Chapter 10: Paths that could have crossed.

Shizune was surprised when she went to Tsunade's office that morning. She found the hokage sitting at her desk, working through the paperwork on her desk with the curtains wide open. Shizune had smiled when Tsunade had asked her if she was just going to stand there or if she was going to help her. It seemed that their little talk the other day had finally caused her to snap out of her "condition" and resume her duties as hokage. Right now they were working through some old mission reports. Among them were some of the reports from Jiraiya that got Tsunade wondering what he was doing. He still hadn't returned from his last mission. She stopped wondering what he was doing though as she remembered the town he had gone to was famous for its hot springs. Tsunade sighed as she put yet another checked report onto a separate stack. She had almost forgotten what hard work it was to be hokage.

"Well that's the last of the mission reports." She said relieved as Shizune took the files to put them away. Then she looked around the office at all the other paper mountains that still had to be worked through. One thing was certain; she wasn't going to slack out on the paperwork for quite some time. Feeling hopeless she decided to work through the new mission requests that had come in. Helping out on a farm, finding someone's missing cat, helping out at the academy. None of these seemed to be serious, the genin could help to finish these in no time.

"This is going to be a long day…" She thought as she browsed through the requests and arranged them according to rank Most were D rank, but here and there a C or even a B rank came up. Even these didn't seem too difficult, mostly transport requests. As she was slowly flipping through the files one of them caught her eye. She sat up straight and started reading attentively through the file's pages.

"What does it say?" Shizune noticed that the file had caught the hokage's attention. Tsunade didn't answer her for a while as she read some more of the file's content. Looking up at Shizune her face was serious.

"Shizune, get me Kakashi." She ordered.

Shizune nodded. "Yes milady." She set off to find the masked sensei, wondering what could possibly be written in the file.

A while later:

Kakashi Hatake stepped into the office, placing the book he had been reading in his pocket. He was actually planning to take the afternoon off and go to the bookstore to see if they had any new, interesting books, but Shizune stopped him on the way. She told him the hokage had called for him and now here he was.

"You sent for me." He half said and half asked.

"There came a report from the Bara no tsubomi village. Apparently they were attacked after you had delivered the package." Tsunade told him, getting straight down to business.

"What?" Kakashi looked slightly shocked.

"From previous reports it seems whatever the package contained it could well be a threat to our village. If it happens that a rival village gains possession of it we could be in danger." She continued. "I'm assigning you to go back to that village and get the whole story. Report back as soon as possible."

"Will anybody be accompanying me?" He immediately understood the seriousness of this situation.

"No. You'll be going alone, it's faster that way. The sooner we know exactly what's going on, the better."

Kakashi nodded. Realizing that the hokage had nothing else to say he left the office and headed towards the village gates. Soon he was on the road, heading towards the Bara no tsubomi village once more. He didn't even know that his missing student was coming from the same direction.

Back in her office Tsunade rested her head on her hands. The day had definitely taken an interesting turn. Unfortunately she still had to finish the paperwork stacked all over the office. Sighing heavily she started working through the paper mountains again.

In the forest, half way between the Bara no tsubomi village and the hidden leaf village, Naruto, Bara and Arashi felt relived. They had finally set sight upon the Gake no aki mountain. They would reach it by nightfall and from there it won't take long for them to find their way to the leaf village. It felt like an eternity had gone past since their journey had begun, but it had only been about three weeks. As the sun set and a full moon slowly took its place in the night sky they came to a stop at the bottom of the cliff. The cliff stretched for miles, both to the north and the south. A few feet to their right there was a crack in the stone wall where the river flowed through.

"Not a long way to go now." The young leaf ninja said happily as he helped Bara to start a fire. He couldn't wait to get home, especially because he was tired of eating Gibonoshita root and other herbs. Sometimes he was sure he would die if he didn't eat a bowl of Ichiraku ramen soon.

"It's a really good thing that we are almost there. That arm of yours is worrying me." The girl said with some concern as she looked at her new friend's wounded limb. He hadn't complained about it, but she knew that the pain must be getting worse.

"Don't worry about me, I'm fine." He grinned.

"How about you Arashi? How's that paw doing?" She asked, sitting down next to the small campfire.

"I am fine." The large wolf made himself comfortable on the ground next to Bara.

"Hey, anybody else thirsty?" Naruto asked as he stood up and walked over to the river. As he knelt down for a drink something shined in his eyes. It appeared to be a piece of metal that had reflected the moonlight. Sticking his hand into the water he took it out.

"All right!" He yelled out as he realized what he was holding in his hand.

"What is it?" Bara asked curiously from where she was sitting.

"I found one of the kunai knives that I lost." He said happily as he placed the knife in his belt pouch. After having a drink he went to sit by the fire as well. It crackled peacefully and every now and then it sent tiny sparks into the air, like tiny launching rockets. It sure helped to have a warm fire on a night like this, Bara was glad that the ground had finally dried. Although she liked mud it was a lot nicer to be warm at night.

"I'm sure you'll be glad to see all your friends again." She thought out loud as she started poking a stick in the fire.

"Yeah, I can't wait to tell them all about our journey. Sasuke is going to be so jealous when he finds out, I'm sure he can't fight off two water ninja at once."

"Don't forget we helped." Bara reminded him. Arashi slowly nodded one of his heads in agreement.

"Of course I won't forget that. What, you think that I'll completely forget about all you've done to help?"

Bara giggled. "No, I was just worried that you would get a little carried away when you tell Sakura about how brave you are."

"Again with the Sakura stuff, haven't you gotten bored with that yet?" Naruto crossed his arms out of irritation.

"Nope"

"Sorry about my interruption, but whom is this Sakura?" Arashi asked.

"She's a girl from his village." Bara explained. The blond haired ninja nodded in agreement.

"Oh, I think I understand now." Arashi thought for a while. "Am I correct if I say she is your mate?"

"What, no! At least I don't think so." Naruto was shocked at the giant wolf's misunderstanding.

"Are you sure about that?" The girl teased him.

"Agh, I've had enough of this. I'm going to sleep." Naruto turned his back on Bara and Arashi and laid down. His small outburst caused Bara to laugh and made Arashi very confused.

"Don't worry about it." The girl said to her animal friend as she cuddled up next to him. Soon they were all asleep, excited that they would soon reach the village.

Somewhere, a few miles away, a person was getting ready for the self imposed mission she was about to take. Picking up the bag she had prepared for the journey and pulling the black mask over her face she turned around to look at the person she was doing this for one last time. She closed her eyes, promising herself that she would see him again. She forced herself to forget everything else and focus on the task at hand. Then she turned and disappeared into the night.