Chapter 17:

Mission: Deceit

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

Naruto knew that once he left the ramen shop heading straight "home" wasn't an option. The stranger continued to follow him adamant about seeing Aimi. So he had to put his amazing ninja skills to action in order to lose him. He cut between alleys and once he was close to his destination he used chakra to crouch on the side of the wall.

Naruto dangerously narrowed his eyes when Haisuke came down the alleyway and looked around for a few seconds for him before leaving. He silently wondered why the stranger was trying so desperately to visit Aimi. There had to be more to the story than just friends and even if they were Aimi told Sakura she had none so she was either lying or telling the truth and Haisuke was the one lying. Either way, he no longer wanted to leave Sakura and Shinachiku alone with Aimi because at the end of the day she was still a complete enigma to them.

Not wanting to risk getting followed again he took to the rooftops to get home. He landed in an alleyway once the coast was clear and went into their temporary residence.

Once he walked in their room he noticed immediately that Aimi was missing."Sakura-chan we need to talk. Where's Aimi?"

Sakura looked up from the bed where their charge lay still feverish. "She said she was going to grab some clothes and come back." Naruto nodded hesitantly before putting the food down on the table.

"I met a guy at the ramen shop who said he was friends with Aimi and wanted to see her. He was so adamant about seeing her he even tried to follow me." Sakura looked concerned. She put a fresh wet cloth on Shinachiku's head and got up to sit at the table with Naruto.

"Aimi said—"

"I know but let's be honest here we know nothing about anyone here for all we know everyone could be lying." Sakura frustratingly grabbed her hair from the stress of both the mission and Shinachiku getting to her. Naruto slowly took her hands before she ended up pulling out her natural pink locks. He pecked the back of both her hands causing Sakura to blush bright pink. "Relax, we'll figure this out. I'm sure everything will be okay."

And to be fair he was right because in the middle of the night with everyone fast asleep one person woke up or should we say child. His fever broke and his green orbs opened to look around his surroundings. A loud growl came from his stomach and he realized he was hungry and the only way to communicate that in toddler terms was to cry. So he sat up and wailed, probably waking everyone in the vicinity.

Sakura sat up quickly and looked at the source of shrill cries. She gasped once she saw the blonde sitting up and bawling his eyes out. She couldn't stop her own tears as she picked him up and hugged him tightly while pecking the top of his head. "You're alright."

Naruto groggily rolled the wrong direction and rolled off the bed. "Ow."

"Naruto look, he's awake!" Once his sleepy brain caught up to what she just said he got up on the bed to see if what she said was true.

Once both pairs of eyes were on Shinachiku he stopped wailing long enough to look up at them with watery eyes. Sakura cried more tears of joy once she saw those green eyes that she could get lost in, kind of like a forest.

"See Sakura-chan we just had to not give up hope," Naruto said with a wide grin on his face as he held Shinachiku's hand.

Sakura smiled at the older blonde fondly before rewarding him with a peck on the cheek. "You're right Naruto."

Naruto grinned back at her before turning his attention to their charge who looked like he was going to cry at any moment. The blonde quickly stood up and looked through their stuff and found baby food and a spoon for the cranky kid.

"He must be hungry," Naruto said as he opened the food.

"Ah, you're right Naruto." She finally stopped hugging Shinachiku so Naruto could feed him. That's when Sakura realized something. She quickly looked behind her at the other bed to find it empty. Aimi was nowhere to be found.

She narrowed her eyes trying to come up with a logical reason for the girl's departure. "Naruto make a shadow clone." She said as calmly as possible as she stared at the empty bed.

"What? Why?" He asked as his eyes glided over to what she was staring so intensely at. Naruto angrily stood up and did the shadow clone jutsu. He made three to help in the search.

"Find her." The clones nodded once they received their orders and left out of the window. Naruto sat back down to finish feeding Shinachiku who was whining a little bit from having his food taken away from him.

Sakura massaged her temple, the frustration evident on her face. "We should let Jiraiya know." Naruto nodded, setting the food down again to make another clone to tell Jiraiya what happened. Naruto told the clone what to do and it left like the first ones.

"We need to get to the bottom of this missing hearts situation so we can get back to the village and find out what exactly happened to Shinachiku," Sakura muttered tiredly while rubbing her tired eyes. Now that she was sitting there thinking it was weird how the highest fever a child could have just broke in one day and now the blonde seemed fine.

She silently observed Shina who was babbling to Naruto while reaching for the spoon in his hand. The pinkette had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach about what was going on with Shinachiku. Or maybe it was just the mission in general. There were so many factors that they didn't know about and she hated going into anything blind.

"Sakura-Chan I don't think Shina's going to go back to sleep anytime soon." She didn't even notice the blonde break out of her hold and slide down off the bed to cruise around.

"I don't think any of us are going back to sleep until we find Aimi." As soon as she said that a loud yawn escaped from her mouth turning both of the blondes' attention to her. "I guess I'm more tired than I thought."

Naruto laughed before gently pushing the pinkette down on the bed much to her confusion. "You should get some rest can't have our medic tired. I'll take care of everything." Sakura eyed him unsure if she should rest at such an inopportune time.

Before she could voice her opinion on the matter Naruto leaned down and kissed her on her larger than average forehead. Her face lit ablaze when he pulled back flashing her his foxy grin. "F-fine but wake me up if something important comes up." She turned over on her side to avoid looking into bright cobalt eyes that she swore rivaled the ocean. Once her heart rate slowed down to normal levels she finally fell back asleep.

Naruto noticed her breathing even out and turned back to the wandering toddler. With the help of nearby furniture, Shinachiku stumbled his way over to the drawer where their ninja equipment was hidden, and before Naruto realized what was happening the possible one-year-old opened the drawer. To his surprise and Shinachiku's disappointment, the drawer was empty. In hindsight, they probably should have chosen a better hiding spot for their gear.

Naruto grunted and made a few more clones and ordered them to help the other clones find Aimi faster. He contemplated waking Sakura up to tell her about the new discovery, but in the end, decided to let her rest. She spent so much time and energy trying to cure Shina so he figured she wasn't immediately needed.

"Good find Shinachiku, you'd make an excellent ninja." Naruto grinned and picked the blonde up. The toddler rewarded his caretaker with his own bright smile and words that only he understood. Naruto had to admit he was quite fond of the blonde who bore a striking resemblance to him. He didn't know if they would ever find Shinachiku's parents but one thing he was sure about was the fact that if they didn't find them then he would take care of Shinachiku, hopefully with Sakura by his side.

He blushed at the thought of them actually becoming a real family. It was a dream of his and now that he's got a taste of what it was like he didn't want to ever lose it. "I don't want to lose this feeling," he whispered as he pulled the blonde into a tight embrace.

.x.

It was two hours later when Sakura was woken up by the sound of loud knocking on their door. She jolted awake just as Naruto opened the door to let the Sannin in.

"Anything?" From the look on Jiraiya's face, he found something but they weren't going to like it.

"Yes but you're not going to like it." Sakura quickly stood up preparing herself for the bad news.

"I found her."

"Ok that's good, where is she then?"

"Yeah she took our hiate and we would like them back." Sakura looked from Naruto to the drawer where their headbands were. She didn't know their ninja headbands were missing.

Jiraiya pulled the headbands out of his pockets. "Unfortunately I was unable to bring her back."

Naruto and Sakura took the headbands and noticed they had a certain burnt smell to them. The duo feared what Jiraiya would say next. "I found her in the forest burnt to a crisp."

Sakura gasped and quickly sat down on the bed closest to the door. They've barely known Aimi long and to find out someone killed her it was just too much. Now they're back at square one.

"Wait if she was—burnt up how was our hiate able to appear as if nothing happened to it." She whispered with emotion heavy in her words. It was taking her everything she had not to burst into tears. She couldn't fathom who would do something like that to Aimi of all people.

"That means whoever killed Aimi left the headbands as a warning. They know who we are, which means that this mission is no longer safe."

The silence in the room was heavy as everyone thought about what their next step should be. Naruto sat down beside Sakura who had just noticed the toddler in his arms. "What's the next move then?" Naruto asked with a weird tone in his voice. The pinkette looked up and saw that he had a look of pure determination but behind that, she could clearly see the sadness. He probably felt how she felt about Aimi's death. Although the brunette was suspicious and kind of bad since she took their headbands she didn't deserve to die like that.

"We tread lightly, keep our eyes open, be on our toes, and NEVER travel alone. We need to finish this mission as soon as possible. So I'll be checking out the forest to find that cave Aimi mentioned. But before I go I'll send a messenger toad to Tsunade requesting back up just in case." The duo nodded but Sakura was kind of put off that they were continuing the dangerous mission with a toddler. She just wanted to head home not put Shinachiku's life in even more danger.

Jiraiya left, leaving the duo to themselves to think about everything.

Naruto turned his attention towards Sakura who continued staring at the place Jiraiya stood. "What are you thinking?" Sakura snapped her head to her side as if startled that Naruto asked her that. Both Shinachiku and Naruto were staring at her with similar worried looks that made her giggle a little.

"God you two look so much alike that I'm surprised you're not related." Both blondes looked at each other with wonder still looking identical.

"I guess." He knew that everyone said that but not Sakura and now that he was looking so closely at their charge he could also see some of her in Shina besides the eyes of course. "He has your nose and forehead."

"Hey!" She growled dangerously.

"Uh, not in a bad way, Sakura-chan!" He tried to quickly cover-up.

"It's still pretty early. Do you want to see if we can find something to eat?" She suggested much to his stomach's pleasure which growled loudly answering her question. He nervously chuckled before nodding quickly.

.x.

The forest was as silent as when he first found Aimi deceased and burnt to a crisp. Jiraiya's gut was rarely wrong and he felt wrong ever since entering the village. Something about the village as a whole was off but he couldn't put his finger on it.

Who could have possibly killed Aimi all while knowing that the headbands she had were Naruto and Sakura's? What did Aimi even need with them anyway? There were so many unanswered questions and mysteries he wasn't sure where to start.

Jiraiya sighed as he spent another hour searching for the cave Aimi mentioned and wondered if maybe she lied. Although she did die close by so maybe it's not far off. He was about to give up until he felt a shift in the air around him.

His eyes shifted over the forest quickly and carefully scanning everything in sight and that's when he noticed it. Some of the tree's leaves were being blown while others weren't and the dots connected immediately. It was a genjutsu.

Channeling enough chakra he quickly canceled the genjutsu and low and behold was the cave. He walked up to the mouth of the cave carefully so as not to get caught off guard.

He caught a whiff of smoke and death. Jiraiya made a fire and lit a stick as a light source for the dark cave.

The sannin ventured into the cave lighting his surroundings using the torches on the walls. It was a deep cave with a lot of twists and turns probably to lose people who just so happen to find it.

For a cave that was for inhumane actions, it was pretty quiet and barren. In fact, he examined the ground for footprints and was surprised that there weren't any recent ones. What could this mean though? Surely a cave like this was where they did their horrible deeds because if it wasn't then that opened up a whole other can of worms.

He finally stumbled upon what used to be a lab since it was now blackened and burned down. He sighed as he tried to find anything that survived the fire but all he could tell is that the fire had to have happened long before they got there.

"This doesn't make sense. Aimi was obviously telling the truth about the cave but there's nothing here." He thought aloud to himself trying to figure out the puzzle laid out in front of him.

If someone was to set a fire in a cave like this and leave it unattended until it went out by itself then that would take maybe weeks. He closed the blackened cabinet and decided to leave and reconvene with Naruto and Sakura.

No use trying to find something in a burned down room. As he made his way out of the cave he froze when he heard voices coming from the mouth of the cave.

"I still don't understand why we still listen to them. Everyone here left for a reason." From the sound of the voice, it was a man and he sounded pretty bored.

"Did you really think we could leave that lab and walk away free?" The other guy scoffed, sounding maybe older and bigger than his companion. "This was a much better alternative then what he does with experiments."

"Yeah, I guess I just thought he forgot about us until a week ago." The more laid back one said shifting a bit from what Jiraiya could hear.

He wondered what they were talking about and how he would get out without needing to fight. Then again taking one captive and killing the other would guarantee him some answers.

So with his mind made up Jiraiya prepared to attack the two men that were until he heard a third more familiar voice.

"Gentlemen, is phase one of our plan complete?" That voice echoed in his head, annoyingly taunting him that he knew who sounded like that. He didn't have much time to think about it further because what came out of one of the grunts' mouths made it all click.

"Yep we got them right where we want them. Lord Orochimaru would be proud."

Orochimaru?! He's behind all of this? Their words now made sense; they're Orochimaru's experiments. It always led back to Orochimaru and now that he knew who was behind everything the voice clicked and he desperately needed to get back quickly. Whatever plan they had couldn't be any good.

"This plan couldn't have gone better right Jiraiya-san?!" The toad sage sighed before finally stepping out into the light. "I got to be honest, Jiraiya-san, I wasn't expecting the plan to work so flawlessly. I mean, what are the odds that the mission you took with a baby, a chunin, and a genin jinchuriki is the one we set up!?" He chuckled maniacally to Jiraiya's displeasure. It was indeed bad luck on their part.

"Plan?" It was a stretch to try to get an answer from Kabuto who was still laughing at their series of unfortunate events but he was out of options.

Kabuto's glasses glinted mischievously as the corner of his lips slightly inched up. "This village that you think you're oh so safe in is filled with experiments by Orochimaru-sama. Kind of far from sound I'll admit but it's worked in our favor so far. Your every move has been watched from the moment you took that mission that I expertly placed on my last visit."

"And what would you have done if someone else was to take this mission?" He knew the answer already but he had to stall for time to get out of this tricky position. Jiraiya shifted his eyes around but still being kind of inside the cave didn't give him a lot of options.

"Kill them of course and infiltrate the leaf." He chuckled as if explaining the obvious to a child.

"I would love to stay and explain further but I have a mission of my own to complete. Thank you again Jiraiya-san for handing us that sweet little child."

"You're making a mistake! That kid isn't related to Naruto so why don't you leave them out of this?" He tried to lie his way out of this huge problem but from the unphased look on Kabuto's face he knew it wouldn't work. Before Kabuto could react Jiraiya had a Rasengan charged up and lodged in the medic's abdomen.

He grunted when the body disappeared into a cloud of smoke. Jiraiya figured the coward wouldn't face him face to face. He didn't have much time to think about what to do next because right behind him he sensed a shift in chakra and sighed as he felt how familiar the chakra was. If what Kabuto said was true about everyone being experimented on, then that means the villagers could all have the curse mark.

He finally turned to find the two that were dressed as samurai transforming into only Kami knows what. This was going to be a long day.

...

This is being uploaded here really late Wattpad got it first lol.

Next Chapter: Mission: Old Friends