(A/N) Thank you all again for the great reviews, especially Rosedove, nightwind83, sultryvoice, gio08, hinatamyqueen, and cespericueta35 for the repeat reviews.
Some responses to questions/comments I've received:
Sasuke will be in this story, but not until closer to the end
Yes, Konohamaru & Co. are a necessary component of the story. I enjoy exploring the build up of romantic tension and thus it was necessary to use Konohamaru to break it up at the end of Chapter 10 Note that I don't believe Konohamaru actually thinks he has a chance with Hinata – it is just a child's crush. I like featuring his and Naruto's competitive/brotherly relationship to insert humor.
Disclaimer – I do not own Naruto or any of its characters
CHAPTER ELEVEN – THE HUNT
Naruto bared his sharp canines as he yawned hugely while he stumbled around his room, trying to find clothes to throw on. Faint blue light was shining through his windows and birds could be heard beginning their morning chorus. Why was he up at the butt crack of dawn? Because someone was banging on his door, that's why.
"I'm coming, I'm COMING, Kami..." Naruto growled as he heard the loud thumps at his door for the fourth time. He shivered as he passed by his window and felt a draft of cold autumn air. He hoped whoever it was was prepared for the fight of their lives for making him get out of his warm bed at this hour.
He stalked to his door and wrenched it open. His angry complaints died in his throat when he saw the ANBU shinobi in front of him. He/she had on a rabbit mask.
"Er... what do you want?" he queried rudely, frowning at the black ops nin.
The ANBU handed him a scroll. "Uzumaki Naruto. You have been summoned to the Hokage's office. The Hokage wishes to assign you a new mission, and you are to report to her immediately." it said in a deep male voice, thus Naruto felt he could assume it was a man.
Naruto tiredly took the scroll from the ANBU and opened it. One to two-week assignment... C-rank, with potential for upgrade to B-rank... must leave immediately.
"Humph, fine. Do I really have to go now? Tell her I'll come after I eat-"
"Immediately, Uzumaki." the ANBU replied in a monotonous tone. Without another word, it body-flickered away.
Naruto glared at the spot where he had stood and shut his door not too lightly. He grumbled about annoying old grannies under his breath as he made his way to freshen up in the bathroom.
Steam rose to the ceiling and clouded the bathroom mirror as he stepped into the shower. He sighed as the hot water hit his scalp and ran down his neck and back, which felt so good as his apartment was starting to get cold in the mornings. Damn rundown building and its terrible insulation.
He reached lazily for his soap and washcloth and began to lather up, doing his chest and armpits. He paused as he lifted his arm and noted it didn't hurt to lift it so high anymore.
"A hot bath helps as well..."
It was impossible to count the number of times he had thought about Hinata since their spar a couple of days back. The mere thought of her brought both chills and hot flashes at the same time. He found himself smiling for no apparent reason. He checked himself out more in the mirror before he left the house, just to make sure he looked good. It was so ridiculous that he even felt disappointed that the soreness from her Gentle Fist attack was gone, as the ache had reminded him of their amazing match, and afterwards when she had touched him so carefully.
He began to rinse off. It just felt so crazy, to be suddenly into this girl who prior to this summer he barely thought about. That couldn't be how it worked, right? You can't just suddenly be into someone like that. What he had with Sakura was real. They had gone through hell and back together in their years on Team 7. He had liked her since the Academy. Sakura knew him the best out of all the kunoichi in Konoha.
But these emotions he was having for Hinata had kicked out any thoughts related to Sakura. Now when he ate with Sakura it was only by coincidence, not because he had sought her out. He barely gave Sakura a second thought in his mind, whereas he literally couldn't go longer than ten minutes without thinking about Hinata.
He felt guilty. Guilty that he wasn't being loyal to Sakura in his mind, guilty that his body was betraying him. It was true, Sakura wasn't his girlfriend, he wasn't tied to her in any way. But he had made up his mind long ago that he would win Sakura over someday, and he felt like he was giving up on himself as well as on her.
But it felt so damn good to think about Hinata, he couldn't help it! And in the shower he wondered - maybe he should just give in to these feelings. Maybe he just had to let them run their course, like a flu virus. He was just infatuated, after all. If it wasn't true love then it wouldn't last.
He tilted his head up to let water run down his face and closed his eyes, letting forbidden images flood his mind. His favorite scene so far had become the visual of her holding onto him at the end of the spar: lavender eyes looking deep into his, lips parted, chest rising and falling rapidly so close to his hand armed with his Rasengan.
And the sweat running down her neck. Kami, if things had been different... Naruto bit his bottom lip. He would have licked that trail of sweat from her jaw down to that beautiful pulse point on her neck and sucked all the saltiness away from her perfect skin. They would have fallen to the ground, him on top, and he would continue past her neck to her collarbone and pull aside her clothing to nip at her shoulder.
He felt another part of him down below begin to awaken, a feeling that had become all too familiar lately.
It wouldn't take much for him to rip the front of her tank and mesh shirt so that he could continue even further, arriving at her supple breasts. Like in his dream he would kiss and lick and drag his teeth all over them. His arousal grew into a throbbing ache, and he slowly slipped a hand down to grip his rock-hard member.
He began to pump as he thought of her silky soft fingertips trailing down his arms as he attacked her magnificent breasts. He would be looking to do one thing, the thing that he wished had happened in his dream. He would pull down her garments and finally get to see those nipples that he had been craving to taste.
His mouth practically watered thinking about them and he pumped faster, groaning at the thought of one of her nipples popping out from her shirt. In his mind it was the most perfect shade of pink, and it would be hard, begging to be sucked. He would lap at it, tickle and tease it with the tip of his tongue. He would close his lips around it and suck hard as if he were trying to draw out milk. He would gently nip at it with his teeth. He'd swirl his tongue around it, starting from her areola and working his way to the center, and suck on it again for good measure.
His breathing hitched as his cock throbbed in his hand and a wave of pleasure ran through him as he began to feel a delicious tension building. His legs began to tremble as her sweet moans rang in his ears, and he braced himself against the tiled wall with his free hand. The thought that he should stop flew through his mind briefly but it was too late, and he let out a guttural moan as he came, bucking his hips. Cum ran over his hand and quickly got washed away by the flowing water.
He shakily straightened, reeling from his latest orgasm. It wasn't the first time he had fantasized about her since the spar. Each time he touched himself he couldn't stop until he finished. To his mind it felt wrong (imagine if Hinata knew what he thought about?) but to his body it felt oh so right. But maybe if he just gave in to it for now eventually he would get over it, although currently he felt like that would be next to impossible.
He sighed and washed himself off once more before shutting off the shower. He would have to pack some things into a scroll or two if he was to leave for two weeks. A sense of dread overtook him. Missions were usually a source of excitement to him. He was a shinobi, and going on missions is what shinobi do! He loved what he was and what he did. But all he could think about now was that it may be two weeks until he could see Hinata again.
Naruto ran down the hallway leading to Tsunade's office. Genma and Raidou were the Jonin guarding the Office of the Hokage that day.
"Hey, Naruto!" Genma smiled and nodded his head in greeting as Naruto approached. Naruto grinned back.
"Yo Genma! Raidou! Is she mad at me?"
Raidou chuckled. "Only a little bit. You're lucky she had her tea already."
Naruto sighed and nodded knowingly, fist bumping them both before turning the doorknob and entering. The first thing he saw was the spiky white hair of Kakashi, who turned to regard him with his usual aloof look.
"Yo, Kakashi-sensei!" he exclaimed. He stepped into the room and turned his head to see Shikamaru and Sai.
"About time, Sleeping Beauty." Shikamaru drawled. Naruto smirked and threw an arm around his shoulder. "Just trying to look good for you, my dear." Shikamaru scoffed and shoved him away.
"Sleeping Beauty? His nickname is Dickless, Shikamaru, remember?" said Sai, smiling vaguely at Naruto. Shikamaru snorted as a vein bulged on Naruto's forehead.
"Hey Sai, I didn't know you liked knuckle sandwiches so early in the morning." he threatened, raising a fist to get his point across.
"Naruto, I have half a mind to throw you out the window for your lateness. When I say immediately I mean immediately." He cringed at the tone of Tsunade's voice. She was sitting at her desk, sipping tea from a small ceramic cup. He knew for a fact that the tea was spiked with sake, having learned the hard way when he had once tried some to refresh himself after spending hours in her office working on reports.
"Whoops sorry Baa-cha-I mean Hokage-sama!" he responded quickly. He walked up to her desk with a hand thrown behind his head and a goofball smile. "What did I miss?"
The Fifth Hokage eyed him exasperatedly before taking another long sip of tea and dragged an open scroll on her desk towards herself to read over the mission report.
"We need you four to head out and investigate several missing person cases that have been happening in numerous towns and villages in the Northeastern region of Fire Country. Usually we leave non-Konoha missing person cases to local authorities to handle, but an unusual number of individuals have gone missing in a relatively short span of time. It could be likely that these cases are connected in some way. We have received numerous requests for assistance from a few of the towns with the biggest numbers of victims and so I've decided to send you all out to determine if there is a need for a more in depth investigation. If you run into any criminals connected with the case, you should aim to detain them and ascertain whether the victims are still alive, and where they are being hidden."
Shikamaru crossed his arms. "Which towns should we be visiting?"
"You should try Yasuda, Bincho and Katsuya. These are the towns with the most missing cases."
"How many people have gone missing?" asked Sai.
Tsunade looked down at her report. "Five in Yasuda, four in Bincho, and eight in Katsuya. But in total, there have been around thirty-two missing individuals reported in the last three weeks."
The room was quiet as they absorbed that information. Naruto frowned deeply. Thirty-two people gone in only three weeks?
"And no witnesses?" Kakashi asked, his one visible eye looking hard at Tsunade. She shook her head.
"None, or no one has come forward. Perhaps by the time you reach the towns the authorities will have found a few. It is a bit chaotic out there as you can probably imagine. People are becoming scared." The shinobi in the room nodded solemnly.
Kakashi crossed his arms. "All of those towns are near Nobu. I'm assuming this is why you called us specifically?"
Tsunade gave him a lopsided smile. "Nothing gets past you, eh Kakashi? I did in fact select you four for a reason. You all are more familiar with the area after the stolen scroll mission in Nobu, and I am hoping that helps make your work easier. Also..." Tsunade frowned as she poured more tea for herself. "I am slightly concerned as to whether there is any connection between the Nobu mission and this missing person mission. I don't have any evidence yet but... strange things have been going on in that area for a while, and I want to ensure we have accounted for all of the possibilities."
Kakashi nodded. "A wise decision. I have been wondering the same thing." Tsunade looked up at Kakashi and smiled. As Hokage she had come to rely on Kakashi many a time for his counsel and took his suggestions very seriously.
Naruto blinked and stepped closer. "Shouldn't Guy's team also come? They went with us to Nobu."
Tsunade shook her head. "Guy is out on another mission and isn't around to lead Team 8. I also don't want to send out too many people this time as we are a bit strained on resources. Since your mission could potentially turn hairy I don't want to put more than one team out there."
Naruto huffed and crossed his arms. "Team 8 would be able to help if we have to fight! Hinata is the best water release ninja in the Leaf! She can create enormous waves and-"
"No!" Tsunade barked. "I agree with you Naruto but for now we will keep the group lean. That is my decision." Naruto scowled and turned his head to glare out the window.
Kakashi turned to the Hokage. "Alright, so we will be off then. I will send word if any interesting developments take place." Tsunade nodded curtly, and the team saluted her before they departed from the office.
On the second floor of the Academy, one indigo-haired kunoichi was clearing her desk for the day and packing away her things into her small backpack. It had been a good day. Her students had scored high marks on their last exam, so she had brought cinnamon rolls for snack time as a reward. She smiled as she thought about Konohamaru and Udon fighting over the last cinnamon roll, only to deflate as Moegi had stealthily crept behind them and taken the last one for herself. Of course, when they complained to Hinata about it she just pointed out that it was their fault for not staying aware of their surroundings, a cardinal rule in her classroom, and that stopped their whining quickly.
She giggled quietly to herself and slung her bag over her shoulder as she prepared to make her way out. Just as she was turning off the lights, she heard footsteps approaching from down the hallway. She turned to see that it was Sakura walking towards her, her pink hair brushing lightly against her shoulders as she moved. Sakura smiled and waved in greeting.
"Hey Hinata! I knew I'd find you here!"
Hinata smiled back. "Hi Sakura, it's nice to see you." she responded cheerfully. Sakura was easily her best female friend. They had gotten closer over the last few years, especially as they began to pursue their respective interests in medicine and teaching. Sakura's afternoon shift break would often coincide with the end of the school day, and they had bonded over many shared afternoon lunches after they had discovered they both loved the same café.
"Same! Are you busy? I wanted to ask you something." Hinata shook her head. "No, I just finished up in the classroom, would you like to walk and talk?"
Sakura smiled and nodded and they headed down the hallway to the Academy exit together.
After chatting briefly to catch up on each other's lives, Sakura got back to her question.
"So Hinata, I'm sure you remember that Naruto's birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks." Sakura started, smiling at the tinge of pink that appeared on Hinata's face at the mention of his name.
"Y-yes, I remember." Did she remember? It was the first thing she marked on her calendar every time she bought a new planner.
"Great! Well, since this is the first birthday he will have in Konoha since he left three years ago, and since it will be his twentieth birthday, I wanted to plan a surprise party for him." Sakura continued. Hinata's face broke into a smile.
"Oh, what a good idea! He would love that!" she agreed excitedly. Sakura grinned.
"Oh yeah, that knucklehead sure will love it. I have a few ideas and I wanted to know if you would be able to help me." Sakura continued.
"Of course! What do you have in mind?" Hinata asked.
Sakura clasped her hands behind her back. "Well, this is Naruto we are talking about, Konoha's number one prankster. He may be an idiot, but he can smell a prank from miles away. We really need to make him believe that nothing is amiss, but I also want to have a teeny bit of fun with him too. I know that he will try to look for us on his birthday, but we need him to be distracted while we set up the event space soo…" Sakura glanced at Hinata with a mischievous smirk.
"Would you be able to distract him for just a few hours that day until we are ready to surprise him?"
Hinata blinked and her blush intensified. "M-me? But…why me?" Sakura giggled.
"Because Ino and I will have to do things to set up. I may also ask Lee and Choji to help as well. I could ask one of the other guys but…" she smirked evilly. "Which guy wouldn't want to spend their birthday with the prettiest girl in Konoha?" Hinata was so red it was a wonder smoke wasn't coming out of her ears.
"Besides…" Sakura continued. "I know you would love to have that job, am I right?" Sakura's grin was triumphant as she watched Hinata struggle to respond.
"Oh...I…well…I'd be happy to help…if that's what you want-"
She jumped when Sakura clapped her hands together.
"Perfect! Well I'm glad that's decided. Luckily Naruto is out for the next couple of weeks anyways so I can get a lot of the work done without him butting his nosy face into everything."
Hinata's ears perked up at that last statement. "Oh, he is out on a mission?"
Sakura nodded. "Yeah, I overheard Tsunade-sama ordering her ANBU to go pick up Naruto and Sai so she could assign them a new mission. They most likely left this morning."
Hinata nodded silently to herself, feeling disappointment at the thought that she wouldn't be running into Naruto for a little while. She was getting used to seeing him so much these days. She was over the moon with how much progress she had made in her burgeoning friendship with him. She had replayed their spar countless times in her mind, and each time just the memories themselves made her heart pound. It was becoming a struggle to remind herself not to get overly excited about the increased interaction with her and Naruto. Eating dinner, going to the beach with friends, sparring – these are all things Naruto would do with any of his friends. She was not special in any sort of way. She should just be grateful that Naruto was beginning to consider her as a friend too.
Sakura said something else, but she had been too deep in her own thoughts to hear her.
"I'm sorry Sakura, what did you say?"
Sakura looked at her with a smile. "I asked if you already know what you'll be giving him as a present."
Hinata's eyes widened. Of course she would want to give him something! But, they only recently became friends. Would it be strange for her to give him a present?
"No, I haven't thought about it yet… do you think… I should give him something?" she asked timidly. Sakura raised an eyebrow.
"Uh, yeah? Naruto would love to get something from you. It doesn't have to be anything fancy. Honestly, if you gave him a box of instant ramen he would probably worship the ground you walked on." she said with a laugh. Hinata giggled at how true that statement was and nodded slowly.
"Okay then. I guess I have time to think of something." she said softly, her mind already whirring. She was so thankful that Sakura had given her a two-week heads up.
"Alright! Thanks so much Hinata! I have to run now, but I'll find you later this week once I figure out more details for the party. We can talk about it over some dango!"
Hinata smiled and said goodbye to the Hokage's apprentice. As she continued on her way her stomach tingled with nerves. How would she distract Naruto long enough for the party to be set up? What on Earth could she give him? The only time she had ever given him something was during the Chuunin exams when she had shyly given him her homemade medical ointment.
She wrinkled her nose. She couldn't give him ointment for his twentieth birthday!
Hinata looked up at the overcast sky and took a deep breath to try and calm her fluttering heart.
A week into the mission, Naruto and his team were wrapping up their time in Yasuda. They had flown to Katsuya first, as it was obvious that they should target the place with the largest number of disappearances. But once they arrived they learned finding the missing persons or even finding the perpetrators would not be as straightforward of a task as they had thought. Kakashi summoned Pakkun's team every day to sniff the clothes of the victims and track their scents in the last places the victims had been seen. To the group's frustration each search ended the same way their search for the missing scroll had - the victims' scent trails just suddenly stopped at random points.
They eventually decided to move to Yasuda, hoping to get lucky, but so far it had just been more of the same. There wasn't even a pattern in the kinds of victims that were taken. There were the young and the old, the rich and the poor, men and women. They disappeared at various times in the day and night, in various places inside and outside the town. Every single one of their scent trails ended in dead ends.
They partnered with local authorities to try and hunt down eye witnesses, but amazingly they couldn't find one in neither Katsuya nor Yasuda. All the relatives and friends of the victims had the same story: their loved ones were supposed to be going about their days as usual, but one day they just never came home from work, or never showed up in class.
While Naruto was the one infamous for his impatience, by the end of the week the entire team was close to pulling their hair out. For the first time, Naruto found out what a pug looked like when it was irritated.
That morning, after a rough night of patrol, Shikamaru voiced his opinion while they recovered over coffee and food in the inn the local Yasuda authorities had offered as their base.
"I think we have enough information to report to the Hokage with. There is reason enough to believe the vast majority of these cases are related somehow. How is it possible that every single one has led to a dead end without a trace for Pakkun's dogs to pick up? I don't think it is likely that a bunch of separate kidnappers or murderers could all have used the same method to take people. Not everyone considers the possibility of being hunted down by ninja. I say we go home to report and then the Hokage can determine whether or not we should continue to be involved. For now this is a wild goose chase."
Naruto bristled. "No! How can we just leave without catching even one bad guy? If we were able to find just one of the missing people they could tell us who did it!"
Shikamaru shrugged. "We don't need to necessarily find out who is doing it. We have enough to say the mission is complete."
Kakashi responded before Naruto could retort. "You make sense, Shikamaru. I say it is safe to make the assumption that many if not all of these cases are related. We could go home now and feel comfortable knowing that we have completed our task. However…" He held up a hand to quell Naruto's inevitable angry protests. "I also agree with Naruto that we should cover as many bases as we can while we can. It is clear the ones who took these people are very good at covering their tracks somehow, and have knowledge of some types of concealment jutsus that could throw off even my dogs. But there may be a chance that just one of them didn't properly clean up the crime scene, and that could be the missing puzzle piece. So I say we head for Bincho to try a bit more before heading back."
Naruto beamed at Kakashi for seeing things his way and felt a renewed sense of purpose as he jumped from his seat at their dining table and punched a fist into the air.
"Alright! Let's go to Bincho!"
Shikamaru sighed and poured more coffee. "I'll go as long as Naruto doesn't yell like that again until at least noon."
Bincho was the smallest town out of the three they planned to visit. The moment they stepped into the main square they could practically feel the tense atmosphere weighing them down. It seemed almost deserted as they walked slowly to the local police department, but Naruto could feel the chakras of people emanating from inside the surrounding buildings, and he glimpsed suspicious eyes peeking out at them from shuttered windows. It appeared the fear of being the next person to go missing pervaded the minds of Bincho's residents.
It definitely wasn't their favorite destination, but everyone was hoping that if they were to find something fishy, it would almost definitely be here.
Two days passed and it was still the same story. Dead ends and no witnesses. On the morning of the third day, they set out to find the trail of the fourth and last Bincho victim.
Pakkun's team tiredly sniffed the shirt of the young twenty-something year old man and began to spread out to find a solid trail. They had to split up, so Naruto and Kakashi went with one group while Shikamaru and Sai went with the other.
Naruto and Kakashi followed closely behind Pakkun and a couple of his canine friends. They were taken down an empty road and around the corner behind some type of warehouse. The two Leaf ninjas followed the dogs, which were beginning to slow down, a familiar sign that they were nearing the end of the trail. The dogs crowded around a large dumpster and began to sniff along the edges, growling and yapping at each other. Kakashi quickly lifted the top of the dumpster to peer inside, but it was empty.
He let the metal top slam shut and crossed his arms. "Well, seems like another dead-end." Naruto groaned and kicked a rock on the ground in frustration. It went flying past the dumpster and tumbled down to the end of the warehouse wall. Naruto had watched the rock and made to turn away when suddenly he stopped as he glimpsed a flash of movement around the corner of the warehouse. He opened his mouth, but Kakashi already had a kunai in his hand and gave a signal to stay silent. They climbed up to the roof of the warehouse and crept over to the other side to see who was around the corner. Down below, an old man shrouded in rags huddled in between some shrubs.
Kakashi and Naruto channeled chakra to their feet and stealthily walked down the wall. As they approached they heard the man mumbling unintelligibly under his breath.
After communicating with some quick hand signals, Naruto crept closer to the man and rapidly seized him by the shoulders to hold him in place. The man let out a surprised yelp and began to struggle, but froze when Kakashi dropped into a squat in front of him.
"Get away from me, you vile things! Spawn of the Devil! Evil spirits!" the man howled in crazed anger before redoubling his efforts to escape. Naruto raised his eyebrows as he kept his grip on the old man, who was surprisingly strong despite the fact he felt very frail underneath all his layers.
"Calm down, sir. We would just like to ask a few questions." said Kakashi in his usual aloof tone. He had decided ten seconds ago that the man was a civilian, and very likely a homeless, mostly insane civilian at that, and had already stowed away his kunai.
The man continued to jerk away from Naruto. "No! I will not come with you! I will not end up like the others! You cannot take me to the Underworld!"
Naruto and Kakashi glanced at each other. The others?
"Sir, we are not evil spirits. We are ninja looking for the people who have been going missing these last few weeks. Have you ever seen any of these people?" Kakashi held up sketches of the victims' faces in front of the man, who was beginning to tire out. The man glared at him for a moment, but the expression faded to one of fear as his greyish eyes settled on one photo.
He shakily raised a finger and pointed it at one of the pictures. "They took him to hell." he spat. The photo in question was of the man they were currently searching for. Naruto's heartbeat quickened.
Kakashi inched closer to the man, his visible eye looking at him hard.
"Who took him?" demanded Kakashi. The man's crazed eyes flicked to look at him once more, his tongue darting out to lick his lips nervously.
"Demons, I said!" he hissed. Kakashi cocked his head slowly.
"Describe what they looked like. Now."
The man's eyes flashed in fear and shifted around as if to try and see if anyone was coming. Naruto tightened his grip and shook him once, and the man growled.
"Big, nasty things. Tall as hell. Faces white like death. Quieter than mice."
"Where did you see them with the man in the picture?" pressed Kakashi.
The man let go of a wheezy laugh. "Right where you just were. They had him possessed. He had been out in the cold in the dead of night so long he was blue in the face, snot running down his nose. Only Kami knows how long he had been standing there. Then they came to take him. Didn't put up a fight or nothing."
"Where did they go?" Naruto blurted, about to burst with the need to finally solve this mystery.
"To hell." The man said simply. Naruto shook him again roughly.
"Around there!" the man growled harshly, pointing around the corner with a bonelike finger. "They pulled aside the dumpster and created a hole to the Underworld."
Kakashi promptly stood back up and nodded at Naruto. "Let's go Naruto. Bring him with you." Naruto nodded and prodded at the man, who had gone back to mumbling under his breath, to make him rise.
The three rounded the corner to approach the dumpster, where Pakkun and his team were idly scratching themselves.
Kakashi indicated for Naruto to come help him and they began to push the dumpster to the side, the homeless man being watched by the dogs. After a bit of effort they finally pushed the dumpster far enough to fully reveal the hidden patch of wall behind. It was lighter than the rest of the wall around it, but save for a few pieces of trash that had gotten stuck over time behind the dumpster, there was no gaping hole leading to hell.
Naruto groaned and struck the dumpster with the side of his fist in frustration. He turned on his heel ready to march over to the man and shake him until he told the truth when Kakashi stopped him.
"Hold on Naruto, come take a look at this."
Naruto turned back with an eyebrow raised. Kakashi was squatting in front of the wall and rapping it in random spots with his knuckles. He continued for a moment until he stopped and began to run through a series of hand seals. Naruto frowned and walked closer.
Kakashi finally stopped and passed a hand over the wall in front of him.
Suddenly, strange writing on the wall sprang into existence in fiery red lettering. Naruto stared at the writing in disbelief and tried to read it, but it disappeared almost as quickly as it came. Kakashi hummed to himself and ran through his hand seals again. The writing just appeared and disappeared too quickly for Naruto to fully decipher.
"It's…some kind of seal, right?" Naruto asked, squinting at the blank wall as if the answer would reveal itself.
Kakashi hummed again. "Yup, a portal seal, in fact. A very strong one at that. Someone came by here and created a temporary door to another place, and then closed it with this seal. The old man isn't lying." Kakashi stayed still for a moment.
"Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto prodded, itching to know more. Kakashi sighed.
"This is a really rare jutsu. The characters on the wall are in an ancient tongue. I've heard of this being done but I've never seen it before. This is…most peculiar."
After a moment's deliberation, he started executing hand seals once more. Once finished, he slapped his hand against the wall.
"Open!" he commanded. The bricks suddenly began to pop loose from the wall, crumbling to the ground in a dusty heap. A gaping hole big enough for a grown man to crawl through was revealed.
Immediately, Pakkun and his dogs rushed forward, yelping and growling as they began to furiously sniff the entrance to the hole. Kakashi stood and backed up. The man stared at the hole with fearful eyes and collapsed to the ground, pointing shakily at the hole and shouting curses. Naruto crept slowly behind, a hand on his kunai just in case, as they waited for the dust to clear.
One of the dogs plunged into the warehouse, and Pakkun muttered to Kakashi and Naruto to wait for his canine comrade's signal. Shortly thereafter, the dog returned, and communicated its findings to Pakkun in a series of growls.
Pakkun turned to Kakashi. "No one is inside, but the portal site smells strongly of the victim's scent. He was here. And he wasn't alone."
Pakkun turned to point at something at the bottom of the hole with his nose. Kakashi and Naruto walked forward and stooped down to see.
Naruto frowned and cocked his head at what he was looking at. Kakashi reached down and picked some of it up, rubbing it between his fingers.
"Is it the same?" Kakashi asked in a low voice. Pakkun nodded.
"Yes. We are absolutely sure. The scent is unmistakable."
"The same as wha-" Naruto started, but stopped as he looked down at the grey substance scattered around the bottom of the portal and finally remembered where he had seen this before.
Pearl eyes illuminated by candlelight.
"It doesn't look natural, but it doesn't look man-made either."
"Whoa…does this mean…"
Kakashi promptly rose. "We can go back now. We found what we needed. Good work, Pakkun." Pakkun snorted and blinked slowly. In a poof, the dogs were gone. Kakashi reached into his pouch and pulled out a small flare. He released it above their heads, the red sparks crackling out a message to the rest of their team.
As the sparks faded away, Naruto frowned as he processed the discovery. He stared deep into the dark opening in the warehouse, wondering how finding a new piece in the puzzle only served to make this whole thing even more mysterious.
Hinata walked briskly down the forest trail to the lake and zipped up her hoodie a bit more as a chilly breeze picked up. Fallen tree branches and rocks littered the path in front of her, but she stepped over them with the ease that came from walking this road innumerable times before. Her eyes were trained on the ground, but her mind was far away from the present moment.
Something that isn't fancy…something that he would actually use…
Hinata groaned out loud in frustration. There was only one week left to go before Naruto's birthday, and she still couldn't think of what to give him! She had spent every afternoon after classes were done scouting potential gifts in the shops, but nothing seemed to be right. She initially thought a nice hat or sweater for the upcoming winter months, but everything seemed expensive and she didn't want him to feel uncomfortable about the amount of money she had spent. She could make it more personal and attempt to knit him something, but it may seem weird to him that she had put so much effort into it (and what if he didn't like it?). Plus, she didn't think she could knit something in one week.
Then she had thought perhaps it could be something for his apartment. She had looked at home decorations and kitchen supplies, but upon thinking back to their breakfast she remembered Naruto kept his place relatively simple, albeit a bit messy, and didn't really care much for cooking. Plus, who wanted pots and pans on their birthday?
She had a minor breakthrough when she had smacked her head realizing it should be something ninja-related. Naruto took his ninja training and his goal of becoming Hokage very seriously, so what could be better than something to help him get one step closer?
But still nothing seemed right. New kunai and shuriken was one easy answer. But that just seemed so…boring! And she was almost sure that some others at the party will have the same idea for their own birthday gifts.
New shinobi clothing? Ninjas were very particular when it came to what they chose to wear during missions, and she didn't want to purchase something he wouldn't feel comfortable in.
She wanted it to be something unique, something thoughtful, something he would use, something only she would give him.
The forest was thinning as she approached the lake and Hinata flitted her eyes up to view the deep blue water not too far ahead. She sighed heavily as she accepted that another day was to pass by before she could secure Naruto's gift. She would think hard about it tomorrow. She recalled what Sakura said about getting him a box of ramen, and she shook her head rapidly. She'd be damned if she actually resorted to giving him that as a gift!
The wind rustled the leaves in the trees and created a fizzling noise that reverberated around the lake when she arrived at the sandy shore. Hinata set down her bag and went through the usual routine of unsealing the fans. She stepped out onto the water and strode towards the center of the lake, her footsteps sending out tiny ripples. A quick set of hand seals forced a small island of earth to rise to her chosen spot in the lake, and she stepped onto her self-made platform.
She began to run through sets of water bending exercises, sets that she had created for herself. They helped get her mind off the frustrating topic of Naruto's present. She breathed deeply as she manipulated one of her water whips with her fans, and the splashing sounds of her efforts echoed throughout the lake.
She eventually moved on to experimenting with the weapon aspect of her fans. After creating a few pillars of earth in random spots in front of her, she practiced throwing the fans so that they curved around the pillars. She chose random targets that required her to throw the fans in this way to hit them. She had been pleased with how she had taken out Naruto's clones with this trick, and decided to perfect her level of control and the amount of distance she could attain.
Usually the fans always returned as long as something didn't prevent them from returning – thus was the magic of the seals embedded within the fans. However, they seemed to be experiencing some difficulty due to the high winds coursing over the surface of the lake.
Hinata tried to train despite the wind, thinking it would be good practice to train in difficult weather conditions. But the wind was picking up and it was getting harder and harder to control the direction of the fans.
She decided to practice a few more throws before calling it quits. On her first throw, the fan was so off course on its return that she had to leap into the air to catch it before it went flying over her head.
On the second, the wind gusted so hard that the fan angled sharply to the side and drove a deep groove into one of the earth pillars. Hinata caught it and raised an eyebrow as she squinted at the very noticeable wound in the pillar and examined her fan. Although the blades rimming the fan were sharp enough to slice through flesh, they weren't made to cut through solid earth.
Hinata frowned and decided to test something. She waited for the wind to pick up again, and when it did, she threw the fan hard against the direction the wind was blowing. For a couple of seconds, the fan stayed on course. Suddenly, the wind intensified, and the fan quickly curved backwards and shot straight at one of the earth pillars. Hinata snapped her head to keep her eyes on the fan, which was traveling faster than Hinata had ever seen it go before.
The fan made a clink sound as it swiftly embedded itself in the pillar, nearly shaving off a piece of it. Hinata leaped over and climbed up the pillar using chakra in her hands and feet to retrieve the fan, and had to yank hard a few times for it to come out. Luckily the fan wasn't damaged.
Hinata dropped down to the lake's surface and looked at her fans for a moment, before looking up at the treetops by the shore, which were swaying to and fro in the high winds.
The wind made the fans even stronger… she noted to herself. An image of Naruto's shredded training post from the other day popped into her mind, and her thoughts drifted back to their spar. Naruto's Rasengan was easily the strongest weapon he had. Yet the sensei in her recognized that it still had some disadvantages. In particular, Naruto could currently only use it as a close combat weapon.
It would be better if he could throw it, she mused. She looked down to study the fans again.
Then, like a bolt of lightning, it came to her.
Hinata's head snapped up and her mouth gaped open as an idea rapidly began to form in her mind. She slowly began to walk forward, her pace quickly turning into a sprint as she raced back to shore. Sliding to a halt by her bag, she unzipped it roughly to pull out her notebook and a pencil, and promptly plopped onto the sand. She flipped to a blank page and began to write, her breathing becoming shallow as her mind concentrated on transferring her thoughts to paper as fast as they were stacking up in her mind.
As she wrote and erased and wrote some more, a smile grew gradually on her face, and her lavender eyes twinkled with excitement.
"Alright! We are finally back!" Naruto yelled above the rushing wind. Kakashi's team could finally see the sprawling urban center of Konoha from their spots high in the air on Sai's ink birds. All in all, their mission was technically a success. Their task had been to investigate, not to solve, and thus the one key piece of evidence they had found in Bincho saved them from coming back empty-handed. However, all had been frustrated (with the exception of Sai – did he ever feel strongly about anything?) as they had felt helpless as grieving parents and spouses and friends of the missing had begged for them to help find their loved ones. Naruto hated having to let down so many people, but the only way to help them would be for Tsunade to send them back with a direct order to track down the missing persons.
The concept that there could be a direct link to the missing persons mission and the missing scroll mission was huge, and they had spent most of their flight home chatting about potential explanations. The need to figure out where the grey dust was coming from was urgent now, and Kakashi was itching to get home as quickly as possible to push the science lab to come up with an answer.
For now, everyone was looking forward to a hot shower and food and bed, and the rest of the team chuckled as Naruto whooped for joy while they worked to land by the main gates.
They didn't know that Naruto wasn't just looking forward to a good night's rest and food.
On the way to the Hokage's office, Naruto's eyes zoomed around looking for a glimpse of indigo hair, his ears pricked to pick up soft giggles. His heart had been pounding ever since he could see the red and orange roofs of his hometown from the sky at the thought that she was nearby, she could be in that shop, or around that corner. He saw the Academy a few blocks down and wanted to run by it, but they had to keep walking past it. In any case, the school day should well be over by now. The sun had already begun its descent, showing how much the days have shortened since autumn began.
In the Hokage's office, Kakashi reviewed their mission with Tsunade.
"Hokage-sama, we must determine the source of the powder substance from Nobu immediately. There is reason to believe that the same criminals who stole the scroll from Nobu have been involved in at least one of the missing persons cases." Kakashi continued to recap their time spent in Bincho, to which Tsunade listened closely, her brows furrowed, her cup of tea momentarily forgotten.
"So there was no additional evidence inside the warehouse itself?" asked Tsunade as she peered down at Kakashi's report.
"No. The hole did not originally lead into the interior of the warehouse. They used some kind of portal jutsu. Portal jutsus can be used to travel instantly across great distances. They require an immense amount of chakra, however, which is why they aren't a common mode of transportation. And this one was definitely strong. There's no way of telling where it could have led to. When I tried to open it with an unsealing jutsu, whatever pathway it had self-destructed. I recall that such portals have special hand-seal 'passwords' of sorts. It will never work unless we can find out what it was."
Tsunade sighed in annoyance and rested her head in one hand. "This is valuable information, but it is worrying me. We still have no way of knowing where the missing were taken, or how to retrieve them, or who is even behind all this!"
Kakashi nodded. "That is why we need to push to source this grey substance they keep leaving behind. It is the only clue we have." Tsunade nodded and rolled up the report decisively.
"Shizune! Set up a meeting with me and the head scientist for tomorrow morning. Also, begin drafting some letters that I can use to send to other labs." she responded. Shizune bowed and scurried off to execute her responsibilities.
"That is all for now. Thank you all." The team bowed and began to exit the office.
"Oh! Uh, actually, one more thing!" Tsunade added suddenly. Naruto huffed in annoyance as he began to turn back.
"Not you Naruto, I just need these guys." said Tsunade flippantly. Naruto raised his eyebrows as
Shikamaru glanced at him and shrugged before heading back in. Naruto was about to pester for a reason but for once shut his mouth, rationalizing that this way he was one step closer to food and bed.
Multicolored leaves crunched under Naruto's feet as he happily made his way home, his stomach full of ramen. While he had been eating he had glanced at the calendar on the wall above Teuchi's stove and realized with a jolt that tomorrow was his birthday. He had been so bogged down with the mission that he had lost track of the days. It had been a while since he had celebrated his birthday with his friends and he was glad he had made it home just in time to be able to take the day off.
Maybe he could sleep in all morning! Then brunch at Ichiraku, of course. Then maybe he could find Lee and do some sparring. And then he could catch Sakura when her shift ended and they could relax and catch up. And then later in the evening him and all his friends could go out to eat, maybe at Narita again. Sakura, Shikamaru, Sai, Choji, Lee, Ino...and Hinata.
His stomach tightened and his mouth twitched into a nervous half-smile. How ridiculous. It wasn't long ago when he could casually invite Hinata out for dinner or to the beach. But now the thought of inviting her to his birthday made his palms sweat. They were actually sweating!
Stop being an idiot. She's your friend. Of course she would want to come. The only reason she couldn't maybe is because of teaching. Or those stupid clan meetings.
Feeling slightly better from the internal pep talk, he made his way home, allowing excitement to build as he thought of sharing his birthday with other people, like he had always dreamed of once long ago.
After Naruto left the Hokage's office, Kakashi, Sai, and Shikamaru stood waiting for Tsunade to speak. Tsunade waited until she felt Naruto's chakra signature was at a safe enough distance before she spoke.
"Alright, so as some of you may know, the knucklehead's birthday is tomorrow…"