'Are you going to tell me what you are planning to do?'

'No.'

The white-haired man gritted his pipe between his teeth and went back to writing the report, muttering under his breath about disrespectful, sneaky brats with evil plans. Not only did he have to stay in the village until the Hokage told him he was free to leave once again, but he also had to go through the scrolls Minato had brought from Suna and make new ones with what he had found on his travels so they could share the information.

Minato ignored his obviously irritated sensei in favor of working on the frosting for the cake, following the recipe closely. He was the kind of people who almost never cooked, yet were perfectly capable of doing so wonderfully as long as they kept a set of instructions at hand. He was just missing the top decorations when Jiraiya finally had enough and tossed the scrolls away, turning to his student fully.

'…are you going to tell me or not?'

'Not.'

'Why not?'

'Because.'

The older man glared at the blond.

'You have that face again, and I don't like it.'

That made the blond pause on what he was doing, and turn to his teacher with a curious smile.

'Oh?'

'That face.' The older man said, walking to the smaller male. 'That `Oh sensei, I did something, something you won't like, and you know what else? You are going to find out very, very soon`.'

Minato stopped whisking the cream in favor of staring at the older male with frank awe. Wow. And he thought only parents with small children could decode that kind of expressions. Wait, had he been doing that kind of face…? That was worrying…

'Minato. What's happened in Suna?'

Minato shrugged and went back to what he was doing, ignoring his teacher. What had happened in Suna didn't matter anymore, only what would happen here.

#+#+#+#+#+#

The next day was a mediocre day. Which meant it was fairly good for travelling as nice day would made the people angry that they had to leave(every nice day meant a good day for taking care of homeland's plantations and nobody wanted to miss those as there were so few on the way) and bad – even more unhappy for that it would be a bad for travelling. Mediocre was the most favored day.

The ANBUs and the serving ninjas slowly gathered in front of Kazekage's mansion at the dawn. A few blinking stars still shone on the sky as the sun tried to peak out from the horizon, Venus being the brightest of them. Yashamaru slowly took out sleepy Kankuro and nervous Temari out. Gaara was long seated in the coach which was guarded by chakra restrainers and two ANBU leaders – one on the top and one on the camel before them. Yashamaru sighed. He really, really would love to go to Konoha in something like that. Last time he went there it was a travel by foot, so he and his sister were dead tired once they reached the gates. But then it meant a few days all to himself with tons of liquid vodka and lack of memories at all – and that was all he really needed. To forget.

He pushed the kids to the other coach and waved to them. The sun slowly shone out of the horizon. Everyone stood in silence.

'Where is Kazekage-sama?' someone asked quietly, then the question got murmured through all lines. People started looking at themselves.

'Maybe I should go check…' offered one of the ANBU. The other ANBU nodded.

'Nobody is going anywhere without my permission!' The whip slashed the sand and two camels looked around lividly, freezing in fear. Usually they were not afraid of whips, but such a strong slash could hurt the skin even if it was just as thick as theirs. They felt it, so instinctively – they feared it.

In the front of the line, the only one horse in the whole convoy stepped out, holding a proudly sitting ninja on top of it. It was Baki.

'Oh? And why is that?' said the elder Chiyo, looking out from her own camel, and propping her hands on her hips 'I don't have to listen to anyone, I can go whenever I want! And nor has the rest of us, many of us is higher in rank than you!'

'I have new orders from Kazekage-sama!' said the jounin and showed the permission paper 'We won't all go together to Konoha!'

'Eh? What?'

'How so?'

'And he didn't tell us before?'

'Why? What's happened?'

'What do you mean, Baki-sama?' asked one of the lower ranked jounins. Baki nodded.

'By the new orders, Kazekage-sama demands half of the convoy to depart just as scheduled. This convoy will be lead by me, as I was the one to take them from him and will handle the jinchuuriki with us. And yes, with you, elder Chiyo.' He nodded toward the woman. The gran frowned at him. 'Second convoy will leave at the midday, after the worst heat and will travel through the same path and the same schedule, only hours later. This convoy will contain Kazekage-sama's children. It also will be joined by Kazekage-sama himself, as Kazekage-sama is still not feeling well and wants to miss the first worst heat on the way to Konoha. Those are new orders. Dismissed!'

'Oh yeah?' said the Elder Chiyo and instantly hopped off from her camel 'If that's how it is and he just orders people to travel like that because he doesn't feel well then I can stay with him too. Such travels are bad for my old bones!' she said and stomped away to the building, standing near Yashamaru, who looked fairly astonished. Baki frowned a little in silence, but nodded to her and turned the horse.

'Everyone, count the people! Cut at the half! We move out after five minutes!'

Ninjas regrouped. One of the highest schooled ANBUs joined the coach in which Gaara sat in to fill the missing place in defense. Convoys moved.

'Baki?' asked the redhead, looking out from the window 'Where's father?'

'He will be joining us after short while.' said the jounin and moved away to secure the back parts. Gaara frowned and sat down with pouty face. Mother didn't like that. Mother felt vaguely insecure lately and was against all that. Maybe he should've run?

'Not yet, not yet…' murmured the voice in his head. So Gaara sat and did nothing. Suna moved. Chiyo watched it with her old eyes and frowned more and more. People that stayed looked at both of them, not knowing if to hide or to wait on the sun that would sun flash the place. She nodded at them, letting them scatter and looking at Yashamaru. He looked a little mixed about everything.

'You stay here. I will talk with our famous sickie.' She said, winking at him, but he didn't seem to catch the joke. As the story was told – Yashamaru was not in nice terms with kazekage at all. She moved inside. And as she suspected, she met him in his office, sitting behind his desk, in his traveling clothes, looking through the window at the moving people.

'Hello there.' she said, entering the room as usual 'You don't seem to feel bad. Care to tell the old gran what are you doing?'

'I have nothing to tell you.' said the man to her, not even showing her his face. He didn't have to, it all showed nothing after all. 'Please, get out of my office.'

'But you will be joining this convoy I'm going to go with later?' she said, though it was pretty much a statement than a question 'Because if you won't, I'm going to drag you there. I'm not gonna miss the possibility to eat the almond cake done by Hokage himself because you suddenly decided to feel bratty.'

Daichi didn't even flinch.

'I will. Of course I will.' he said, turning slowly to her but not even changing his position. His face was pale like if he was about to die, but still, void of any emotions 'Please, get out.'

'Sure. Just keep your promise.'

'Get out.'

So she did.

#+#+#+#+#+#

'I feel weird.' That Naruto announced his current state of feelings so openly wasn't rare at all, as he was almost exceedingly open at how he felt… Well, at least to his friends. When you were five, it was important to have people you could tell everything to. And when you were Namikaze Naruto, those two people were Hyuuga Neji and Hyuuga Hinata.

He had met the both of them a little over a year ago, when his father had taken him to the Hyuuga compound. Normally Minato would have left him at home under Kakashi care, as he usually did when important matters called him away, but that hadn't been possible and the Hokage had had a sudden paternal crisis and was completely unwilling to have Naruto further away than a couple feet. Because only three days ago, someone had attempted to kidnap the heiress from Hyuuga, a tiny girl that was Naruto's age, and now that idea of kidnapping and assassination was fresh on Minato's mind, it would take more than just a few days to depart.

Not that Naruto could complain; he barely got to leave their house as it was. Any change of scenery was more than welcome. He didn't really know what was so important about what had happened in this place full of odd, white-eyed people, only that his dad wasn't happy about it. The only thing left to ponder was who was Minato angry at, if the white-eyed people or the dark-skinned people that had arrived to Konoha just a day before.

Either way, it wasn't normal for the Hokage to get angry at anything, much less show it, and his son had been feeling a little worried about everything, and decided to get as far away from the room as he could and just start to explore the endless labyrinth that seemed to be the manor he was in. He had just left the bathroom, rubbing his freshly washed hands on his pants to dry them faster and trying to remember if he had come right or left, when he suddenly caught sight of something colorful out of the corner of his eyes. He turned around in that direction, briefly catching sight of a pale, pale face and dark clothes and hair, and then the figure was gone, leaving him gaping at it for a moment. A ghost?

He vaguely remembered a story perverted sage had told him regarding ghost once. Something about giving them what they wanted and they would give you some special type of reward afterwards. It probably was some really cool jutsu, because as soon a she had gotten to that part, daddy had appeared and told him that story was not for children and that if he caught telling that kind of thing to Naruto before he was eighteen, he would do things to him that would make him unable to enjoy researching material anymore. That was pretty mean of his dad. Perverted sage really took his writing seriously and was always looking for new researching material.

Either way, it had taken him a moment of hesitance to break into a run after the little ghost, following the barely registered scurrying sounds it made and catching sight only of its back every now and then, until he finally left the hallways and came to a larger area of the house, with actual sunlight streaming through the large panels. Outside, there was a large garden filled with different kinds of flowers and plants, beautifully arranged and obviously well taken care of.

'Wow…'

He slowly made his way to the open doors, and if he didn`t see the long-haired child next to the birdcage, it was because he was so still he didn`t register him.

Neji didn't move. Not because he didn't see or recognize Naruto – it was because he was not expecting to be interrupted during his routine feeding. His birds needed this and it was a private moment between him and them. It was normal if he wanted to train with them later. They were supposed to be obedient and ready to die by his hand at any moment and you didn't get that by simple feeding. You had to get close to every bird. That's why Neji took care of seven birds from the very beginning till then. Two died in the process because of jealousy – they had a little nicer feathers than everyone else. Nobody from outside the Hyuuga mansion detected the difference – Hyuugas did. And he was also used to watching all of them closely. They already had their traits and sides of a character.

The boy didn't move at first, then he hid himself in the shadow, looking at him through his silently activated white eyes. A human, nonetheless. And a small one. Intruder? He didn't think so… but who might that be? He didn't know. But one was never safe in such place as Konoha, especially after that accident from days ago. He prepared his stance just as father taught him and quietly observed the boy.

The blond stilled and looked around with a confused expression, but apparently didn't catch sight of the older boy, though his eyes were drawn to the colorful creatures inside the cage. He stared for a moment at the bright yellow and orange birds on the cage, his eyes closing in a strangely foxy expression as a wide smile appeared on his face.

Neji stared at him from the hiding, observing in silence. The creature didn't seem to be very harmful, it didn't look like something that could do something bad. He even smiled nicely and…

'Hiii~' he cooed softly, slowly approaching the cage and tapping on the lower side gently a few times. 'Hi birdies. Have you seen the little ghost?'

'What are you doing?' Instantly, forgetting his protective position, Neji leapt out from the shadow, rushing toward the boy. His birdies! His little birdies were in danger! Who knew what could he do to them? He couldn't let them be harmed!

He almost immediately caught the cage and took with himself, pushing the boy lightly away.

'Don't touch my birds!' he shouted. Birds in the cage fluttered around in panic at the sudden movement 'Who are you? What are your intentions? I will defeat you if I have to!'

The blond had let out a strange, high-pitched noise of alarm-then covered his own mouth, staring at the long-haired boy from his spot on the floor.

The other boy stared back, his pale cheeks flushed and his eyebrows frowned. His chest moved rapidly at the unexpected reaction. That wasn't like enemy at all. He almost looked like if he was the one who was attacked. 'Who are you?' he asked again, this time in a calmer and slower pace. But he still didn't let go of the birds.

'Naruto…' the boy said, looking around for a moment, then getting up, dusting the seat of his black shorts lightly.

'I don't know you.' said the boy and slowly, slowly let go of the cage to resume the defensive stance. 'Why are you here? It's Hyuuga's mansion. You're not from Hyuuga's family!'

How did this boy get there? It was the centre of the house, nobody should be able to get there!...

'My daddy brought me.' he said, still staring at the older brunette with wide, curious eyes, as if he had never seen another child his eye. In his case, it was partially true. 'I followed the little ghost.'

'Ghost?' said Neji and frowned, a little loosening from the stance 'There's no ghosts in Hyuuga's mansion…'

He blinked, looking around. There wasn't for sure. If there was, his daddy would tell him about it. Right? He would… he should… He blinked, hearing something move around and almost gasped, but he held himself still. He looked back at the blond and shook his head. What a stupidity!

He resumed his defensive stance.

'Why are you lying to me? Who is your daddy? My daddy is a very known person! You can't be bad to me, or he will be angry at your daddy and he might make him feel bad!'

'I'm not lying!' the boy said, finally reacting in his usual bold manner. 'My daddy brought me here and he's in the big room with the people with white eyes and the people from cloud!'

'That's not true! In that room there's only my family, people from Cloud country and Hokage-sama!' said Neji and lost his stance to just fist his palms and point them at Naruto. 'Liar! A liar, that's what you are and there's no daddy here! You came here to steal and I caught you on stealing from us! I will tell everything to daddy!'

'I'm not a liar!' the blond said, blue eyes narrowed down in anger 'My daddy is the Hokage!'

'Another lie! Prove it!'

Naruto stared. Then stared some more. Finally he threw back his head and bellowed.

'KAAASHII~!'

The white eyed boy looked at him with fear as he threw out such a tantrum and stepped back just to be safe. Two seconds later, to his own place came another intruder – and this time he was much bigger than the blond boy. But he looked vaguely familiar, unlike the boy. The young Hyuuga frowned.

'Wait… I know you!' he said, pointing his fingers at him 'You're Hatake Kakashi!'

'Yes, and I'd rather know what's going on here.' he said, crouching near Naruto and looking at him with slightly panicked stare 'What's happened, Naruto? Are you hurt?'

'No.' the blond said, throwing himself to the teens chest and looking as if it were the most natural thing in the world to give hear attacks to fifteen year old jounin. 'Kashi, tell him that daddy is the Hokage, he doesn't believe it.'

Kakashi blinked, not understanding the situation. Slowly he moved his head from the young Hyuuga boy then back – to the blond.

'Um.' He said, coughing, seeing that the other boy didn't seem to be fazed and waited for him to say something. 'It's true, Hokage-sama is a father of Naruto.'

The other boy's eyes widened, then he moved one more step back, looking defeated. Then he looked at the blond and pointed his finger at him.

'His daddy might be a Hokage but he still lies. There's no ghosts in Hyuuga's mansion!'

'Oh, really?' said Kakashi and smiled. Then he moved foot slightly, activating the little shuriken trap he made outside for practicing. Two of the shurikens tapped on the wood, but the inexperienced byakugan couldn't see that yet 'Who knows, maybe yes, maybe no…' he murmured and smiled. 'Why don't you just say hello to each other and play instead of acting with such hostility. This is a big honor to play with Hokage-sama's son….'

The boy flinched. Kakashi smiled wider. There. All Hyuugas were crazy about two things – honor and destiny. It seemed that even this little boy wasn't immune to the words. He leaned closer.

'And you know what…' he whispered 'I think it was destined for you two to meet, because I always wanted to study ghosts and my horoscope told me that today will be the perfect day for that – and I'm here and you two can help me with that.' he said and winked at Neji. Checkmate. The boy all trembled from excitement. He came closer and bowed deeply before the boy.

'I'm sorry for my inconvomenanance' he said with a very serious face 'I'm Hyuuga Neji, the youngest Hyuuga besides Hinata-sama. Do you allow me to search for ghosts with you, Naruto-sama?'

Naruto who had been staring expectantly at the boy, waiting for Kakashi to give proof that he was indeed the Fourth Hokage`s son, but when the boy suddenly turned to him and bowed like that, he suddenly clung again to the older teen, pushing his flushed face against his chest, where he mumbled something so garbled up the only thing that could be made out was `sama`.

Neji looked up from the floor with a slight frown. He couldn't understand at all what was said to him. But once Naruto glanced back, he bowed even deeper, feeling how his back started to hurt him.

'I'm sorry, Naruto-sama, I didn't hear, can you say again?'

'Don't call me '-sama'!' the blond said, with his face still pressed to the teens chest. '…and stop bowing.' He added a lot more quietly, cheeks still flushed.

'Ah! I'm sorry, Naruto-chama!' said Neji and instantly stood back, and fell on his knees, bowing deep on the floor. Dad told him to not ever do that, but it was Hokage's son, when it comes to Hokage you do everything. Kakashi blinked, looking at the young Hyuuga, feeling a little uneasiness.

'Naru… why don't you play with him, I have to go back.' He said, seeing that if anything, sticking blond to his chest won't really help the kids to get together 'I'll be just right… there, all right?' He said pointing at the side that was visible from the spot 'Be good.'

'Nooo~' Naruto whined and plastered himself to the teen, little fingers digging on his vest. He only ever saw other kids from affair, he had never actually talked to another. And this one was all weird.

Kakashi frowned a little, feeling more uneasy.

'Oh my, Naruto…' he said, slowly undoing the little fingers. He didn't have much experience with children and getting Naruto known with other people was surely not his duty. If anything, it was otherwise 'Okay, I will stand right here. But you have to let me go. Hey you…'

'Yes, sir?' came muffle from the floor.

'What's your name?'

'Hyuuga Neji, sir.'

'Good. Neji-sama, Naruto doesn't want you to call him '-sama', '-chama' or '-san'. Just Naruto. And if you're gonna kneel on the floor like that then how will you help me with searching, get up, please.'

Neji looked at him with a frown.

'Why are you calling me Neji-sama?' he asked. Kakashi smiled. Oh gee, a child with honorable suffixes problem…

'I'm a mere jounin, to me you are worth such a title.' He said 'Now please, say hello.'

Neji slowly got up from the floor, dusting off his knees and looked at the blonde. Then he smiled at him lightly to seem to be polite and serious at the same time.

'I'm Hyuuga Neji. Pleased to meet you, Naruto… o.' he said, handing out his hand like an adult would.

Naruto didn't verbally protest, but made one of those faintly animalistic whining sounds and stared at the jounin with big, sad eyes that told him he was the last person he expected to be betrayed by. Hesitantly he turned around to stare at the older boy, taking a bit more on his appearance and staring at the bandages covering his forehead with faint curiosity, but then he hesitantly extended his hand, shaking the other's clumsily.

'I'm Namikaze Naruto…' the boy said, eating some of the vocals and the bowels in his sudden bout of shyness. 'Pls`d to m`t you…'

Maybe it wouldn't be so bad. Now that he was smiling, the brunet looked a lot less threatening than before, maybe even nice. He thought no one here was allowed to smile… He was about to ask about it when a sudden flash of black among the bright colors caught his attention, and he pointed to the garden hastily.

'Look, look, the little ghost!'

Neji instantly jumped with a yelp, hiding behind the cage with birds, making them also jump and twirl. But then, at Kakashi's laughter, who just couldn't contain himself (much to his disdain), he activated byakugan and looked at that side. Nope, nothing special! But it was probably because ghosts were so quick and invisible. Scary!... But there, there was Hinata!...

'Hinata-sama!' he shouted, coming up from a cover and grabbing Naruto by hand to follow 'Hinata-sama, look out, there are ghosts out there! '

The blond followed excitedly, not knowing one was supposed to be afraid of ghosts instead of looking for them, momentarily forgetting his shyness on favor of the chase.

'Ah, finally some peace.' Said Kakashi and sat down near the birds, opening the new book. He just bought it, but I started quite nicely so he wanted to read it in every occasion he had 'So good…'

At the same time Neji kept on chasing the invisible ghost he thought he saw somewhere, lead by Naruto. And somehow it seemed that Hinata-sama either wanted to play too or was somehow lead by the ghosts because she seemed to be everywhere where they were. Finally, exhausted, he just grabbed her by hand and lead her to Naruto, not hearing her faint words about something and just sat down on earth in the middle of nice white flowers she liked so much and stared at Naruto.

'Maybe not this time…' he said seriously 'But for sure next time we will catch them! Just come to play with me and Hinata-sama!' he said. In all this sudden hunting he forgot to properly name the girl and show her to Naruto.

The blond stared at the girl, who was half-hiding behind her cousin and saying something in shy, quiet tones that were too low for him to make out.

'But she's the ghost!' he said, pointing at her, causing her to shrink back further. 'She took me to the bird room. You aren't a ghost?'

The girl blushed, the pink showing horribly well on the pale features of a Hyuuga and hid even more behind the long-haired boy. Naruto chuckled and closed his eyes, oblivious to the fact he hadn't been doing something much different just a few minutes ago.

'She's cute.'

'Huh? Hinata-sama is the ghost?' Neji looked at the girl as she hid behind him and frowned a little. Then he looked back at Naruto. 'But she can't be the ghost! If she was the ghost then I would have to be the ghost and my daddy would have to be the ghost… and all of us! And we aren't!' he said and looked at her again. Then he smiled, patting her on her head. 'She is my cute cousin. One day she will be beautiful princess and I'm going to protect her until I die!' he said and smiled at Naruto with much wider smile than before.

The Hyuuga kids had become Naruto's companion ever since. It would correctly be assumed that had the Hyuuga not had such a huge debt to the Hokage for interfering on the negotiations and allowed them to spare Hizashi`s life, they would have never allowed his son to get close to the heiress and budding genius of the clan, but as things were, no one even thought of saying no to them, even though their parents were always around , as if expecting the little blonde so suddenly grow fangs and tears their children apart.

As time passed, it became obvious to them that regardless of whatever the boy kept inside of him, he was just a normal child, so the security on them had been greatly lowered. It was this reason that the children were at the moment alone outside the Hokage mansion, eating some dango that a very battered perverted sage had gifted them with before getting inside the house. Hinata, who had been delicately nibbling on her treat, stared first at her cousin, then at the blond in concern.

'Weird in what way, Naruto-kun?' The blond finished the sweet balls on his stick and then laid back down on the grass, a complex, unhappy expression on his face as he stared up at the sky. 'I don't know. Just weird.'

'Maybe it's because Suna celebrities are coming to the town?' half-asked, half-wondered Neji, then he looked at the side where gates of the village were supposed to be. 'Everyone is nervous thought, because it's the Kazekage himself who is said to be visiting us.' He said and then lowered his voice, looking at Hinata warily, hoping to not scare her. 'Don't tell anyone, but I heard he was going to bring some special beast to us… I heard it's very dangerous.' He added and pointed his finger at his lips, pressuring at them with the hope of secrecy 'At least that's what my uncle said. In secret.'

'No, it's not a thought-feeling.' the blond said, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand in a frustrated gesture. 'It's a … skin-feeling… thing.' Hinata started chewing on her last dango, her expression concerned.

'You fell on poison ivy again? I still have some salve…' Naruto sat up straight, giving his friends a long suffering expression. He couldn't explain it.

'No, it's not poison ivy…' A huff. 'I just feel like… something. Something…' He paused. '…I didn't see any beasts when I went to Suna. But there was this huge spider and my daddy looked funny when I grabbed it.'

'Maybe it's a new unknown thing?' said Neji and again looked to the side where gates of the village were supposed to be 'Kazekage is known of catching beasts, though I don't know what it means… maybe he caught something?...' He looked at them and at Naruto. Then he sighed. 'No, I don't think so. He was in bad condition lately, he couldn't.' he murmured and fished the dango from his plate and started eating it. It was almost cold, but he usually ate such things as he was never in hurry with his food 'Do you feel a weird chakra maybe? We can look for the source.'

'T`s not chakra...just a feeling.' The boy said, looking in the gate's direction fixedly for several seconds, then jumping up agilely. 'I'm bored.' He announced, not unlike he had done just a few minutes ago as he wiped his hands on his pants 'Let's go train when you are done eating.'

'Sure.' Said the young Hyuuga, slowly taking another bite of the same dango. It was fifth if not sixth, he still could bite on the ball and there were three on his plate 'Just let me end it. Though we can't train outside, main street is closed for the arrival to not kill people like us.'

White eyes glanced once again at the side where gates were supposed to be and took another bite, not hurrying at all, despite Naruto's bouncing. When it came to children Neji never referred to them as 'kids' but as 'people'. They were too special to be called like ever kid on the world – they had white eyes. And Naruto was their friend so he could be called that too.

'Just let me end my dessert.' Naruto moaned and let himself fall back on the soft grass, rubbing at his face in frustration. Neji was horribly picky with his food and always took the double or triple time a normal human took in eating. Hinata just smiled and patted his head consolingly.

But just when he finally took the last bite (which was a good fifteen minutes later) there were loud creak that could be heard from that spot and Neji turned his head toward the source. Could it be?...

'Byakugan!' he said, veining his eyes and looking through the walls. Then he smiled and smiled more, cheering a lot in an instant 'It's them! It's Suna! They've arrived!...'

Hinata jerked up and followed suit, activating her bloodline limit, something she had learned to do just a few months prior and that was still giving her some issues. That's why she initially thought the problem was with her when she saw something strange.

'Neji, brother…' she said, walking closer to her cousin and pointing at the figure she had singled out. 'Why does that one have his chakra spread like that….?'

He looked some more, glancing left and right but he didn't see any beast. Though one of the passengers of the coach seemed to have a very big source of chakra somewhere in his head. But it was probably a very good ninja. Or maybe Kazekage himself? But there was a lot of strong people, like this one in the front, or those sitting on a coach or the ones that sat on camels… it was hard to decipher who had more, they mingled and mixed nonstop.

'But I can't see any animal..' he murmured, frowning 'There's someone strong there though.'

If you were a Hyuuga, one would see a small figure curled up in one of the carts, almost deathly still. What had called Hinata's attention, however, was that instead of the patterns of chakra following closely the circulatory system, the figure had several additional ramifications spread in a sort of strange pattern across his body- and they spread to the giant thing glued to its back, even though the thing itself didn't have a chakra source.

Neji followed her gaze and his eyes landed again on the strong patterned ninja. He squinted his eyes, trying to decipher how the circulatory system worked, but he couldn't get it worked out. It almost seemed like if there were two different systems in one body.

'I don't know.' He said finally 'Probably a very strong and strange bloodline limit. Maybe we should ask someone older?...'

He looked at Hinata then at Naruto, unsure. Elders usually knew what was wrong with patterns and explained them if they needed to know.

Naruto stared at the gates direction, obviously not seeing anything as the terrain was higher up and didn't exactly allow for prime sightseeing unless you could see through earth, like certain pairs of dark heads. He smiled at them when they both turned at him, though. 'Let's go ask your father, Neji!'

He should be somewhere within the mansion….

The convoy moved slowly. The scheduled arrival was already late for three hours because of unexpected change of weather, and Baki, for no reason, kept on going forward, until the ninjas started loud protesting against such treating when they had warm clothes. But after getting a nice chill it seemed almost impossible to warm up again without a stop and boiling some kind of warm soup. Baki seemed to be against it (it seemed that the new orders were harshly pushed on time, but since he didn't want to share nobody was eager to follow him up) but finally ate the shared bowl of hot rice and soft curry. The only one who didn't seem to suffer on the freeze seemed to be the young jinchuuriki, but since monsters were monsters it was rather obvious he wouldn't.

He just sat through the whole meal in the couch and didn't even taste a bite. Amazing! And it was only fifteen degrees in the air! How could Konoha live in such a fridge, they didn't know. But then the things started to get worse and when they started to think they were closing to the North Pole, the gates of Konoha finally showed up on the horizon.

'At last.' muttered Baki and steered they people toward the gates. When they've got opened, he steered them inside and he rid in front of them. He looked at the clock they were passing. All would be well if they could say the second convoy to speed up. But he could do nothing and nobody in the village knew anything so… he could only pray they had a nice way and that the saffron haired man wouldn't feel too uneasy about the fact he changed it a little.

Gaara glanced outside, wondering what was that white thing, but once he touched the coldness which changed into wetness he freaked out and almost instantly covered up in the sand. It was… it was… still water!... And it was… everywhere!... Shukaku in his mind trashed. What was this? Trap? Definitely a trap! She knew, she sensed it!... Gaara trembled with fear.

#+#+#+#+#+#

'Hey, brat.'

Jiraiya stared without surprise at the royal mess the room had been turned into. Minato had this thing about extending… Whenever he started to work, he'd start on a small space, usually a corner he'd fit himself into and then slowly start to spread…. If left alone for long enough time, he would take over completely over a room. That's what he had done in this particular room, where all Jiraiya could see as far as the eye were scrolls with hastily drawn arrays overridden by notes Jiraiya didn't know how did Minato even start to remember these things from memory, some of the seals and figures he was using, he was sure some of the ones he was seeing had been made up by the blond. Triangles, circles, pentagrams, yapuos fodres, mircos sancofits….

Sometimes he really worried about the mental health of his ex student.

'Brat.'

'What.'

The Hokage droned, as expected, lodged in one of the far away corners, looking over a scroll as he bit on apple with fingers blackened with ink. There was a lot of it around, mostly in splotches in the floor. When Minato was deep at work, he tended to forget where he left the ink and usually just yanked at the scrolls when he needed them, not caring where the dark contents of the jar fell, unless they did it on something he needed. Namikaze Minato, Yondaime Hokage. The yellow flash of Konoha. Vane of cleaning ladies existence.

'Your guests arrived.'

'Okay.'

Jiraiya waited a few seconds, but when the only reaction he got was more quick writing on the scroll the Hokage had across his legs, he decided to try again.

'Minato. Your guests from Suna are here.'

'Yes.'

'The people you invited? Compatriots of your old friend?'

'Mhhmm.'

'I think they got lost and had to resort to eating each other to survive, though, several seem to be missing.'

'Yes.'

Scribble, scribble.

'There is a fire going on. Our only hope is to evacuate the village and run for the hills.'

'Mhhh…'

'Minato, I have a tumor in my brain. I have only fifteen minutes of life left.'

'That's nice, sensei…'

'Also, I exchanged your son for candy and porn. Mostly porn.'

'Okay.'

'…'

'Wait, what? What?' Minato suddenly looked up, finally attaining contact with reality 'You did what? Where's my son? What have you done with my baby?'

'Glad to have you back to earth, Hokage-sama,' the toad sage grunted, litting his pipe and starting to smoke as his student smiled at him in a way that made him wonder if he was thinking what his flesh tasted like.

'Ha ha. That wasn't funny. That wasn't funny at all.'

'It did get your attention, though…' he said, picking one of the single sheets of papers and looking at the complex diagram 'Minato… what are you going to have us do?'

'Stuff.' The Hokage grumbled, shrugging in his white and red jacket- It wasn't usual for the blond to be so curt with his sensei, but Minato was inspired. Which meant that he hadn't slept, eaten or even rested and thus was in an insufferable mood. He would probably apologize for it later, as usual.

'Am I ever going to find out what this *stuff* is about?'

'Yes.' Why did he even try? It was impossible to have a coherent conversation with Minato when he was like this.

'The Kazekage didn't come.' He said, picking up a few more pages to try and make a little more sense of what the hell Minato expected of him. 'Don't know what you two planned, but it seems he ditched you.'

The sage wouldn't have been able to pick a worse choice of words if he had tried, not that he could be blamed, considering he had no idea what the younger man planned, and much less about what had happened in Suna. Minato stopped in the process of zipping his jounin vest, his hand stilling ¾ of the way up, then slowly continued.

'I'll go see what happened. Please let Sarutobi-sensei know the guests are here. Kakashi?' One of the largest piles of unwinded scrolls moved, revealing the form of the silver-haired teen. 'Go check on Naruto and make sure he doesn't get in trouble.'

'Sure I will.' Said the grey-haired nin and stood up, making the bones in his neck crack 'Should I accompany him and Hyuuga heirs later?'

Minato stopped again, his mind obviously elsewhere, before nodding. He had forgotten about the other kids.

'Yes, please. I'll go ahead.' One hand seal later, he was gone in a puff of smoke, leaving Jiraiya staring in growing alarm at the sealing arrays. All of them were used for sealing, or compliments to other sealing seals. He didn't want to think about what Minato was planning to do with these, much less in combination with Suna guests.

'Tell me the truth... Should I be worried?'

Kakashi looked back.

'In case if it won't work – yes, you should. So worry just about having strength for it all and making it work.' He said with a smile with which he usually suggested a cup of coffee and a good relax. Which, in that case, was actually a very close to the truth. If the world was going to blow up, then they should watch it with sunglasses on and not cry over it. He smiled again and made a seal. A moment later only a puff of smoke suggested that there was anyone standing in his place.