions instead of staking our village's reputation on someone else who could be less competent than me. Even you're a better partner on this mission than someone like…" Neji cast around for a name. "Konohamaru or Lee. Neither is good at picking up the small details and you have matured to the point where you don't burst into the scene with kunai flying before asking questions."

"Thanks?" Kiba didn't know if he should take that as a compliment or not. But now he felt a small pressure on his shoulders, telling him to think of something to prove to the Hyuuga that he was useful and worthy of the praise 'being better than Lee'. "We could retrieve Akamaru," Kiba suggested. "We still have the stolen coins; maybe he can track the scent."

"I thought we vetoed that idea because of all the different scents," Neji pointed out. They attempted to try it before but the money had changed hands so many times that Akamaru had just been walking in circles.

"I was thinking about that, but the villages hardly interact now right? What if we steal money from the other two and see if Akamaru can find a similar scent between them and follow that. The culprit has to have handled all the money so his scent should be left over."

Neji stared at the Inuzuka, wondering if this was really the same boy who used to fart on flowers and present them to girls while laughing. They do say that with age comes wisdom, and the Inuzuka had been very helpful of late, so maybe he shouldn't be too surprised. "I think it's worth trying."

Kiba pushed himself off the tree and stretched his back muscles. "Okay, I'll get the East village you get the west, and then meet at the house for dinner with Shou. Oh…I bet he made something delicious for dinner too," Kiba said as his eyes glazed over slightly at the thought of Shou's cooking.

"Just steal the money quickly and get back. I don't want to hear about another accident," Neji reminded the younger man.

"Stop your complaining. I bet I can steal the money and get back before you," challenged Kiba.

Neji scoffed. "Not likely Inuzuka. I'll win." Neji jump into the trees and took off, flying across the branches to reach his destination. He wouldn't lose to an Inuzuka.

o.O.o

Shou cheered as he bit into a peach bun. The managed to make several fruit filling, and moulded the dough into the corresponding fruit shape. They had steamed them for 10 minutes, let them sit for a few minutes so they wouldn't lose their shape and took them out to marvel at a job well done.

"These are delicious," praised Minobu. "You did a very good job."

"No, these were all you. You made the dough and helped with the filling. You deserve all the credit," Shou responded.

Minobu smiled. "How about we both equally share in our victory, okay?"

Shou agreed, and happily finished off the delicious bun. It really was lovely, and he couldn't wait for Neji and Kiba to try them. He would see which fruit filling would work best to blend with the elixir and then he would distribute them to the village. He would do it carefully though, he didn't want to raise any suspicion, and he wanted to make sure there were no negative side effects.

"So do you have the dough recipe memorized or should I show you again?" Minobu asked.

"I got it, but be on standby just in case," Shou answered already reaching for an apple bun.

"I'm sure you'll be fine. I should get going soon though," Minobu said as he sighed. "It's getting late."

Shou glanced at the clock and frowned, it was getting quite late and he would need to start dinner soon. "Would you like to stay to eat? I don't think Neji or Kiba would mind."

Minobu laughed. "Kiba? The one with the short brown hair from last time?" Shou nodded. "I think he would mind. He didn't seem happy with me last time I was here."

Shou lightly swatted his friends shoulder in punishment. "That was because he thought you were eating his treats."

Minobu laughed again and shook his head in amusement. "I don't think that was why he was upset. But I'll stop by tomorrow and you can tell me how they liked the buns. Maybe I'll bring beef so we can make meat buns too."

Shou reluctantly agreed. He didn't want to send his friend away without food, but if Minobu insisted that he couldn't stop him from leaving. "I'll be working the lunch shift tomorrow, so can you come after that?"

"I'll wait for you in your garden," Minobu assured him. With their plan confirmed, Minobu left and Shou was left looking at counter wondering what he was going to make.

o.O.o

Later, when Neji and Kiba had returned, the two shinobi waited until Shou was asleep before speaking about their mission. They wanted to keep the young boy as far removed from the situation as possible. Shou wasn't cut out for the ninja life-style and they would never put him in a dangerous situation if they could help it.

"I sent the letter to Konoha earlier on my way to the west village," Neji informed his teammate.

Kiba nodded. "Should we wait for word or go out tonight and search for the culprit?"

"It's risky because we don't know how dangerous our opponent is. I would like to wait for more information but I don't see Konoha having anything that can help. Team 7 didn't exactly sit down and have tea with the man before his death and Zabuza is in no position to talk," Neji explained.

Kiba sighed heavily and snatched a bun off the counter and fiercely bit into it. "This is frustrating," he said around a mouthful.

"Since there is so much we don't know, what we can do is find where he is staying and set up surveillance,"Neji suggested. "The most important thing is finding him."

"Well there's no time like the present," Kiba stated between bites. "Let's go find our bad guy."

Neji nodded, but before leaving he stopped by Shou's room to make sure the young boy was still sleeping. Sure enough Shou was curled up sleeping peacefully, sharing a pillow with Cubbi. Reassured that his charge was safe, Neji walked outside to see Kiba holding three coins up for Akamaru to smell.

"Maybe we should wait until we reach a village first and see if he can trace the culprit from there," Neji threw out.

"Right," Kiba answered as he closed his fist around the coins. Akamaru whined and pawed the ground. Kiba frowned at his partner.

"What's wrong?"

"I'm not sure," Kiba answered. "But we need to go. We might be able to surprise him while he's sleeping or something."

Neji agreed and they set off. They didn't say anything as they travelled, too focused on finding this moneybags and putting an end to his games. The only things awake this late were the two shinobi, the ninja dog, and the stray owl that flew over them.

Did You Know That…

"Morsmorde" is the command that makes the Dark Mark (the mark of Voldemort) appear and means "take a bite out of death" in French, making it an appropriate call for Death Eaters.

And Now You Know…