They had traveled for two days. Naruto had called a halt late on the evening of the second day so they could set up camp. They would arrive in Nagano early the next morning and get to work. With tents up and camp fire going Naruto had gobbled down his food and quickly excused himself.

As Ino slowly nibbled a rice ball she looked at the way Tayuya was wolfing down her food. "You eat like a boy."

Tayuya gave her an annoyed look. "Excuse me for being hungry."

Ino smiled. "It's all right; I actually admire your courage. It's really brave of you not to care about your figure."

Tayuya snarled. "A kunoichi cares more about being strong and healthy than about how she looks to a guy who couldn't care less anyway."

"Speaking of looks there's something I want to give you." Reaching into a pouch she pulled out an item. "This is called a hair brush. I doubt you've seen one before. You might want to try it on that mop you call a head of hair." Ino tossed the brush over to her.

"Gee thanks, I have something for you too." She reached into her weapons pouch. "This is called a kunai, that's ku… nai. You have probably never seen one of these, it's a weapon used by ninja and not for dainty little pretty girls like you." With a flick of her wrist she sent it straight into the ground between Ino's feet. "You should try using it holding the sharp end."

Sasuke stood.

"Where are you going Sasuke-kun?" Ino asked anxiously.

"I never thought I'd say this, but I think I'd rather hang out with the dobe." With that he slouched away.

Ino looked angrily at Tayuya. "Great! You made him leave!"

"No need to thank me."

XXXXXXXXXX

Sasuke found Naruto and four of his clones in a small clearing about a couple hundred yards away. They each had a different section of the file and were reading it.

"Well here's something I never thought I'd see. The dead last of the academy actually studying something."

All five Narutos looked up as Sasuke entered the clearing and sat down on a log, uninvited.

"What do you want teme?" The original asked him.

Sasuke shrugged. "I was just trying to get away from the girls."

Naruto nodded wearily. "Yeah."

"So since when are you an actual student? I can't remember even one class where you didn't end up falling asleep."

"Hey, I fell asleep because those lectures were boring and I never cared. And except for Iruka-sensei all my teachers were jerks who didn't deserve my attention anyway. When I actually want to learn something I don't have any trouble concentrating."

Sasuke smirked. "Yeah, right."

Naruto immediately felt annoyed and angry at Sasuke's simple dismissal of him. "Hey, I'm the guy who learned the kage bushin in just a few hours, the blades of wind in one night, and the Yondaime's rasengan in three months. Ebisu even said I was the best student he ever had."

"So what?" Sasuke said coolly. "He probably says that to all his students to make them feel good." Sasuke felt just a bit annoyed at Naruto's bragging, even if his list of accomplishments sounded pretty impressive. What do I care? It's just Naruto. "If I had Jiraiya and Ebisu teaching me I'd have learned even more."

"I didn't have anyone helping me with the kage bushin. Do you think you could learn it in just a few hours?"

"If you did it then I could, there's no way you could ever out match me."

Naruto scowled. "Because you're an Uchiha right?"

Sasuke nodded. "That's right, my heritage and my blood make me special."

"I don't believe that, it's what you do that counts not whose blood you have."

"If you believe that you really are a baka." Seeing Naruto about to explode Sasuke held up his hands. "Look, I didn't come here to argue with you. I was trying to get away from arguments for awhile." He nodded towards the file. "So what have you figured out so far?"

Though he still wanted to yell at the arrogant teme Naruto decided to instead answer his question. "Supai was a Chunin who specialized in genjutsu with no special talent in taijutsu or ninjutsu. He specialized in information gathering and was highly respected in his field. At the time of his defection he was being considered for the Jonin exam. He stands five foot ten, brown eyes, black hair, described as handsome with a warm smile. His personality is described as charming; from all accounts he had a real gift for getting people to like him. He was twenty five at the time he went rogue which would make him thirty three now. He has no surviving family, no close friends, and no known associates, a real loner. Despite his success as a spy he likes attention. And that's everything I know about our target."

Sasuke nodded. "Pretty thorough for someone we're never going to meet."

"Wrong teme, we're going to find this guy and bring him in."

"Naruto," Sasuke sounded exasperated. "Supai is probably long dead, or if he's not he's hiding in some hole in the wall a long way from here. Whoever's committing these crimes it's definitely not him."

"What makes you so sure about that?"

Sasuke shrugged. "Don't you think if it were still him one of the other teams would have noticed? I mean even the hunter nins have given up on finding him, what does that tell you?"

"That they gave up too easy," Naruto said firmly. "Going over the file it's obvious they figured it had to be someone else because they stopped finding his scent. But I talked to Kiba and he says it's possible to change your scent. That means he is the one behind all this and that we will catch him."

"And you base all that on a conversation with Kiba?"

"I base it on the fact that this guy was good at what he did and whoever has been doing all these other crimes has been good enough to get away with it without ever being spotted. Talent like that is hard to come by so I don't believe a copycat could have done all this. If it were a copycat he wouldn't have been as talented and would have gotten caught by now. That means it has to be the real Supai."

Sasuke smirked. "This is all just wishful thinking. The Hokage doesn't expect us to actually find anything. That's why he made such a big deal about the time limit. All this is, is a chance for you to get some experience leading a team."

"Whether he expects us to or not this is a real mission and I plan on succeeding."

Sasuke stood up. "Whatever, I'm going to try and get some sleep." He left the clearing, careful not to let Naruto see his smile.

XXXXXXXXXX

Nagano was a large modern city on Fire country's eastern coast. Its wealth came from trade and the fishing industry. It was a large sprawling city with modern sky scrapers and a crowded sky line. At the very sight of it Ino's eyes lit up and thoughts of shopping malls and gourmet restaurants filled her head.

"First I want to go shopping!" Ino exclaimed. "Then I want to find some place that serves western style food. Then I want to go to the beach." She looked over at Sasuke and batted her eyelashes. "Do you want to join me Sasuke-kun?"

"Ino," Naruto said. "This isn't a get away, it's a mission."

Ino smiled back. "Oh I know that, but how long could it take?"

XXXXXXXXXX

Several hours later.

Ino was tapping her foot angrily and glaring at her partner. "How long is this supposed to take?" She ground out. "Here we are in this beautiful city and we've spent the whole day interviewing people!"

Tayuya looked at her without the slightest sympathy. "This is the whole reason we're down here remember?"

"I thought we came here to investigate one crime. How were there so many? And more importantly why am I stuck interviewing witnesses with you instead of with Sasuke-kun?"

"I have no idea why there were so many crimes. As for that last part, I think Sasuke threatening to give Naruto a, 'thousand years of death with chidori' whatever the hell that is, had something to do with it."

"Hah! Sasuke-kun was obviously joking when he said he didn't want to be partnered with me. Only a total baka like Naruto would fail to see that. I know that deep down Sasuke-kun is just desperate to spend time alone with me."

Tayuya just looked at her for a second. "What color is the sky in your world?"

XXXXXXXXXX

In a dingy little office in police head quarters Sasuke and five Narutos sat around a small table going over a pile of police reports.

Sasuke closed the file he was looking at and rubbed his weary. "It's now official. This is the worst mission ever."

All the Narutos grinned. "Even worse than chasing that damn cat?" The original said.

"We never had to spend six hours chasing Tora." He finished rubbing his eyes and looked at the blonde. "What the hell are we doing here Naruto?"

"We're doing our mission. We're investigating all the cases that might be connected to Supai."

Sasuke shook his head. "We were called down here to investigate one crime. Why are we going through all these police reports and why are the girls interviewing all the victims and witnesses?"

"Just because we were called in about one crime doesn't mean that others didn't take place. All these reports are crimes that might have involved genjutsu or even just henge. They were reported to the local police who didn't seem to want to call in help from the village." Naruto pulled out a particular file. "The only reason this one got sent to the Hokage was that the guy insisted on it."

Sasuke smirked. "Well, if you got conned out of five million ryu you would too."

"Yeah, but there have been a bunch of smaller crimes that fit Supai's profile." He looked at all the files in front of him and his clones. "There have been twenty three crimes in the past ten weeks that fit the profile. The amounts stolen ranging from a few thousand ryu to a couple hundred thousand. All of the thefts were non violent with the victims being tricked into handing their money over to the thief. If we can find a connection between all these crimes maybe it will point the way to Supai."

"You really think we're going to find this guy don't you?"

"Yeah, I do."

XXXXXXXXXXx

That evening the team reassembled at a restaurant near police headquarters to have dinner and go over their findings.

"So what did you find out?" Naruto asked eagerly.

"That people don't like having their minds read." Ino announced.

"Huh?" Naruto replied.

Ino let out an annoyed sigh. "Since we weren't dealing with prisoners I had to get permission to use my jutsus to read people's memories. Most people didn't like that and only a few of them agreed."

"But you did get to read some of their minds right?" Naruto asked. "What did you find out?"

"Not much," Ino admitted. "The images I saw of the con man were all different, even the voices."

"That wouldn't be surprising if we really are dealing with a genjutsu expert." Tayuya said.

Ino sent her an annoyed look but continued. "The circumstances were different too. One time the guy saw his wife telling him their son had been arrested and that she needed money to pay his bail. Another time a man was convinced he was being haunted and paid off an exorcist. All the situations were different."

"Did the con man seem to know the victims pretty well?" Sasuke asked.

"He seemed to Sasuke-kun," Ino said.

"Do the victims have anything in common?" Naruto asked.

Ino looked embarrassed and her cheeks darkened. "Uh, no, not really."

"Are you sure?" Naruto asked.

"Uh, well…"

Sasuke looked at her. "Ino, if there's something tell us."

Looking very uncomfortable she glanced down and muttered something.

"I'm sorry, I didn't catch that." Naruto said.

Ino took a deep breath. "They all went to the same, ah place for, ah, entertainment."

"What sort of entertainment?" Sasuke asked.

"The ah, nudey kind."

"Oh," Naruto said matter of factly. "So they all went to the same strip club?" Three sets of eyes all locked in on him. "What?"

"Naruto," Ino said shocked. "Have you ever been in one of those places?"

"Sure, when I was traveling with ero-sennin."

XXXXXXXXXX

Flashback

Four Narutos picked up an unconscious Jiraiya to begin hauling him back to their hotel. This was not the first time, it was not even the fifth or sixth. He had actually gotten pretty used to the sight of barely dressed women. So the fact he was surrounded by five women in nothing but lingerie and high heels had little effect on him.

"Thanks again for letting me take my sensei back to the hotel."

"No problem sweetie," a particularly busty blonde in fishnet answered. "Tell him to come back anytime. And you come back too when you're a little older."

"Uhm, o.k.," he answered politely as he hauled Jiraiya away.

XXXXXXXXXX

The three of them were still staring at him. Ino in horror, Sasuke in mild admiration hidden beneath feigned disinterest, and Tayuya in amusement.

"So does Hinata know about this?" Ino asked.

"No," Naruto said. "Why? Do you think I should mention it to her?"

"No!" All three of them shouted at once.

Naruto shook his head. "Whatever, anyway thanks Ino. Now we have a lead, let's finish up with dinner so we can go investigate."

"Investigate? Naruto, you don't mean…"

Naruto simply nodded. "Let's go investigate the strip club."

Sasuke smirked. "You know dobe; this mission has actually gotten more interesting."

Tayuya grinned at him. "Now you do realize that this place has female strippers, right?"