DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto
WARNING: This chapter is pretty much filler to set Naruto and Sakura's team up to their battles against these unknown ninja.
Chapter 12: Searching
The usual sea breeze that blows through Nami no Kuni was absent. Dead silence. No sound penetrated the chilled air surrounding the small island nation. The once dirt poor nation was now thriving after Tazuna's bridge connected the island to the main land of Hi no Kuni. That very silence was about to end as ninja from Konohagakure began searching through the warehouses of the West Dock. The ones closer to the village seemed to be abandoned or in a state of being remodeled. The ones closer to the ocean seemed to be in full use. The four Konoha-nin looked around, there had to be at least fifteen warehouses in the docks alone. A lazy sigh came from the team's eldest member.
"Alright, we do what I just said earlier, let's split up and search each warehouse," the man with the silver hair said.
"Hai, Kakashi-sensei," replied a blonde-haired man.
"Okay Naruto, I will go to that one at the end of the dock, the rest of you start searching these ones here," Kakashi said pointing at the warehouses closes to the group.
"Hai," Naruto replied. Kakashi then began heading down the dock.
Shiro and Himawari, who were standing behind Naruto, looked up at their sensei. They were a little confused, they did not quite know what they were expected to do.
"Uh, Naruto-sensei?" spoke up Himawari.
"Let me guess, you want to know what to do?" asked Naruto.
"Hai," the two Genin replied.
Naruto sighed, "It's just like what Kakashi-sensei said, we split up and each take a warehouse and search through it to see if we can find Konohamaru."
"Hai," the two Genin replied again, but before they could take off, they were stopped by Naruto's voice again.
"Wait!" he called out. "Before you run off, if you run into anyone wearing a blue cloak, I want you to run, you will not win the fight."
"But you left Hiroshi-kun to fight that kid," said Himawari.
"Yeah, but he is the same age as you guys, he's able to take him on," answered Naruto. "Anyone else we run into will be mine or Kakashi-sensei's age or older."
"We'll be careful, Naruto-sensei," assured Shiro. The two Genin then walked off each heading for a warehouse nearby.
Naruto then looked at the first one near him, 'I guess I'll check out this one first.'
Heavy breathing, it stung the silent night. Feet hitting the ground as a boy ran as fast as he could. Behind him, four others that had shown up to the coming fight behind him. Although he didn't want to admit it, the boy was exhausted after the battle with Sumi. He used up a lot of chakra in that fight and he knew was going to have to get into a more serious fight, a fight to save Konohamaru. Honestly, he did not know Konohamaru all that well. All he knew was one of two only remaining members of the Sarutobi clan and that he was the grandson of the late Sandaime Hokage. Konohamaru, however, was a Shinobi of Konohagakure and he was going to help rescue him in any way he could. Suddenly, he hit something. He realized it was a person.
"Gomen, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going," the boy said.
"Oh Hiroshi-san, it's alright," the man in a black suit said.
Hiroshi realized who it was by the voice and looked up to see he was correct, "Inari-san!"
"I assume you beat that other child?" asked Inari.
"Yeah well sort of, I thought I did, then he found me in the village, until Sakura-sensei here helped me contain him for good," Hiroshi said pointing to the Konoha-nin behind him. Standing behind him was Sakura and her team, Ankoku, Aki and Shinji.
"Wait a second, you're Inari?" asked Sakura. Inari looked at the woman and recognized her.
"Sakura-san? Naruto's teammate, right?" asked Inari.
"Yeah," the pink-haired kuniochi answered.
"But to answer your question, yes, it's me, Inari," Inari said. "But may I ask what you are doing here?"
"Tsunade-sama sent us to back up Kakashi-sensei and Naruto-kun," replied Sakura. "Happen to know where they are?"
"Yeah, I just showed them the West Dock were I believe they're holding your comrade hostage," answered Inari. "Come, I'll take you over there."
"Thank you very much," Sakura said with a smile. Inari motioned them to come and everyone followed Inari to the West Dock.
Naruto found himself at the front door of the warehouse he went to investigate. He tried to get in and found the door was locked. Naruto looked around to see if he can find a way to pry the doors open. In a different senario, he would of just used his Rasengan to bust through the doors, but he wanted to remain quiet as long as he could in hopes of finding Konohamaru without incident. Naruto looked for another alternative but he could not find anything. He had no choice but to use his Rasengan to get in. Naruto created a Kage Bunshin and his replication began forming the ball of chakra into Naruto's hand. When it was ready, he aimed for the door.
"Rasengan!" Naruto yelled and slammed the spiraling ball of chakra into the door, breaking them down. The echo inside the warehouse was loud.
"So much for being quiet," Naruto sighed. He walked inside the warehouse and it was pitch black. Naruto scrambled around the walls near the door for some sort of light switch. He found what felt like a button and pressed it and fortunately, it was the light switch and the lights hanging from the ceiling came on. The warehouse was full of crates and metal siding. It appeared the warehouse was indeed being remodeled.
"Damn, this place is fucking huge," Naruto said to himself. Deep down he really didn't want to search this whole warehouse since it was so big, but if he was going to find Konohamaru, he was going to have to.
Naruto walked through further into the warehouse. He looked around to see if there were any signs people had just recently been inside or any evidence of someone being held hostage. After searching the main floor, he found an office in the back of the warehouse. Naruto reached for the door knob and turned it. Unfortunately, that was locked too. Naruto sighed, but he kicked in the door. Inside the office was a three large file cabinets on the left side of the office. There was a bookshelf on the right side of the office and a desk right in the middle with paper scattered across it. There was also a container with a couple of pens and pencils on the desk as well. There was nobody being held here, it was just a normal office. Naruto sighed and walked out the office, he was about to close the door when he realized he kicked it in. He walked a few feet back into the warehouse when he suddenly heard footsteps from the front of the warehouse. He ducked behind a tower of crates.
'Son of a bitch, what's going on now?' Naruto thought as he waited. Sure enough more footsteps echoed through the warehouse. He knew they were not any of his team nor Kakashi's, it was someone else's, someone he was going to have to fight to get out. Naruto then concealed his chakra in hopes that whoever was in there with him would just walk back out. The footsteps stopped and the silence began choking Naruto until the person that was inside the warehouse spoke.
"I know you're in here, ninja from Konoha," the male voice said.
"What of it?!" Naruto yelled from where he was hiding.
"Come out and fight me," said the man. "Come out and fight me you hiding coward."
"Ok," Naruto said from behind the man and slammed his foot across the back of his head, knocking him out.
Naruto then stood over the man who was face first on the floor wearing a blue cloak with a symbol of a tornado on the back, "So much for the fight, it was really short."
Naruto then ran out of the warehouse. He grabbed the door he busted off and chained it to the other that wasn't damaged.
Naruto ran out to the road and was about to run towards the warehouse Kakashi had went to go investigate to let him know of the situation when he heard a familiar voice.
"Naruto-sensei!" yelled Hiroshi from the West Dock entrance.
"Hiroshi, you're back and in once piece too," Naruto joked.
"Of course!" Hiroshi said, taking offense to Naruto's joke. "I told you not to worry."
"Well since you're here, go ahead and start looking through these warehouses," Naruto said. "One of them has Konohamaru with him. I'm also going to find Kakashi and tell him the Missing-nin are starting to show themselves in here."
"Wait, there is more," Hiroshi said. "Tsunade-sama sent reinforcements."
"Huh?" Naruto said confused, but his words began to jumble up when he saw his Sakura-chan and her team come out of the shadows.
"Sakura-chan!" Naruto yelled out, "What are you doing here?"
"Like Hiroshi said, Tsunade-sama sent us for back up," Sakura replied. "What do you want us to do?"
"You can come with me to let Kakashi-sensei know that the Missing-nin are showing themselves here and your students can split up and help Hiroshi, Himawari and Shiro," replied Naruto.
"Ok," Sakura replied with a smile. She then turned to her team, "Alright, Ankoku, go with Hiroshi, Aki find Himawari and Shinji go help Shiro, understood?"
"Hai," the three Genin replied in unison and split up, with Ankoku following Hiroshi.
Once the Genin were out of sight, Sakura and Naruto embraced each other.
"I really missed you," Sakura said.
"I missed you too," Naruto replied. The two shared a quick kiss and headed off to find Kakashi.
Himawari stood staring at the chain wrapped around the door handles with the pad lock keeping them locked in place. She didn't know what to do. How could she get inside to search the warehouse if the damn door was locked? Oh how this missions was beginning to suck. Her luck, however changed when she touched the look and realized it was dummy locked.
"I should of checked that sooner than standing her wining to myself," Himawari said to herself as she removed the look and the chains that were wrapped around the door handles. She slid the door open just enough for her to get inside when she realized the warehouse was pitch black and she couldn't even see her own hands right in front of her face.
"It's scary in here," she confessed. Himawari pattered herself until she found her kunai pouch and took out a match. She struck the match and it lit up. She saw a switch near the door and pressed it. The lights hanging from the ceiling came on revealing the warehouse had broken and empty crates scattered across the warehouse floor. She looked at a catwalk on a second floor and noticed and office.
"I guess if I was going to hold someone hostage, I'd keep them locked up in that office," Himawari said to herself. She walked to the stairs that led to the catwalk and began walking toward the office. When she reached the office, she checked the door to see if it was locked which it was.
"Another locked door, just wonderful," Himawari complained. She walked up to the window next to the locked door and peeked inside. The plan failed as the office itself was dark. She knocked on the door and waited to see if anyone called out for help inside. Silence, all she got was silence. No one was inside this warehouse. Himawari turned and began walking back to the stairs to leave the warehouse. About halfway to the stairs, Himawari noticed someone walking into the warehouse. She saw that it was a woman with medium length orange hair and was wearing a blue cloak. Himawari tried her best to blend in with the catwalk and make no noise at all, hoping the woman wouldn't look up and just leave. However, her hopes fell on deaf ears as the woman looked up at the catwalk and saw Himawari trying to hide on the catwalk.
"Well, well," the woman began, "Looks like I found one of you Konoha ninja."
Himawari was starting to panic, she hadn't been in a real fight yet, and now she was about to be in one. 'I guess I have no choice but to fight my way out of here.'
"Come down here little girl and face me," the woman said smirking evilly. "Don't worry, I'll make it quick so you don't feel a thing."
Hiroshi and is new partner Ankoku reached the warehouse where they were going to search. Having the same luck as Naruto and Himawari, the warehouse was locked as well. Hiroshi signaled Ankoku to follow him and the two Genin started walking around the outside of the warehouse. Hiroshi noticed there was a hole in the warehouse's structure. It was big enough for the Genin to fit through. They both went through the hole and ended up inside the facility. He wondered how the hole got there in the first place, but shrugged it off. However, Hiroshi did find it strange the lights were already on but he put that in the back of his mind as well since his main goal was to try and locate Konohamaru. The two Genin began looking around the warehouse and it was confusing them because of the rows of crates turned the warehouse into a maze as pathways would lead to dead ends. Hiroshi continued his way around until he saw a shadow out of the corner of his eye. He looked in the direction to see a man with dirty blonde hair wearing a blue cloak, behind him was a tower of crates.
"I see I found my opponent," the man said, void of emoton.
"How did you get in here?" asked Hiroshi.
"It was quite simple, I just forced myself in," the man replied.
That's when realization hit Hiroshi. The hole he and Ankoku found in the frame was made by this man standing in front of him. He had been waiting for anyone to come inside the warehouse.
"I guess I'm going to have to fight you then," Hiroshi said, getting ready to attack or defend.
"You're a little fiesty, aren't we?" questioned the man.
However, a few feed away. Ankoku had heard the man speak and came near Hiroshi. He hid behind crates and watched what was about to unfold.
'I'll let Hiroshi distract him and then i'll come in when that dude least expects it and strike.'
Shiro stood outside the warehouse we walked to for quite a bit now. He watched as Himawari find her way into the one next to him. Then he watched Naruto along with the pink-haired kuniochi that his sensei is always kissing on. He sighed as he stared back at the door that was chained closed. Then he was a bit startled when Shinji came up to him.
"Yo," said Shinji, "having a hard time getting in?"
"Yep, the door is locked with a chain and padlock," replied Shiro.
"Let's check in the back, maybe there's another door or something," suggested Shinji. Shiro nodded and the two Genin walked around to the back of the warehouse. They came to a door and both were surprised it was unlocked and the walked in to find themselves in an office. The office was empty accept for a desk and some file cabinets. The two Genin headed for the door of the office that led into the warehouse. The warehouse was completely empty, but Shiro found it strange the lights were on. Shiro and Shinji walked to the middle of the warehouse to see if there was any other offices or rooms, but found nothing. The two turned to head back to the office they entered from when they heard the office door open. Coming out of the office was a man with black hair with red bangs wearing a blue cloak.
"Well look at this, I get to have some fun after all," the man said.
"Who are you?" asked Shiro, not scared of how crazy the man sounded. Shinji, however, was scared.
"All you punks need to know is that I'm your opponent," replied the man. Shiro could see the twisted smile on the mans face.
'This is bad, this guy seems out of his mind,' Shiro thought and looked to see Shinji was frozen in fear. 'Shit, I'm going to get no help from this kid.'
Shiro readied himself for battle. He was on his own because he knew Shinji wasn't going to be any help.
Next: Chapter 13: Last Of A Clan