"So, who is your mommy, Naruto?"

"Whadya mean? Mama is Mama." The small boy gnashed his teeth together. "But Mama is gone." He spat through gritted fangs.

"Who is your daddy?"

"I dunno. What's a daddy?"

"Well, Naruto, a daddy is like a mommy but instead of a woman, a daddy is a man."

"Man? Woman?" The little blond asked confusedly.

"Mhm. You've seen how people are different, right?"

A nod.

"Well, some people have really long hair, and their chest is bouncy."

Naruto nodded eagerly. He could remember his Mama's chest, soft and comfy and he loved when she gave him a hug.

"Well, people with a bouncy chest are women."

"Like Mama?"

"Yes, your mommy was a woman. But all women are not mommy. Mama was Mama because she had you."

"Oh. But I don't have Mama anymore", said young Naruto with a white, strained voice. "Will-" his tone wavered and pitched, "will you be my daddy?"

"Yes, Naruto. I can be if you want."

The blond nodded eagerly, gripping the hand leading him harder, quickly squashing the tears that spilled from the corners of his eyes. There was a lull in the conversation while Naruto calmed himself.

"Where are we going?"

"To your new home."

"Home?"

"Somewhere safe, where you'll want to come back to. Somewhere a part of your heart will remain."

The boy tried to puzzle what such a place could be like, what it could be like but came with a blank. As far back as his memory went, his mother and he had constantly been on the move, from one village to the next, welcomed for a time until people eventually chased them away. Then… Naruto scrunched up his face, willing his tears to recede. Then angry people, angrier than he had ever seen people be, had taken his mother. She had told him to run, run like the wind and run he had, his guts torn apart by fear.

"You'll meet your siblings there."

"Siblings?"

"Young boys and girls like you, Naruto."

"They… They lost their Mama too?"

His guide - his "daddy" - offered him a sad smile.

"Unfortunately yes, Naruto."

"I… They will be… Nice?"

"Yes, Naruto. I promise you they will. They will be nice and it will be the reason you'll call it home with them."

"Can we go find Mama when we're there?"

His guide swallowed thickly.

"Naruto… Your Mama…" The man closed his eyes for a second. "The bad men took your Mama to a place you cannot go to."

"B-but! Why?!"

"They are bad men, Naruto, and sometimes they take people away forever."

The little blinked away the tears as the words settled in, to no avail. "B-But I don't wanna." He choked on a sob. "I wanna see Mama again! I want Mama, I want-"

The man kneeled down and embraced Naruto firmly. "I'm sorry," he repeated, "I'm so sorry, so sorry, so-"

Naruto eyed the two-headed swallow that roosted itself above him, on a branch of the tree he was leaning against. Given how late in Autumn it was, without even mentioning the fact that the bird had two heads, Naruto easily deduced the small flying animal was a messenger. His master only ever employed those who were rejected, by Nature or by others, those who should not have survived or had nowhere to go. Those who had nowhere to be. He gave lost people and animals alike a chance. Naruto smiled at the swallow and whistled, attracting its attention.

"I'm listening, little one."

And like that, the swallow spoke. But its voice was not its own; it belonged to a man, deep and velvety, soft yet powerful, with an imperceptible touch of raspiness brought by age.

"I hope little Shensen finds you well, Naruto. I trust that you have finished your mission and are ready for another one." A pause. "Now before I continue, I need you to promise me you'll listen to what I have to say."

Naruto blinked. It was not often his master required that of him and it always meant he would not like what he would be told. Still, he had learned long ago to control his temper.

"You are going to have to work with ninja of the Konohamei."

The tree shook and groaned and Shensen, the swallow, tweeted in outrage as it had to relocate to the ground. Slowly, the trunk fell down, torn apart by Naruto, who had buried his fist through the wood, shattering it. With three deep breaths, his right hand clasped on his pendant, he eased the scowl on his face to a blank mask.

"Ignorance, resentment and jealousy kill the heart," he recited softly, "I'll face them and they will flow through me. Where they have passed, only the living heart shall remain."

His eyes shifted from amber to blue and the whisker-like cuts resorbed as his skin healed.

"Okay. I'm listening. Sorry, Shensen," he bowed his head lightly. "Please, continue."

"I know of your feelings on the matter and I would not ask this of you if I had any other choice. But I ask you to trust me when I say it needs to be you. You're the most powerful of your hunting siblings, Naruto, and I have a very bad feeling about this mission. Which means we must see to it."

Naruto rolled his eyes but he had a smile on his lips nonetheless. "Alright, alright, I get it. You're laying it on a bit thick, master."

"You'll head to the city of Tanzaku and stay at the Great Owl's inn. There you'll meet a squad of ninja from Konoha. They do not know it yet, but they will need your skills. You will assist them in their investigation." The tone suddenly shifted from assured to worried. "Be extremely careful, Naruto; the strands of causality are obscured and my vision is much more limited than usual. I simply know that it is important that you work with those people. I feel it. Please, keep your senses stretched at all times. And good hunt."

Suddenly, the swallow took flight, leaving behind a slightly frazzled young man.

"Hey!" Jumping on his feet, Naruto tried to grab the bird but it was too late. "Wait a damn second, that's it? Work with them Konoha ninja, good luck? How am I supposed to even get them to work with me!?" The bird stayed heedless of his call and flew further and further away. Naruto sighed. "Well, fuck you, master. You could have given me a hint or whatever."

The young man sat down once more, leaning against the splintered trunk, and breathed in deeply. In spite of the cold, humid wind, it was a nice, sunny day of late autumn and Naruto decided here and there that he would not allow some assignment he did not like to spoil his day. With a few profound exhales, he cleansed his mind from the unpleasant thoughts - no need to mull over the unavoidable or unknown - and focused on his surroundings. He had allowed Nuke to maintain a gentle pace since four days ago, when he had left Hanku. They had exited the rocky heights of Yunotani and entered the hilly eastern quadrant of Hitaiji and the sight had slowly morphed. The grass was short, the shrubbery coloured rusty and the evergreens of the mountains had been replaced by deciduous trees that had lost their robe. The terraced fields were overturned and had been sowed with wheat. The further south Naruto would go, the more paddies he would see. And the closer he would be to working with people hailing from the Konohamei.

He could not understand why it was important. Then again, his master was very rarely wrong and he could see further than anyone. It did not help with the bitterness that welled within his stomach. His mood soured in spite of his best efforts, Naruto rose to his feet, gave Nuke a pat on the neck and mounted him, nudging him forwards. He would not be able to enjoy his break anymore and he had to think of a strategy to approach the ones he would have to cooperate with.

At a relaxed trot, the horseman journeyed westward quietly, passing by a few villages along the road. Those places were barely more than a gathering of a few wooden longhouses and no one paid him any attention; the peasants were much too busy tending to their garden and cattle. It was for the best: people were put on edge by his eyes and, deep in the countryside, it made for less than pleasant interactions. Oh, the hypocrites needed him when they had a zetsu prowling around but at any other time, he was unwelcome. Naruto did not bother asking for their hospitality and made do with the body-warmth of Nuke and his large cloak.

It was on his tenth day of travel that Naruto, from atop a hill, saw the pale sun reflecting off the meanders of the Naka. Central Ho sprawled, seemingly endless, in front of the young man; the plain stretched from the feet of the precipitous flanks of the Setsuin chain far up north to the sandy shores of the Dousei sea in the south. It was covered in dense forests and endless prairies that thrived upon a rich, ochre soil. The banks of the Naka were famous for their fertility and the generous bounty of rice they gave each and every year. They were the very reason behind the formation of the Konahamei: attacked from everywhere, the warlords ruling over these prosperous lands had needed to unite to defend themselves. His predatory eyes could even discern, towering infinitely far off in the distance above the Naka, the red heights of Azuchi-jo.

Naruto took the sight in and breathed in and out, deeply and contentedly. There was no other land like Hitaiji; no other country was as clement or as generous. Kaminari to the northeast, past the strait of Shimo, was a mountainous, barren rock battered by cold winds and surrounded by a colder sea. It bred tough people but it was horrendous to live there, plain and simple. It was one of the main reasons the Kaminairians had repeatedly tried to invade Hitaiji. Housshantsuchi, beyond the Setsuin, was just a steppe: emerald green in summer, a freezing wasteland in winter, travelled tirelessly by nomadic tribes. The Tsujins, similarly, had tried again and again to come down the mountains, to no avail. The oases of Kazehara were idyllic pieces of lush greenery and merciful freshness amidst a very hot, very dry desert. He loved it in Vasra but it rained almost constantly, period. Truly, Hitaiji was one of a kind and even in the coming winter, the land was still welcoming.

Naruto led his horse along the gently winding road, down the soft incline that ran and ran, towards the riverbanks, a few days of travel away. Over the course of a few days, the young man completely left the hilly valleys behind him to fully enter the plain. Towns grew bigger and more frequent along the road, which meant Naruto could enjoy a bed and warm food almost every night. Traffic became denser and denser, from merchants hauling their goods from one place to the next, to travellers and a few soldiers on patrol, bearing the mon of the Konohamei. The road itself widened and the quality and regularity of its pavement improved. The young man bifurcated north at some point, trailing against the flow of the Naka.

It was on the fourteenth day of his journey when he finally saw the city of Tanzaku in the distance. It was built inside a wide, circular trough and girdled by tall walls of red bricks. Large towers jettied regularly from the rampart and Naruto could see the almost imperceptible glint of the guns positioned on top. Traffic was busy and the young man had to be careful lest Nuke "accidentally" step on a few toes, something which his horse took a perverse pleasure in doing. He did not have time for this kind of pointless argument.

Progress was slow. At some point, he crossed paths with a patrol, three soldiers on horseback, clad in full armour. Two seemed almost puny in comparison to the third, a larger than should be allowed individual who hefted a metal club on his shoulders. The Akimichi was mounted on a terrifyingly big horse, a black mass of muscles that could probably flatten a grown man without trouble. The other two men were dark and brown-haired respectively, one sported dark eyes, the other lighter, green ones. A Nara and a Yamanaka, deduced Naruto easily. With an ample and slow motion of his hand, he lifted his hat to show his face. As the only other horseman in the immediate vicinity, he was bound to attract attention and preserving the secret of his identity was not worth the annoyance he would avoid if he simply revealed it. The Nara spared him a disinterested glance, the Yamanaka seemed vaguely disgusted and the Akimichi smiled at him good-naturedly, which Naruto returned.

The gentle giants were known across the nation for their generally sweet temperament, their love of food and their science of diplomacy. Until they were called for war, in which case they turned into bloodthirsty oni who turned their enemies into a paste. Still, if anyone ever had a smile for Naruto and his kin, it was the Akimichi.

It was past noon when Naruto finally reached the gates of Tanzaku and the young man thought for a moment that he would never get in during his lifetime but the checkpoints proved much more efficient than he anticipated. Or maybe the guards had acknowledged the futility of their task and were simply lax, he did not know. Naruto was not even sure what they were supposed to do, in fact, considering the Konohamei guaranteed the free circulation of goods between the allied territories. Taking advantage of the fact that the soldiers were only mildly preoccupied, he asked one if he knew where the Great Owl's inn was located; he got a dirty look as well as a vague set of directions.

Tanzaku was remarkably organized; the buildings were arranged into blocs, the blocs into districts and the districts were framed by large, straight avenues. It did not stop the city from exuding the chaotic feeling specific to every large town. A rumour breezed through the streets, a buzzing wind born from the cries of vendors, the work of artisans, the laughter of geisha and the flurry of relentless activities that moved people. The local architecture simply reinforced it, an echo chamber built from a mix and match of different styles that frankly clashed horrendously with one another more often than not. Hidden roofs, cupola, straight timbering, arcing curves of stone, lacework and arabesque of marble and mahogany all blended together, in some collective - possibly unconscious, though Naruto would not bet on it - attempt to make visitors dizzy.

The Great Owl looked on the outside to be a respectable establishment, a one-storied inn with a restaurant occupying most of the ground and first floor, a balcony girdling the first floor and the rooms at the back. Naruto took a deep breath and stepped inside. It took him about a second to locate his "clients".

They were dressed in peasants clothes like people who had no idea how to dress in peasants clothes. Two had tried too hard, one not hard enough and the fourth one was close but not quite there yet. Naruto could tell, could feel that they felt more at ease clad in armour or kimono. He glanced at them a second time while he was approached by a waitress and, as he distractedly asked for a meal and a room, he secretly took stock of their appearance. There were two women and two men, with black, white and pink hair and lean, powerful bodies but unscathed features, save for the white-haired lady, who had a scar baring her left eye. Graceful features too, Naruto noticed, which hinted at some blue blood. As he sat at his table, he decided to ogle the group shamelessly. The concept of social cues had been introduced to him much too late for it to have any true hold on him and the identity of his clients had him curious. The raven-haired girl was an Uchiha, one of the Tengu of mount Hyakusen and he would put his money on the white-haired women being a Hatake or an Inuzuka. The other two boys, however, Naruto could not place them. One was unnaturally pale with black hair and blacker eyes, lined with purplish kohl and if the Church of the White Serpent had not been long since destroyed, then the boy could have been a lost member. The other one, despite his pink hair, was a complete unknown but then again, the Konohamei federated some really obscure clans.

Picking at his meal, Naruto wondered not for the first time how he was going to approach them. His guts lurched and his teeth gnashed together at the mere idea but he ignored it. The option of tailing them was not appealing for two simple reasons: it would be a pain and he was in no way confident that he could escape their notice. If he were caught, and he would be, then he would immediately seem suspicious and there was no need to add healthy paranoia to the inculcated wariness they would hold against him. Another solution was to bluntly state why he was there but he knew from experience that ninja were a susceptible bunch of people and insinuating they would not be able to do their job without his help would not earn him any points. Lastly, he could play the mystic angle and hope those ninja were more open-minded than most. He held no illusion that such a thing would succeed; ninja, like most craftsmen, used chakra to perform their art but in spite of that, they had an incredibly limited view as to the true possibilities of chakra. If Naruto said his master could divine fragments of the future, he would be regarded as a fool.

Naruto considered the idea of trying to discover what they were after. If he could, then swooping in apparently by coincidence would be easy. Without any clue as to where even to begin, however, it would be difficult but not strictly impossible. If his master had required he go here and help, then zetsu had to be involved. Naruto and his siblings hunted those things for a living, their master had trained them all specifically for it, they belonged to an order that had made it its speciality for hundreds of years. His master had been worried as well, which possibly meant many zetsu were involved or perhaps an overfed one or even a combination of both. Something that those ninja would be unable to handle, for all their martial science. In any case, it would be something that would leave a trail that he could track.

Or he could completely ignore them, his master be damned, and work alone, as he always did. Cold rationality told him he was being unreasonable, that cooperation had, by nature, a much higher chance of success than solo work. But something hot, something seared in the depth of his being, had reared its twisted head once more, as it had done numerous times during his journey, and screamed that anyone serving the Konohamei was not worth his time and efforts. It screamed that they were better dead.

Naruto allowed the wave of his anger to wash over him, his right hand tightened around his medallion. He allowed the burning sensation to flow through his veins, to engulf his heart, to scrap at his mind. He allowed it to swirl within him until, slowly but surely, it receded, leaving nothing. Naruto breathed in and out, deeply. Only the living heart remains, he thought idly.

He was only mildly surprised when his train of thoughts was broken by a chair being pulled in front of him. He always kept himself aware of his surroundings, in spite of his anger, so he had seen the dishevelled, white-haired woman approach him but he had not anticipated she would sit down at his table.

"That's rather forward," Naruto remarked dryly as a form of greeting. He constated with satisfaction that his tone held no heat.

"So was your staring." She had a smoky, slightly hoarse voice.

Naruto shrugged and leaned back against his seat, meeting her gaze with his own. She was quite the stunning woman, in a wild, bubblin-right-underneath-the-surface but controlled kind of way. Naruto immediately noticed the eye patch over her left socket. She did not seem impressed in the least by his inhuman eyes and only glanced at his pendant. A point in her favour, he supposed. "You and your companion are just that good-looking."

"That's flattery and it will get you nowhere." She answered.

"That was not a pick-up line anyway. Can I offer you something, while you're sitting here?"

"Yes, a cup of prune wine would do nicely. Do you think you could answer my question?"

Naruto gestured for a waiter to take the lady's order and smiled. "Maybe. Shoot and we'll see."

"What are you doing here?"

Naruto hesitated for a few seconds before he decided to chance it. He had not even considered such an opportunity would arise so had not brainstormed it but now that it was in front of him, he would be damned if he would not take it.

"I'm here on a job. And honestly, something tells me you're here for the same thing."

"Something?"

He breathed in and out, stalled for a single second more but saw the woman had noticed it.

"A hunch." He smiled. "Not sure you'd believe the truth if I told you."

"Try me."

"My master sent me here." Naruto shrugged. "He assured me I'd meet other people on this specific hunt. That's about it."

The woman looked at Naruto silently, seemingly contemplating for a few moments, not leaving the younger teen out of her gaze.

"You know, it sounds suspicious as hell, and if you weren't so obviously a kaito I would arrest you for spying."

Naruto gasped mockingly. "Me? When butter wouldn't melt in my mouth? A complete innocent?" He shrugged. "Guess it's a good thing I look like a monster then."

She blinked. "I did not quite mean it like that."

"Is that so." He answered flatly. "It's not really important. What do you think? I have honestly nothing and while I could track down whatever is happening, it would take time. Why not let me in on it?"

She leaned back and hummed. Lifting her cup of wine, she sipped at the alcohol gently and rolled it in her mouth. "Who is paying?"

Naruto blinked and realized he had not even considered one of the most fundamental questions of his craft. He frowned, suddenly mildly worried. "Well, fuck if I know," he grumbled. "My master sent me here without telling me. He wouldn't forget something like that, though. Which means…"

"Which means?"

Naruto's eyes widened by a fraction just as his pupils narrowed to slit. "Meaning he is considering paying for it from the coffers of the monastery."

"Not a common thing," the woman idly commented. "I've never seen a kaito working for free."

Naruto shook his head. "Not unheard of but certainly uncommon. And it means shit's fucked up. It's that urgent."

"You know, I didn't approach you because you were staring," she admitted suddenly.

"No?"

"No." The woman smacked her lips, her uncovered eye seemingly searching the roof for the appropriate way to bring up what she was going to say. It seemed as if she had reached some sort of agreement with herself because she quickly focused her gaze back on Naruto. "Last night, I dreamed of a two-headed bird telling me I would get the help of a kaito on this mission," she eventually spat distastefully, as if she could not quite believe she was telling a stranger about a dream she obviously considered silly.

Naruto laughed; loud and clear, he guffawed for a solid minute before he calmed down. "That's definitely my master," he said in between deep, calming breaths. "Definitely his way of doing things. Not the most straightforward, gotta admit."

"Can I trust you?"

Naruto blinked and immediately shook his head. "Of course not, much like I won't trust you. I'm a mercenary and my master sent me here. You can trust in that if anything."

The woman considered him for a few seconds. "Good answer," she eventually allowed, a small smile on her lips. "I'm gonna introduce you to the gang. My name is Kashika, by the way. Hatake Kashika."

Naruto offered his hand. "Naruto. Just Naruto. A pleasure, I think."

Kashika shook it. "Yeah, maybe."

The "gang" was composed of Sasuki, Sai and Sakura; Kashika was their captain and sensei. Naruto carefully refused to crack a wise one about how the boy's name was girly. They were all his age, more or less, but had obviously travelled and fought much, much less than he had. Nonetheless, he could tell that they were dangerous, from the way they held themselves, the way they moved and the sword at their side. While he doubted they could pose any real threat to him, ninja were known for their tricks, despite their claim that they were all honourable warriors. The double meaning of their title existed for a reason after all. As he had expected, they eyed him warily, their mind no doubt echoing with words of warning repeated around the fire or before bed since they were little. Sasuki was more openly curious than the other two. Naruto partly understood; there were rumours that the Uchiha had long ago been kaito themselves, or at least partly. He did not know where the truth stopped and the myth began but he knew for sure that their Sharingan was not something humans should possess. However, staring was rude and so he answered in kind. He smirked when the young woman averted her gaze first.

"So. What do you have?"

"Several cases of murder, gruesome," answered Kashika. "The local authorities have kept it hush-hush but apparently can't find the beginning of a hint so we were sent. The bodies are mauled and look half-eaten."

Naruto quirked both his eyebrows up and whistled. "And enjoy your meal, huh?" He joked before a frown settled on his features. "That… It doesn't sound right though."

"How so?"

"The creatures I hunt, they generally eat everything. That's how you actually know it's them and not a wandering bear. No bones, no guts left behind, nothing." Naruto hummed. "Anything else?"

"There's more than one perpetrator, the crime scene is always all mucked up with too many prints for it to be a single individual. I haven't been able to track them far though. It's as if they… As if they vanish a few hundred paces away from the scene."

"Any possible link between the victims?"

"None that we can see yet. Rich and poor, men and women, it seems pretty random."

"Can I see the bodies? Not that I don't believe your capable eyes but I like to see things for myself, you know?"

Kashika shrugged. "No. They've already been cremated."

"Ah, shoot. What kind of investigator doesn't keep the bodies? Well, no matter, can I see one or two of the scenes?"

"That, yes, we can do."

Naruto nodded. "Let's finish our meal first, hum?"

"Agreed."

Soon, they were done with their food and their respective bills and Kashika led Naruto outside the inn and through the populous streets to an unassuming alleyway. Behind them, the three ninja did not utter a word, half-wary and half-annoyed that someone - especially someone obviously as young as they were - thought they could do better than their sensei. Sakura smiled smugly when Naruto admitted, after a minute of careful observation, that there was nothing he could obtain from such a cold scene. There were strange marks around, many already being repaired but he could not identify them for certain. Much like the first, it proved fruitless to visit a second scene.

"Well, I guess we'll meet when there's another corpse found," sighed Naruto after a quick, useless glance at a third place he had been led to. The same marks were present but he could not puzzle what they were. He just knew they were weird.

"Oi, don't talk about people dying like that!" Exclaimed the pink-haired boy heatedly.

Naruto shrugged. "Why not? Do you have a suspect you are going to arrest? Or maybe a reason to believe that whoever is behind this is gonna stop?"

Sakura swallowed and reluctantly shook his head, still glaring at Naruto.

"Then we have all the reason to think it's gonna happen again," lectured Naruto patiently, unphased by the other boy's aggressive tone. "I'm staying at the Great Owl." He glanced at Kashika. "Tell me when you have something new." With a small smile and a wave of his hand, he was gone.

Sasuki glanced at her captain. "You believe he is correct."

It was not a question and Kashika simply nodded. "His reasoning is sound."

Sakura huffed. "Well maybe, but he shouldn't talk so casually about innocent people dying like that."

Sai hummed. "I doubt he sees anyone here as 'innocent'. Then again, I don't know if he is capable of understanding the concept."

"And this kind of speech is exactly the reason why he wouldn't bother," retorted Kashika sardonically.

"He seems friendly enough but he is a kaito," retorted the dark-haired boy. "They don't feel like humans do, it's well known."

"Don't let him hear you say that!" warned Kashika sharply. "I'd rather avoid fighting a kaito and his aid will be a boon, no matter what Sakura may think. So get your head out of your ass, everyone!"

The pink-haired boy blushed slightly. "I wasn't-I did't-"

"You were thinking so loud, the entire Fire Country must have heard you," teased Sasuki before she shot a questioning glance at her superior. "You have worked with a kaito before."

"So I did."

"They are nothing like the folktales depict them, I imagine."

"People love a good ol' black sheep to bully, no matter how useful said black sheep might be. Keep it in mind, Sai."

"So, it is safe to work with him."

"No, of course not. They are extremely dangerous and you'd do well to not underestimate any kaito you encounter. But if anything, they have a solid reputation of seeing their mission to the end. He won't attack unprovoked," - Kashika glared at Sasuki, aware of the overly competitive streak the girl possessed - "so don't tempt the devil." She smiled crookedly. "Now hear me well, little ducklings. It is highly possible that whatever we will discover will be above your league. Or even above mine. So…"

"Teamwork," answered Sakura.

"And don't get in the kaito's way," said Sai.

Kashika nodded. "Precisely. Maybe I'll do something out of you three yet. Let's go back to the inn, no sense loitering here any longer."

Sasuki frowned pensively as she followed along. Was this young man - Naruto - that dangerous? She had seen his powerful build, noticed the feline grace of his motions and she had to admit his animalistic eyes made her blood flow cold yet he could not be much older than she was. Hence, how could he be so much more powerful? Plus, she was an Uchiha, one descended from a kaito if the legends of her clan were true. She smirked; could she match him?

Kashika sighed as she eyed her raven-haired charge obviously entertain stupid thoughts. She hoped she would be there to stop her before Sasuki could do anything reckless, as she was wont to do, or if she failed, not have to gather the Uchiha with a spoon. Slowly, the group returned to the inn and Kashika silently prayed to the Sage for the murders to stop. She had a bad feeling about this entire mission. Ironically, what set her most on edge was the very presence of the kaito itself, or rather the modality of it.

Despite what Naruto had said, she had absolutely never heard of the kaito monastery offering their service for free.

AN: feel free to leave a review.