Pumped this out faster than I was expecting, its been less than a week O_O. I've been feeling inspired (and guilty for not updating for months) so this chapter came pretty easily. Heres hoping that the next one is just as easy to write, though don't hold your breath.

Sakura's room wasn't somewhere Kiba had been before, whenever he'd gone to her house before they'd always either headed out immediately or stayed downstairs. Looking at it now he maybe understood why that was, "your room is very… pink" Kiba noted.

Her cheeks took on a pink tinge, "I liked it when was five ok"

Kiba raised his hand in a placating motion, "no, no it's very- uh… it matches your hair?" he finished awkwardly.

There was an extremely awkward silence, Sakura tried to move past the awkward moment, "sooo anyway. What did you need to tell me so badly?"

Kiba, thankful that they weren't going to dwell on his general awkwardness, quickly dug out the note from his pocket and handed it to her.

"What's this a blank piece of paper?" Sakura asked quizzically looking at the paper she'd been handed.

"What? No, it's a note I got from some stranger"

"It's definitely blank" she handed it back to him for him to look.

Sure enough the paper that had previously contained the note was completely blank, Kiba was flabbergasted, "I swear there was writing before!"

"Keep your voice down, dummy, my mom is downstairs" Sakura hissed.

"San can vouch for me, he was there when I got the note"

"San?"

"Yeah you know he's the youngest Haimaru triplet, he's waiting outside"

"Why?"

"Ah, um my ma insisted I have someone with me"

Sakura tilted her head in curiosity "Why? She's been pretty lenient with you up to now"

"I was pretty tense this morning cause of the note" he glared at the very blank paper, "which wasn't blank"

"What did this note say?"

The exact wording escaped him so he decided to summarize, "the letter implied that Naruto and his bijuu pals miscalculated the number of people he could send back. Making this disappearing note person time traveler number 4"

"I'm guessing by your tone they didn't say who they were"

"Don't you think I would've led with that?, eurgh no they didn't mention who they were. The letter was just intended to let us know that they existed"

Sakura looked remarkably calm at this revelation, though considering who her teammates had been, this sort of revelation probably seemed rather run of the mill, "Were there any clues about their identity in the note?" she asked calmly.

"I don't thi- wait, uh it was addressed to dog boy. That's a clue right?"

Sakura nodded, "Anything else?"

Kiba pondered what he could remember of the note, "hmmmm", his eyes widened, "they mentioned something about being undercover and that sending the note was risky"

"That's probably why the ink on the note disappeared, it's pretty common for paper with sensitive information to be rigged to erase itself"

"Really?"

"Yeah Lady Tsunade would complain about how the ANBU were being too paranoid"

"Isn't paranoia like a requirement for ANBU? Considering the sensitive information they handle."

"Yes" Sakura nodded before continuing, "I think Lady Tsunade just liked to complain"

"So this person we're dealing with is probably ANBU?" Kiba said attempting to get back on topic

"Maybe, ANBU or at least former ANBU? Assuming they're from Konoha"

"Let's just think about the Konoha possibilities first. Naruto had a bunch of friends from the other nations if we start trying to go through all them we won't get anywhere"

Sakura brought her hand up to her chin deep in thought, "The only people that I can think who fit the description that I know Naruto trusted would be Kakashi sensei, Captain Yamato and Sai"

Kiba looked at her blankly, "explain"

"Well with Kakashi sensei, Naruto obviously trusted him and I know he was in ANBU at some point. The only issue is that I saw him die with my own eyes"

"So why'd you suggest him then, if you know he's dead?"

"I'm just running through every possibility no matter how unlikely."

Kiba huffed, "What about the other two, did you see them die too?"

Sakura frowned, "Captain Yamato went missing at the start of the war remember? And Sai was caught in the blast like the rest of us"

"So what you're saying is that they're both possibilities"

"No I'm saying that they don't seem likely either!" she said uncaring of the amount of noise she was making.

"Well why not? Who knows where Yamato was when everything went to shit and did you actually see Sai's body?"

"Well no bu-"she froze at the same time as Kiba, they could both sense the approach of Mebuki Haruno, "You need to leave immediately", and she started shoving Kiba towards her window.

"Wait, there's still stuff I need to tell you" Kiba protested

Sakura successfully pushed Kiba to the window, "it'll have to wait, now get out of here and do something useful"

Kiba, not wanting to be caught by Sakura's mother, climbed out of Sakura's window as fast as he could. Which albeit wasn't all that fast but fast enough that Mebuki didn't spot him, if the muffled conversation he could hear between the mother and daughter was to be believed.

"San! Come on we're leaving!" Kiba called to his canine companion.

Kiba wandered aimlessly around Konoha for a while, San trailing faithfully behind him. He was unsure of what he should do next, Sakura had said to do something useful but in his opinion that was easier said than done.

The most useful thing he could do would be to talk to Gaara again, however with all the security around the Suna Nin that would be next to impossible. He instead decided to go find Naruto.

He started to analyze the likelihood of the two note sender candidates as he walked.

He wasn't especially familiar with either of them.

He'd worked with Yamato during the hunt for Itachi, he seemed professional enough and thus it seemed unlikely that he'd address him as dog boy.

Sai was an entirely different matter.

He'd only met Sai a few times before he, Sai, Lee and Sakura went on their ill-advised mission to the land of Iron, they'd ended up attacking each other before Sakura had knocked them all out and left to face Sasuke alone. It had not left Kiba with a good impression of the guy.

Following that war preparation had begun in earnest leaving little time for him to interact with Sai in any other capacity than a professional one. He'd come off as a little odd, though he supposed that was due to his background in ROOT.

His gut was telling him that Sai was the more likely candidate, the note made him uneasy in the same way the former ROOT operative had. Even though Sakura had reported him to be K.I.A there was every chance she could be mistaken.

Obviously some people had survived Madara's final attack, Kiba was living proof, and maybe Sai had been similarly lucky (or unlucky depending on how you looked at it).

Sai made the most sense, presumably at this point in time Sai would still be in ROOT, which was a good reason for why he hadn't made contact until now and why he was unwilling to reveal himself.

The more he thought about it the more convinced he became. Sure he didn't really consider Sai a friend but he didn't really harbor any true ill will against him either. The specifics of Sai's past were a mystery to Kiba but considering the way the guy was he imagined it wasn't very pleasant.

Kiba was brought out of his thoughts when he realized he'd followed Naruto's scent unconsciously, Naruto's scent was rather 'distinctive', a mixture of ramen, sweat and a hint of fox which he'd never questioned as a kid.

Naruto was in their clearing practicing throwing though instead of with kunai he was using rocks. He was using the form Kiba had shown him yesterday clearly having taken his advice to heart. He was hitting the makeshift targets center once every 3 throws or so, a marked improvement from yesterday.

"Yo Naruto!" Kiba called

Naruto spun around at the sound of Kiba's voice and grinned at his friend, "Hey Kiba!" his brow furrowed in confusion as his gaze went to San, "isn't that one of Hana's dogs?"

"Uh yeah" he gestured to San, "this is San the youngest of the Haimaru triplets"

Naruto tilted his head questioningly, "and why's he with you?"

Kiba rubbed the back of his neck abashedly, "well uh ma didn't want me going out on my own today"

"Why not?" Naruto asked still curious.

Kiba shrugged.

Naruto unperturbed by his friends' reticence brightened up again, "Did you see me practicing throwing?"

Kiba nodded happy at the subject change, "Yeah, seems like you improved from yesterday. Though it'd be better if you practiced with kunai"

Naruto frowned, "I don't have kunai, the old man says I'm not old enough"

Kiba couldn't really relate to this problem. The young Inuzuka had been handing kunai since he was even smaller than he was now, albeit with supervision, and he was from one of the less strict clans. He knew some of the more uptight clans like the Uchiha and Hyuuga started on taijutsu training when their kids were practically still toddlers.

Kiba had started on the taijutsu basics when he was 4 which was still pretty young but at least he'd gotten the hang of walking by then. He knew for a fact that Hinata had been even younger than that when her taijutsu training had begun. His mother hadn't forced him to get really serious with his training until he'd gotten Akamaru.

Clan kids had a clear advantage going into the academy when compared to orphans like Naruto and kids from civilian families like Sakura. Those kids all had to start at square one while the clan kids all had at least basic taijutsu experience and depending on the clan maybe even some ninjutsu. Thinking about it now it seemed a little unfair.

He actually felt kind of bad for his past and future academy classmates, their year had seven kids from major clans and considering only nine were allowed to actually graduate at a time that only left two spots open which were of course filled by Sakura and Naruto.

Kiba was brought out of his musing by Naruto poking him, "Oooooiiiii Kiba listen!"

"Huh what?"

"You do that a lot y'know" Naruto groused.

"Do what?"

Naruto rolled his eyes, "y'know stop paying attention and stuff"

"I don't do it on purpose, just happens sometimes"

Naruto looked unconvinced before he shrugged, "you wanna play ninja?"

Kiba was a little lost at the change in topic, Naruto's train of thought was difficult to follow sometimes, "You don't wanna throw rocks anymore?"

"Nah I wanna play ninja now"

'Playing ninja' mostly just involved chasing each other around and a little play fighting. Kiba had never been one to turn down an opportunity to play and besides Sakura had told him to act his age, all the way back on their first day here.

The game was sufficiently distracting in that it took his mind off of Sai and the possible fairness or unfairness of the Academy. He was so distracted he didn't notice they were being approached until San barked to give him a heads up.

He paused at the sound of the bark causing Naruto who'd been chasing him to crash into him. They fell into a heap scraping up his knee. Kiba was raking up the injuries today, his arm was still sore from Sakura's earlier manhandling and now he was pretty sure his knee was bruised.

He looked up to see Sasuke and Shisui Uchiha, "just the people I wanted to see" he grumbled under his breath sarcastic tone to his voice.

Naruto had picked himself up off of Kiba and immediately lunged for Sasuke. Kiba guessed that was his way of saying hello or something, Sasuke and Naruto's friendship had never quite made sense to him.

Sasuke had expected the attempted assault from Naruto, he dodged the blondes' initial lunge and then lunged himself. This was a standard routine for the two of them, Kiba had witnessed this too many times to count since they'd warmed up to each other. They'd actually become friends rather quickly if not in an entirely conventional manner, it was significantly more antagonistic than the average friendship.

Kiba meanwhile was still sprawled on the ground, dull ache in his knee. Shisui crouched down in front of him, smile on his face, "we meet again"

Kiba groaned and rolled onto his back, the sky was a nice shade of blue he thought to himself.

His nice view of the sky was obstructed by Shisui's head, smile still firmly in place, "you ignoring me?"

Kiba ignored the question and continued to stare at the sky, or at least what he could of the sky around Shisui's big head, the sounds of Sasuke and Naruto's scuffle in the background, "you have a big head"

Shisui's smile did not fall, in fact if anything it got bigger, he nodded to himself like something had been confirmed, "yep you are definitely a weird kid"

Kiba glowered at the cheerful Uchiha "And you're rude"

"Ah sorry sorry, I think we started on the wrong foot somehow"

Kiba squinted up at Shisui, "are you famous or somethin'?" he was still trying to figure where he knew the name.

Shisui sat down next to Kiba and pondered the random question for a moment, "Well I don't like to brag, but you could say I'm strongest current member of the Uchiha clan"

"Are not! Itachi is way stronger than you" snapped Sasuke, his fight with Naruto having ended in a tie, he'd moved to sit near Kiba and his cousin. Naruto had sprawled out on his front next to Kiba.

Personally, Kiba thought that Shisui was full of crap, he looked 13 maybe 14 at the oldest, no way he was that strong.

Shisui fake clutched at his heart with his healthy arm, "Ah! You wound me Sasuke! How can you say such things?"

Sasuke, unmoved by his cousins theatrics continued, "if you were as strong as you say then you wouldn't have gotten injured on your last mission. Itachi never gets hurt on missions"

"That's not true, Itachi gets injured all the time" Shisui retorted

"Name one time!" Sasuke's voice got higher as he got more indignant

"Ah… you see I can't think of anything right this second but-"

"Cause it hasn't happened" Sasuke boasted, the hero worship Sasuke had for Itachi compared only to Naruto's adoration for ramen.

"You're fighting a losing battle there Shisui" Kiba chimed in

Naruto, not wanting to be left out of the stupid argument piped up, "Itachi is pretty strong. One time he threw two kunai and one caught the other on its handle so it was hangin' it was so cool!"

"I can do that" Kiba said before he could think better of it.

Naruto and Sasuke's reactions to the bold statement were instant, "What? No way!" Naruto crowed

"Prove it!" Sasuke cried

"Uh I don't have any kunai with me" Kiba backtracked, thinking about it he actually wasn't sure he could do it.

"I have kunai" Shisui chimed in, innocent look on his face

Kiba sat up and glared at the teenager, "fine but I need a proper target to throw at"

Shisui raised his eyebrows at the poor excuse, "what these makeshift targets not good enough for you?"

"Nope" Kiba replied stubbornly

"We can go to my house! Mom's been telling me to invite my friends over anyway" Sasuke chirped

He was actually being invited into the Uchiha compound, Kiba and Sakura had been trying to find a way to get closer to the Uchiha for months and it all it'd taken was Kiba running his mouth a little.

His gaze went to Shisui to check his reaction to the invitation but he looked completely at ease.

"Let's go!" Naruto hollered, running out of the clearing, Sasuke and Kiba hot on his heels.

The Uchiha compound was not what Kiba had been expecting, though he wasn't quite sure what exactly he had been expecting. Maybe for it be gloomier and less welcoming.

The Uchiha they passed paid them no mind aside from the odd glare at Naruto which was to be expected. The little jinchuuriki didn't seem to notice the looks anyway or if he did he didn't let on. However Sasuke, Kiba noted, definitely did notice the looks though it was obvious the little Uchiha didn't know what to make of them.

"Is Itachi back from his clan stuff yet?" Naruto asked

"No" Sasuke answered without elaborating, "we're here this is my house!"

Sasuke's home had a very traditional look and gave off a very homey vibe. Again not what Kiba had been expecting, he really needed to stop basing his expectations of Uchiha on the few he'd had significant interactions with. It seemed that they were the insane outliers rather than the norm, but then again the coup plan was pretty crazy so who knew.

"Your dog will have to wait out front Kiba" Sasuke asserted before they could go in

Kiba agreed easily, it wasn't like San needed to be able to see him to be able to monitor him.

They went into Sasuke's house to get to the back where the targets were, inside they were greeted by a women who bore a clear resemblance to Sasuke.

"Ah Sasuke, and you must be Naruto and Kiba" Sasuke's mother greeted warmly

"I'm here too, aunt Mikoto" Shisui quipped

Mikoto paid him no mind, "where is your other friend you're always mentioning? The girl, Sakura?"

Kiba decided to speak before Naruto outed Sakura's grounded status, "she's real busy today"

Naruto shot him a look but didn't say anything and he could feel Shisui staring at the back of his head, Kiba swallowed nervously. If Mikoto suspected he was omitting the truth she didn't give any indication just nodding and muttering something that sounded like 'maybe next time then'.

She turned to her son, "so what is it you boys are doing?"

"Kiba said he could do that kunai trick Itachi can where he throws two kunai and pins one to the target with the other" Sasuke rushed, "we can use the kunai if Shisui's watching us right?"

"I'll make sure no one hurts themselves promise" Shisui reassured

Mikoto seemed to think on it for a second, before nodding her agreement, "that's fine". She gave the three five year olds a stern look, "make sure you're careful with the kunai, they're sharp"

"Mom they know!" Sasuke whined

They all made their way out the back into a rather spacious backyard which sure enough had targets set out for kunai practice.

"How many goes am I gonna get trying this?" Kiba inquired crossing his fingers that it was more than once.

"What you can't do it first try" jeered Sasuke, "Itachi can do it first try"

Kiba narrowed his eyes but before he could say anything Shisui cut in, "you can have 10 tries. That work for you kid?"

"Sure, can I have some practice throws to warm up?" Kiba requested.

Both Sasuke and Naruto looked like they wanted to protest but Shisui poke up first, "sure that seems fair enough"

He did a few practice throws getting a feel for the weight of the kunai and the distance to the targets, he ignored the 'advice' that Naruto tried to give him.

His first real attempt didn't go too well, he hit the main part of the kunai instead of the handle like he was aiming.

His second attempt was even worse as though he hit the target with the second kunai he entirely missed the first kunai.

His third attempt was another close one, again the second kunai glanced off of the first, he was so close he could feel it.

As soon as he threw the kunai for his fourth attempt he could tell that he had done it, sure enough the second kunai thudded into the target catching the first before it could hit the ground. "YESSSSSSS TOLD YOU!" Kiba yelled turning to his audience.

Naruto and Sasuke both looked suitably impressed, Shisui on the other hand had an expression that Kiba could only describe as calculating, it was only there for a second, Kiba almost thought he'd imagined it but no, it'd definitely been there.

Naruto started babbling at Sasuke about how he was gonna be able to do that soon, Sasuke didn't seem to be buying it though. Kiba tuned them out as Shisui approached him, "who taught you to throw kunai like that?" he seemed genuinely curious.

"My ma taught me the basics and I practiced on my own after", it wasn't a lie technically that was what had happened, he was just leaving out the fact that he'd technically been practicing for over a decade.

"Your mom's name is Tsume right?"

"Yeah, you know her?" Kiba said surprised

"I've worked with her before" Shisui answered casually

Kiba blanched at that, his mother is a tokubetsu jonin, usually she was either under the command of a full rank jonin or leading chunin. Maybe he needed to rethink his impression of the guy, "just what rank are you exactly?",

Shisui grinned, "Wouldn't you like to know"

"Yeah that's why I asked" Kiba retorted impatient

Shisui paused, "why don't you ask your mom about me?"

Kiba was about to retort when Naruto (always with the impeccable timing) interrupted with a request that Kiba do the trick again.

Kiba managed to do the trick a couple more times though he wasn't very consistent, it was enough to impress Naruto and Sasuke, though Sasuke pretended it didn't. They both attempted to replicate the trick without success which didn't perturb them from trying over and over again.

Shisui managed to avoid any further questions by using Naruto and Sasuke as buffers it was rather effective as when it came time for Naruto and Kiba to leave he hadn't gotten anything out of him.

As soon as Kiba got back to the Inuzuka compound San ran off to find his brothers and Hana. Kiba continued home on his own, quest in mind.

There were thankfully no notes on the doorstep as Kiba stepped inside, "Ma you here?"

"In here Kiba" she called from a room at the back of the house that she used as a pseudo study

Kiba made his way towards the room poking his head through the doorway to see his mother reading what was probably a mission report of some kind.

She smiled at the sight of him, "hey pup, what'd you do today?"

He explained what he'd done that day leaving out his cut-short trip to see Sakura.

"Sasuke's cousin Shisui mentioned that he knew you" he said trying to be casual

Tsume smiled, "Shisui's a good kid, least stuck up Uchiha I've ever worked with"

Tsume continued on after that but Kiba stopped listening as he finally finally remembered where he'd heard Shisui's name before:

He'd heard it while eavesdropping, he'd been seven and his ma had looked sad, she never looked sad not even after his and Hana's dad ran off, Kiba had wanted to know why.

"Shisui was a good kid, I don't why he would kill himself"

Is what'd he'd heard.

Shisui had killed himself…

Why? It must have happened not long before the massacre, was that a coincidence? Or was it unrelated? He had so many unanswerable questions.

Kiba sighed he'd been hoping for a somewhat relaxing evening, instead it would appear he was gonna have another night of his brain bombarding him with questions and possibilities.

He tuned back in to what his mother was saying, who was looking at him concerned, "you feeling ok pup?"

"'I'm fine ma" he said attempting to brush off her concern

Tsume wasn't buying it, she stood up and gestured for her son to come closer, which he obeyed, once he was close enough she scooped him up into her arms.

"Ma I'm too big for this" Kiba spluttered halfheartedly

Tsume responded by holding him tighter.

Though Kiba would never admit to it out loud, being held felt nice.

Next chapter will probably be shorter than this one, though who knows this one turned out way longer than I thought it would so maybe the next one will too. By the way shout out to the person who totally called the possible note writers.