So, I started posting stories on Fanfiction about a year ago (well, a year ago on the thirtieth), and in that year, despite my grueling school schedule (fifteen credits a semester), I have managed to post an entire one million words. For that, I am giving myself a well deserved pat on the back. And now, on to the new leg of the journey!

Welcome to the Search for Tsunade arc! I'm planning all sorts of fun for this set of chapters. Starting, of course, with a familiar face that I'm hoping we all love (and one that we might love to hate).

And this chapter is going to do a lot of P.O.V. switching between Ciara and Sasuke. Next chapter, I'll be kicking it off with a P.O.V. not yet seen, and I truly hope to do justice to it.


Ciara's P.O.V.

With all of the cleanup from the attack going on, I've been pulling some shifts at the hospital to help out with the fallout. Some ninja are still suffering from injuries, even a couple of weeks after the fact. Not to mention all of the injuries that have been cropping up during the reconstruction. It's incredible, really. Ninja may be good at sneaking about, but give them a hammer and some boards, and somehow, they'll manage to break a leg. It's astounding, really.

It's nearly noon, which means that it's about time for me to go on a lunch break. Which, of course, means retreating to one of the unused medical rooms for some peace and quiet. I can just sit on the windowsill and look up at the sky while I eat.

Unwrapping a sandwich, I sit next to the window and gaze up at the bright blue sky. There's only a few clouds, and the sky is so blue that it reminds me of Naruto's eyes. I smile at the thought, and take a big bite out of my sandwich. I wonder what Naruto is up to right now...? Knowing him, it's lunchtime, so he's probably stuffing his face with ramen.

Suddenly, there's a rustle of leaves, and out of the tree flies a large black bird. It flaps its way towards the window, and perches on the sill right next to me. It's more than a little surprising, since crows don't usually get so close to people. Then I glance down at my sandwich and smile. Is that what its after? I reach into my bag for the other half of the sandwich and slide off some of it. "Here." I hold out the food on my palm.

The crow cocks its head and looks at the sandwich curiously, before turning intelligent eyes on me. Then, it picks the food off my hand and takes off into the air. I watch each flap of its wings as it flies off into the sky, feeling a little wistful.

"Hey there, kid."

I look down to just below the window, where a certain old pervert is sitting on top of a toad. "Oh, hi. Jiraiya, right?"

"Good memory..." He smiles strangely at me. "Tell me, do you feel like going on a little trip outside the village?"

"A trip?" I raise an eyebrow. "What for?"

His smile grows a little bigger. "I'm looking for a woman."

For some reason, that rings a little strange. "Oh? And what's so special about this woman?" If all he wanted was girls to peek at, he hardly has to go on a trip for that, let alone ask me to come along.

His eyes narrow slightly, likely in amusement. "Well, aren't you a sharp one." He beckons out the window. "I've already cleared it with the chief of staff. Why don't you finish up your lunch and get packed. I'll tell you an Naruto a bit more on the road."

As soon as he mentions Naruto, I stuff the rest of my food into my mouth as quickly as I can swallow it. "Alright, give me fifteen minutes to pack my stuff. Should I assume that this is going to take a couple of weeks at least?"

He nods. "Pack for a month, just to be safe."

"Alright." I drop out of the window, being careful not to hit the toad on the way down. "I'll meet you at the front gate."


Fifteen minutes later, I've got a travel bag packed, my medical kit stocked, and my tanto strapped securely to my hips. There's nothing more for me to take without is being pointless and cumbersome. So I lock up my house securely and make for the front gate of the village.

Of course, I suppose that it must be some kind of joke that Izumo and Kotetsu are the ones working the front gate today. And I can't help but smirk when I get close. "So, no genin to harass today?"

The two of them look up at me, and Kotetsu grimaces slightly. "You're never going to let that go, are you?"

"Oh...give it a couple of months, maybe then I'll have forgotten about it." I wave him off easily, my smirk now becoming something of a permanent fixture on my face.

Izumo snickers quietly. "You sure gave us something to think about that day, that's for sure." Then his snickers die down. "It's too bad about the exams, though. I think you'd make a great chunin."

I shrug easily. "It doesn't really matter to me what rank I am. I go where I'm needed and do what I have to. There's not much point in arguing over a designation if I'm already contributing in the ways I do best."

Kotetsu smiles. "Spoken like a true chunin. Maybe next time you'll get that promotion."

"Maybe..." I look back down the path, but so far, there's no sight of either Jiraiya or Naruto.

Izumo watches me curiously. "So...what are you doing here? There's been no word about you having a mission outside the village today."

"I'm not sure if I would call it a mission..." I frown slightly at Jiraiya's absence. "But I've been requested to tag along as part of a traveling group. We're supposed to leave soon."

"Traveling group?" Izumo opens up his ledger and scans down the list. "But...the only person leaving the village soon is..." His eyes widen. "Jiraiya? As in one of the legendary Sannin?"

"Sannin?" I've never heard him called that before. "Well, I don't know about the Sannin part, but yeah, that's him. Tall old guy with white hair, a little too fond of pretty girls..."

Their eyes widen a little, and Izumo closes the ledger. "Uh...well, if you're here waiting for him, then I guess that's okay."

Good." I look back down the road, and a familiar head of bright blond hair appears, dragging along a bag that honestly should be illegal. And as he gets closer, I sweatdrop a little. "Uh...Naruto? Exactly how long are you packing for?"

"Well, you never know what we could run into!" He plops the bag down eagerly, and I swear that it's taller than he is, because it's certainly taller than I am.

"Yoohoo! Brats!" Jiraiya waves to us from down the street. "All ready to go!?"

While I resent the brat label, I glance over at Naruto's bag, which he must have packed half his apartment in. "Well...that's debatable."

Naruto leans down to adjust his sandal quickly, before straightening back up. "Alright, I'm ready." He goes to pick up that monstrous bag of his. "Let's move out!"

Jiraiya sweatdrops a little at the sight of the bag. "You, uh...don't think you might have overdone it a little? You do realize we're not going on a trip around the world, right?"

I groan quietly. "Even if we were going on a trip around the world, I wouldn't pack nearly that heavy..." Mostly because I don't want to lug around that much stuff, since I'm pretty sure that there would be a ton of walking involved.

And that's how we end up waiting an extra half hour for Naruto to return most of the stuff back to his apartment, and come back with a much more reasonable bag for traveling.


As expected, our trip starts off with a whole lot of walking. And it's not even a half hour in that Naruto is getting over-excited and impatient. "Well, come on Pervy Sage! What's this new jutsu you're gonna teach me!? The last time around, it was the walk on water jutsu!" He stops all of a sudden a crazy grin on his face. "Ooh! Is it walking through fire!? Oh, wait, maybe walking on air?" He catches up quick, his imagination clearly going nuts. "Aw, come on Pervy Sage, let's hear it already!"

"Jiraiya stops in his tracks. "Alright, enough with the Pervy Sage already. You have no idea how amazing a guy I am, do you?"

"Huh?" Naruto cocks his head to the side. "What, amazingly pervy?"

I cover my mouth and try not to look like I'm laughing while Jiraiya sputters. "What!? Argh...you..." He jogs onto a bridge ahead of us and turns to face us dramatically. "Alright, listen up! The Toad Sage is only my cover!" He hops around a little, his arms waving in the air. "Allow me to reveal my true identity." He starts swinging his long mane of hair around, and it makes him almost look like a weird porcupine. "From the north to the south, and the east to the west, not even the spirits can defeat this Sannin!" A toad poofs into existence right under his feet. "The white-maned Toad Charmer! A red-hot ninja who strikes fear in the hearts of men, Master Jiraiya! Yes, I'm speaking of none other than myself!"

Naruto...is not impressed. " ...?"

I cough a little to cover up a strangled laugh. "Uh...maybe I should point out a few things. Like...you're old, we're twelve, and we don't hear a lot of old war stories or anything. So...we've never actually heard of you before." Now that I think about it, it's probably not a good idea for me and Naruto to be off with a strange old man. But...then again, if he went to all of the trouble of making sure that it was okay with the higher ups to take us wherever he's going, then I doubt that we would have been allowed to leave through the front gate if he was a shady guy. He's probably just eccentric.

Really eccentric...

Eventually, we come to a road sign, and Naruto tries reading the directions. "Ah...Atafuku Town, that's ten kilometers from here."

"No...it's Otafuku Town." Jiraiaya corrects Naruto surprisingly patiently, considering how impatient he's been.

"Oh..." NAruto blinks a few times, then nods. Then, he realizes that we've leaving him behind. "Ah, hey, hey, hey! Pervy Sage!"

Jiraiya stops and grumbles slightly. "Look, kid, I told you already, it's Jiraiya. Come on!"

"So, the fact that such a bigwig Pervy Sage chose me as a traveling companion must mean something, right!?" Naruto's grin goes on for miles. "I must be a potential genius in the making! Aw man, it's just like I always thought!" He points right at my face, not even looking at me. "I mean, if you brought her, then that means you see the same kind of potential in me too, right!? Com one, come on, come on! Why'd ya choose me!?" I'm not entirely sure if I should be worried about Naruto thinking that he's a genius all of a sudden, or if I should be happy with the backhanded compliment he just shot me.

Jiraiya bows his head slightly. "Well, the truth is, kid, a long time ago, the Fourth Hokage used to be a disciple of mine." Wait, what now? "And you bear such a striking resemblance to the Fourth that it's almost laughable." Then, he walks right past Naruto. "Sorry, that's the only reason I got for ya."

But upon hearing that, Naruto takes off like he's had way too much sugar. And he's yelling some nonsense about being a genius or something. But this is all starting to seem a little suspicious. He looks just like the Fourth...? But how is that possible? I've never seen anyone other than Naruto with hair that blond, or eyes that blue.

Then, Naruto goes and steps in some dog crap, and Jiraiya finally loses it. "The only similarities you share with the Fourth Hokage is pigheadedness and that spiky blond hair of yours!"

"What was that, you senile old perv!?" Naruto is getting more worked up by the second. So worked up, in fact, that he goes and steps in yet another pile of the stinky stuff.

I sigh and shake my head. Why do I get the feeling that these two are going to drive me insane before the trip is over? I swear that the two of them are like a couple of little kids.


We finally stop to take a rest just outside of a small shrine. And while I'm pulling out something to eat, Naruto races up towards the giant bells hung there, and starts ringing them like an excited five year old.

Jiraiya rolls his eyes. "Keep it up...you'll be cursed."

Naruto laughs and makes himself a few clones to play with. "Hey, Pervy Sage. What kind of a student was the Fourth Hokage?"

I stop eating and glance over at Jiraiya, since the answer to that question ought to be interesting. But then a grin crosses his face. "Well, I think it's safe to say that he rose to greatness because of my tutelage. So, to land me as a sensei, well, kid, let's just say you hit the jackpot, okay?" That draws a confused sound out of Naruto. "Oh, what, you don't believe me?" Jiraiya looks mockingly offended. "A good sensei naturally begets good disciples, it goes without saying."

"So, wait a second, Pervy Sage. If that's true, then who did you have for a sensei?" Naruto is bringing up a good question there.

"Who, me?" Jiraiya grins mischievously. "I first studied under the Third Hokage. Of course, this was back when the Third Hokage was still a young spring chicken."

And answer shocks Naruto so much that he and his clones topple over, the three of them disappearing as the bells fall down on Naruto's head. I cringe a little, then turn away and stuff some more food into my mouth. Under the old man, huh...? I guess that explains why he's such a pervert. Naruto made sure to regale me with the stories of his Sexy Jutsu escapades while I was working to master the Shadow Clone Jutsu. Needless to say, I'm scarred for life.

Naruto somehow manages to tie himself up with the bells and roll right down the temple steps. But he's still giggling when he hits the ground. "I uh...got a little tangled up."

Jiraiya gets up and shakes his head. "What'd I tell ya? Those curses are no joke." Curse...? Yeah right. That's just Naruto's clumsiness at work. "Hm...so wait, if you studied with Kakashi, then that must mean you went through the bell training, am I right?"

"Huh?" Naruto looks confused for a second, before smiling again. "Oh yeah, I did. I forgot about that. Only I was tied to a stump. Man, I forgot how bad all of that stunk."

"Bell training...? Stumps...?" This is starting to sound something like a torture session.

But Jiraiya seems to be a bit more amused than me. "What? You too, huh?"

"Me too?" Naruto frowns. "Me too what?"

"Uh..." Jiraiya backpedals quickly. "Forget about it, just hurry up and put those things back where ya got em."

"Easier said than done! I'm kinda...tied up." Naruto struggles with the bells, only to hopelessly get himself even more tangled up.

"Here...I've got it..." I jump down the stairs and land right next to Naruto. "Now, hold still." I slip my fingers between the ribbons and the material of his jacket, pulling out the ends of the ribbons carefully. I go about unwinding the ribbons slowly, untangling Naruto delicately. "There we go..." As I yank gently on the ribbons, they come loose, and Naruto can slip out of them without knotting himself back up.

He grins like a little maniac. "Wow, that was awesome!" He picks the bells back up and starts running up the steps. "I'll put them back now!"

"Alright..." I giggle a bit as I watch him hang upside down, tying the bells back up. Well, I hope that he doesn't really get any bad luck. That would suck. I pick up my bag and sling it back over my shoulder as Jiraiya chuckles. "Hm?"

Naruto catches on and races over. "Hey, what is it!? Come on, spill it! What's so funny, Pervy Sage!?"

"Huh?" He turns to Naruto a bit bemused. But then, a smile replaces his earlier expression. "Ah, come on, kid, just what I was saying before. A good teacher produces good disciples."

"A good teacher, huh?" From what he said earlier, it sounds like Jiraiya went through the bell training as well. And if he went through the bell training, and Kakashi did that with Naruto's team, then there's got to be some kind of connection between Jiraiya and Kakashi. Hm...maybe...the Fourth Hokage? Jiraiya said that the Fourth was a student of his...so maybe it went from the Third, to Jiraiya, to the Fourth, to Kakashi, and now to Naruto? I mull over the theory, then shrug. "Whatever..." It's not worth busting my brain over right now.


Sasuke's P.O.V.

Kakashi disappeared on me earlier, not that it's much of a surprise. Which is why I'm just outside of his apartment. He'd better have a good reason for being late this time, because I'm not feeling all that forgiving. I push open his door without even knocking. "Kakashi!?" That's when I freeze, because the other genin squad leaders are in the room as well. And Kakashi is lying in bed, clearly unconscious. "Why is Kakashi asleep, and why is this room full of jounin?" This can't possibly be a coincidence. "What are you doing? What's going on here!?" I look around for answers, expecting them quickly.

"Uh...not much, really..." Gai's answer was way too hesitant to be true.

"Hey, is it true that Itachi has returned!?" A new jounin pokes his head in, panicked. "And that he's come here to get Naruto!?"

At the mere mention of that name, all of my blood turns to ice. I push past the new jounin and race out of the room, my heart pounding in my chest. In no time, I'm racing across rooftops, a single destination in mind. So, he's come back to the village, huh? And he's after Naruto? What does this mean? I know where Naruto's apartment is, and that's my first stop.

Luckily, the dobe keeps forgetting to lock his door. So I turn the knob and pull the door open, only to have Sakura nearly tumble onto me. "Hey, Sasuke."

"Where's Naruto!? I have no time for games right now.

"Uh, well...I don't know, I just got here myself." As soon as she's answered my question, I'm gone.

If Naruto gets caught, he's dead! If he's not at his apartment, then he's probably out training somewhere. But the dobe changes training ground so often that it'll take too long to search the entire village. So, there's only one place to go to get the information I need.

Ciara.

I'm at the hospital in only a couple of minutes, and I head straight for the front desk. I know that she's been pulling a lot of shift here the last couple of weeks. With no missions going on, her medical skills are best put to use here. So I ring the bell for the front desk and a nurse appears in a couple of seconds. "Yes? Can I help you?"

"Ciara Shiryugu, she's a genin who's been pulling shifts here at the hospital lately. Do you know where I can find her?" I have no time to beat around the bush, if I can't find her and fast, then I'm just going to have to hit every spot that Naruto likes to hang out. And that'll take forever.

"Ciara?" The nurse blinks quickly, before checking her charts. "Yeah...Ciara...normally, she's in the trauma section, but..." She keeps checking her charts. "That's right, she's been taken off her shifts indefinitely."

"What!?" She's not here? "Why was she taken off her shifts?"

"Hm..." The nurse frowns. "Something about leaving the village for a research trip? I believe that the man called himself Jiraiya. He said that he was hoping to take her along with another genin out to the outpost town, Otafuku."

Another genin!? It has to be Naruto. If there's a trip involved, there's no way that those two would go without each other. "What did this Jiraiya look like?"

"Hm...tall, definitely over six feet tall. Long white hair, and a headpiece that says hermit on it. He wore huge geta, a red jacket, and had a scroll on his back."

That's definitely enough of a description to work with, especially since I know Naruto and Ciara's appearances well enough that if I had a talent for drawing, I could do it blindfolded. I race out of the hospital and towards the village wall. It's better for me to just bypass the gate, since I don't need anything slowing me down.

Because if I don't hurry, both of them are going to die.


Ciara's P.O.V.

Walking into the town, it's definitely nothing like I expected. And Naruto either, by the looks of it. He looks around in a daze."Oh man, this town is pretty weird."

"Yeah..." I look around, and everywhere I look, there's something I've never seen before. I really need to get out more...

"Naruto, Ciara!" Jiraiya calls our attention towards an inn. "We're gonna crash here tonight."

"Huh!? What!? But why!?" Naruto puts up a fuss in an instant. "I can still walk."

While I'm suspicious of the motives, I'm definitely not going to lie. "Same here, I've still got a few kilometers left in me today."

Jiraiya snorts a little. "A disciple should always obey their master."

"Look, I just wanna learn some jutsu, okay?" Naruto huffs impatiently, his enthusiasm getting the better of him.

I cross my arms defiantly. "And last I checked, I'm only along for the ride. I don't ever remember you offering to train me." Though...if he can teach me how to wield lightning, earth, or water, I certainly won't complain about it.

Jiraiya sighs exasperatedly. "Alright, alright, I get it, you two both want to learn something. That's what makes you disciples." He now seems to be implying that I will indeed be learning something on this trip. And I'm perfectly fine with that.

And of course, that's when a pretty lady happens to walk by the front of the inn. And...I can already see where this is going... She flips her hair suggestively at Jiraiya, and even Naruto is caught by the spell. Then, Jiraiya shoves a key into Naruto's hands. "Here's the room key, I want you to go right up to the room, train for a little, work on your chakra, ask Ciara for help if you need it, then get to bed, okay?"

Naruto blows up in less than half a second. "Oh, so I suppose you're gonna tell me it's time for the grownups to play now? Is that the vibe here, you big perv!?"

"Alright! You two be good!" Jiraiya disappears so quickly that it's like he was never even there in the first place.

So, that leaves me to drag Naruto upstairs, since I have absolutely no interest in watching Jiraiya do...whatever it is he's planning on doing. "Come on, let's just get to our room and get ready for bed. If we go to sleep early, then maybe we can get an early start to the day tomorrow."

"Aw...come on, why does he get to have all the fun!?" Naruto grumbles as I drag him upstairs.

Still, I fight the urge to cringe. "Do you really want to participate in whatever games that pervert has in mind?" I look back at Naruto seriously as I open up our room. "Because I sure don't. I'm twelve, which means that I am perfectly happy leaving the grownup games to the grownups. Maybe I'll be more interested in four or five years, but definitely not right now." Because I know more than enough about anatomy to know how the kunai and pouches metaphors apply.

"Fine..." Naruto grumbles as he tosses his pack inside and claims a bed. Then, he sits down and pulls his hands together so that he can focus on some chakra training. "Aw, man...every single time I'm with that Pervy Sage, I always end up getting shafted."

I cringe at his unintentional joke, as well as at the memory of some rather crude patients. What did I do to get stuck with a couple of idiots...?


Sasuke's P.O.V.

This place is huge,and there are inns everywhere. I feel like I've checked half of the inns in this place. It seems like Naruto is just nowhere to be found. And I've gotten only one lead that turned out to be a false lead.

Okay...so how do I find them? There's got to be something that makes them different from anyone else in this town. I wrack my brain, trying to come up with a solution. And just as I pinch the bridge of my nose, it hits me. I get a flash of one of the times that Ciara's tended to my eyes. Her chakra! It's white! She's the only person I've seen with white chakra before, so if I can find that, I'll find her and the dobe, no problem.

I activate my Sharingan, and race through the streets, letting my eyes guide me. And then, about five minutes later, I get a hit. Up on the second floor of one of the inns, there's a person with white chakra flowing through them. It's resting, but from the looks of it, she's agitated. And not in a good way. And right next to her are three other chakra signatures. One of them is definitely Naruto's.

Found you!

And that means that I've found Itachi too.


Ciara's P.O.V.

There's a knocking on the door all of a sudden, and Naruto finally dispels all of his clones, who ironically fell asleep when they were supposed to be doing the training too. He grumbles and gets to his feet. "Ugh, what now? Are you telling me she dumped you already." There's another knock, and Naruto just gets even more annoyed. "I heard you the first time!" He walks to the door and pulls out the key. "Alright, hold on, just let me unlock it."

He opens the door, but instead of Jiraiya's voice, there's only silence. And that freaks me out for a second. "Naruto, who's there?" I poke my head around the corner, only to see a pair of ruby red eyes staring at me, towering over Naruto, who is frozen in fear.

But while Naruto stays frozen to the spot, memories come rushing back to me all at once, and I find myself leaping off the bed. "Chi-Chi!" I barrel into him, gripping the front of his cloak tightly. Though, as usual, he's easily a foot and a half taller than me, and I barely come up to mid-chest on him.

"Hm...what an unexpected surprise. I didn't realize that you'd be recognized so easily, Itachi." Another man appears at the door, even taller than Itachi. "There must be a story there...Chi-Chi." Then, his eyes flick to Naruto. "Hmph, hard to believe that such a child carries the Nine-Tailed Fox."

Instantly, my blood runs cold, and my grip loosens. My hands fall away from Itachi's cloak and I back away, putting myself between them and Naruto. "What...do you want with us?"

Itachi's eyes flick down to me, a coldness in his eyes that I've never seen before. A forced coldness. Then, his eyes drift behind me. "Naruto, you're coming with us."

Naruto trembles a little behind me, I can feel the vibrations in the air. "Ciara, who...is this guy? Why do you know him?"

"He's..." I take a deep breath and look fearlessly into the eyes of one of the people I love most. "Well, I guess you could say that he's my uncle. Though technically, I suppose that cousin would be more accurate. Right, Itachi?"

Despite the unusual coldness in his eyes, there is also a flicker of recognition in their depths. And like the saying goes, the eyes are the windows to the soul. He knows who I am. But if I'm going to keep their attention off of Naruto and divide their focus, then it's about time he knows what I am. Because I'm along for this crazy ride too.

"Now, I'm going to ask one more time." I look up at the tall man with the blue skin. My eyes burn with the fire that rages in my heart. "What do you want with us?"