A/N: OMG Yay! Chapter number 30! A milestone! Sorry if chapters start coming out slower, I have a lot to study and write but please keep reading! As always, enjoy!

"Alright, that's enough!" Kakashi's voice rang though the training area 18. Sasuke released his grip on Naruto's arm receiving a groan from his opponent.

"Ouch! Are you trying to dislocate my shoulder or something?!" Naruto stretched his arm.

"It's your fault you were so slow that I was able to grab it, idiot." Sasuke mocked calmly.

"What was that, you jerk?!"

"Quit it, you two. Both of you made a lot of progress but you still have things you need to work on." A familiar flapping sound drew Kakashi's attention. "Hm?" He looked up at the sky only to see the messenger eagle flaying across the field.

"Looks like I might be needed. You stay here and continue. If I don't come back in 15 minutes you're dismissed. We'll continue sparring without weapons or jutsu tomorrow. Hopefully Hinata will be able to join us then." He finished, disappearing in a cloud of smoke.

"This is so boring! We're supposed to beat each other up but for some reason I keep trying NOT to smack you." Naruto whined.

"Your trying and not trying looks the same to me." Sasuke smirked.

"Yeah, I'm never being nice to you again." The blonde huffed.

"Whatever… where did you say Hinata was again?"

Naruto blinked. "I don't know, she said she had some clan meeting stuff to attend. That's stupid, her clan wants her to get stronger but they keep making her miss our training."

"Clan meetings can be a pain but they are also important." Sasuke added.

"Yeah, yeah, I know… she even told me that they have this special meeting where she has to wear a special kimono because her regular clothes are in-a-ppro-pri-ate." He mocked the last word with finger quotation marks. "What the heck does that even mean?!"

"It's a main house female clan formal dress code, you dope. If other high profile allies attend the meeting."

Naruto smirked. "So you had to go through it too?"

Sasuke's head slowly turned towards him. "What a creative comeback."

Naruto's smirk dropped.

"Don't tell me that arguing was all you two did while I was gone?" A third voice interjected.

"Kakashi-sensei? We uhh… well…" Naruto scratched the back of his head.

"Never mind, you'll need your energy. Sasuke, you come with me. Naruto, you go and get Hinata and meet us in front of the Hokage's office."

"We have a mission?" Naruto asked excitedly.

"Yes." Kakashi confirmed.

"Alright! We'll meet you there." He sprinted towards the Hyuga compound.

About ten minutes later Naruto was standing in front of the large gate. He sighed and slowly pushed the door open. He peeked inside and saw no one so he decided to slowly get inside. The silence was almost eerie. The light breeze moving the plants in the garden along with the gentle crackling of pebbles under his feet were the only sounds produced.

"So…"

The sudden voice startled Naruto who turned to find the person who spoke. Looking to his left he saw Neji leaning against the wall. "Here to get Lady Hinata, I presume?"

"Yep. How have you been, Neji?"

Neji blinked at the unusually polite tone. "I've been well, I hope the same can be said for you? Especially after what I have been hearing around the village."

Naruto smiled lightly and nodded.

Neji returned the smile. "I shall go and see if she is free now. Please wait here."

Naruto nodded again. "Sure thing."

Neji walked back inside. "Naruto Uzumaki…" He seemed to have completely recovered from his loss at the chunin exams. He didn't thing that fighting someone could change his attitude on life, but the blonde proved him wrong about a lot of things. One of them being Hinata's personality which he thought he had thoroughly analyzed but he could no longer act like he could read her thoughts.

However, what he could read was the sorrow expression of sadness upon her face as she walked out of her father's studies.

He blinked before quietly calling out her name. "Lady Hinata."

Hinata's gaze snapped towards him. "Brother?"

He gulped discretely at the affectionate name she kept using. It made him feel a mix of sadness and gratitude in his chest. Could he ever try to look at her as his younger sister? He definitely won't call her that though.

"Naruto Uzumaki is waiting for you outside."

She blinked in surprise and the sadness left her eyes for a mere second before returning. "O-oh, thank you. I will be on my way if you do not mind."

"Of course." He responded mentally kicking himself for using that quiet concerned tone. Especially because he knew Hinata had noticed it.

Hinata walked to the front door and quickly slipped on her shoes before making her way outside.

Naruto turned to meet her gaze with a wide smile which seemed to drop a bit when their eyes met. "You ok?"

"I'm fine." She swallowed.

"Your eyes say otherwise." He replied.

"C-can we t-talk about it later?"

He frowned. "We'll have to. We need to go meet sensei at Gandma Tsunade's office. We got a mission."

"Oh! We should hurry then."

After they rather quickly got in front of the office, the rest of the team along with team 8: Sakura, Kiba and Shino, with Kurenai and team Ino-Shika-Cho with Asuma, were waiting as well.

"You guys got a mission too?" Naruto waved at them.

"Yep, we should go in now." Kiba nodded.

"I apologize for making you wait, sensei." Hinata said quietly.

"No need for apologies." Kakashi gave her his one eyed smile.

A few minutes later the whole squad 7 was in front of the Fifth Hokage patiently listening as she explained the mission.

"This is a B rank mission which is why your three squads will be on it together. You will be travelling to the small town of Kageyami on the border of the Land of Wind. Your goal is to solve the reoccurring mysterious disappearances and thefts that the people of the town have been complaining about for quite a while now. It started only as a few reports of everyday items and food disappearing and then it gradually grew to people going missing. Those people have not yet been found and the locals at first believed that it was a doing of a spirit because there was no physical evidence of anything or anyone else."

Naruto stiffened at the mention of a spirit.

"They believed that they could solve this one on their own but last night, a new born baby simply vanished from her crib in her room, which is why they asked for our help and why you need to head there immediately. They also found what they believe to be a footprint next to the crib so they dropped the spirit theory." Tsunade finished.

"A new born baby? That's terrible…" Sakura shivered in shock while Ino nodded in agreement.

"Come on guys, let's go and find this baby! Ghost or not, whoever did this will get a fist in the face!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Agreed, let's roll." Shikamaru commented.

Naruto hurriedly packed for this mission, pacing around his room with Marshie's eyes following him as he shoved stuff into his backpack. He looked around trying to recall if he forgot something then sighed and rummaged though his things in annoyance that he instantly forgot what he actually put in his backpack. It was hard to focus on anything else when you're thinking about a missing baby and a spirit. And now his mind is also focusing on the knock on the door. The slow, gentle knock already made it clear who it is on the other side of the door.

"I told you that you don't have to knock, ya know!" He yelled back at the person but his tone had no anger or annoyance in it.

The opening and closing of the door was heard. "Naruto?" the voice matching the knock said.

"I'm almost ready, Hinata. Are you packed?"

"Yes." She replied. "Can we talk for a minute?"

"Is it about this morning?" He turned to face her while he zipped up the compartments on his backpack.

"Yes… I had a talk with my father…about us…" She lowered her head.

Naruto froze and stopped moving but his eyes were still on her. "And?"

"A-and he said that he wants to have a conversation with you… after the mission…" Her words were barely a whisper but the blonde was well used to her quietness so he could clearly hear her shy ramble.

"Ok… I just hope he's not angry that I didn't talk to him before dating you."

"I hope so too but… his tone… when he said he wants to talk to you… it was cold…" The cat sensed her sadness and nuzzled her nose under the furry hem of her jacket. She brushed the kitty's head affectionately.

Naruto ran his fingers though his hair. "I've already got enough on my mind, we'll think about this when we get back, ok? We should get going." He swung his backpack over his shoulder and turned to the kitty sitting on his bed. "We've got to get you to Ayame now, come on." He picked her up in his arms then turned to Hinata. "She said she'd watch her until I get back."

"That's lovely of her." Hinata smiled finally.

Naruto smiled back. "I know, huh?"

Meow.

They met the rest of the group in front of the village gates and finally headed out. They took a shortcut suggested by Asuma who had already been to Kageyami town once on an escort mission. He took the long way there but was shown the shorter way back by the injured man whom he had escorted back to the Leaf village.

"Hey, sensei?" Naruto called out catching up next to him as they leaped through the trees. "What's up with the name of this Kageyami town? Doesn't that mean like shadow or darkness or something?"

"Yes." Asuma answered. "It is located under a mountain so the place barely gets any sunlight."

"Oh. So it's not like hunted or something like that, right?"

Kiba laughed. "Don't tell me you believe in ghosts, dude?"

"I don't know! What makes you thing that they aren't real?"

"Because they aren't!"

"You sound pretty confident about that!"

"Why aren't you? Have you ever seen one?"

"No, but that's not-"

"See? You're being an idiot! A ghost can't kidnap a baby, man! Plus, they said they found a footprint and I don't think ghosts would leave any of those."

"Alright, but what about, ya know… guardian angels?"

"I think there is no problem in believing in those." Kakashi chimed in.

"Yeah, sure." Kiba rolled his eyes then looked at Naruto who seemed to be in deep thought. "What are you thinking about?"

Naruto turned to him for a moment. "Have you ever had an experience… like your day sucked and then something nice suddenly happened and then kinda saved you, ya know?"

"Hmm…" Kiba's face scrunched up. "I can't think of anything right now. Did something like that happen to you?"

"Yeah… and it was kinda weird…"

"Do tell." Kakashi was suddenly next to his pupil. He found that Naruto didn't really like to talk about his childhood which made him harder to understand so he was interested in any potential stories about it.

"Well…" Naruto began. "There was one time when I was six… and I was training in the woods. Then when I decided to go back it started to rain and it got pretty bad real quick… then it turned into this huge hail! It was the size of a dumpling!"

"I remember that day! It shattered my balcony window." Sakura recalled.

"Likewise." Shino added.

"Yeah, so I was running back to the village and the hail kept hitting me hard and it hurt. I was petty bruised all over, afterwards." Naruto continued.

Hinata blinked in surprise.

"So as I'm running back there was nowhere I could hide from the hail so I just kept running and getting hit… and then… right in the middle of the field… I saw an umbrella."

Others raised their brows in confusion and surprise.

"It was just right there…" Naruto kept going. "There was no one around, but maybe somebody dropped it or something… and it was orange too… that was even weirder."

"Orange you say?" Kakashi asked intrigued.

"Yeah. And it helped me a lot too. I think that the hail would have knocked me out if I hadn't found it. It's like someone left it there for me. I still have it but I haven't really used it since. For some reason every time I did the rain would stop pretty quickly."

Kiba chuckled. "A coincidence."

"Really, dude? A freaking orange umbrella in the middle of nowhere just as I was passing by? That's freaky!"

"A freaky coincidence." Kiba persisted and Akamaru barked in agreement.

"Oh yeah? And how about this! Why didn't the hail rip though the umbrella, huh?" Naruto stared at him in anticipation.

"Huh?" Kiba stopped on a branch making everyone else pause as well. "Wait…" He gave this some thought. The umbrellas in the village are definitely not durable enough to handle hail of that size. He remembers that day too. Mainly because the hail hurt a few of the Inuzuka dogs. "Ok, I admit that's a bit strange."

"See?" Naruto grinned. "I went through so much crap when I was a kid, and every time I was close to dying something would save me at the last moment."

Kiba looked up at him.

"Like that time when I didn't have money to buy food and I was starving for days. And then I went to a river in the woods and I caught this bigass fish! Oh, and it was so good!" He raised his arms as to emphasize how large the fish was.

Hinata stared at him wide eyed. "He was starving?"

"A lot of things like that happened to me. I believe there is someone out there watching over me. Maybe it's my parents, who knows!"

The others looked at him for a moment before Kurenai spoke. "Let's continue ahead, shall we?"

Naruto suddenly snapped back to reality. "Oh, yeah! The freakn' baby, man! Let's go!" He swiftly ran in front of everyone who followed suit.

Kiba laughed at Naruto's panicked voice.

"I believe that there is absolutely nothing funny about the said missing baby." Shino added.

Kiba sighed. "I know, alright. Why do you always have to be so serious?"

"It is a rather serious mission. A serious attitude is acquired." Shino answered calmly… and seriously.

"What a drag…"

It wasn't long before they made it to Kageyami town. As they approached the air got colder and the sunlight disappeared as the sun was now completely covered by the mountain. Entering the town they were greeted by two large men who looked rather displeased at the visitors.

"Who are you? State you purpose for entering our territory!" One of the men ordered loudly in a deep raspy voice.

"We've come from the Leaf village at your request." Kurenai announced.

"Ah! Follow us then!" The other man with a slightly more friendly voice yelled out.

Walking through the town a voice called out. "Asuma? Could that be you?"

Asuma looked up ahead to greet the person. "Mr. Yuutsu, how nice to see you." He turned to his fellow jonin. "This is the man I escorted."

"Oh dear, I wish we could have met under better circumstances but we really need your help in finding my precious granddaughter."

"So the missing baby is your daughter's child?" Ino asked carefully.

"Yes! Oh Goodness, why did this have to happen!" The man shook his head in despair.

"Don't worry, we'll find her, I promise!" Naruto assured the man.

"Could you please show us the place where she was last seen?" Kurenai asked politely.

"Yes, of course. This way." The man led them to a large house. It took a long hallway to get to the room his granddaughter was sleeping in that fateful night.

"I think the assailant might be a resident of this town." Shino commented right away.

"What on Earth makes you say that?" Ino looked at him in confusion.

"Immediately upon entering, it was quiet obvious by the number of walls and doors that the kidnapper had to have been familiar with the interior of the house in order to get to the child's room. That is, if the child was the target. If it was not then the kidnapper must have entered trough this window." Shino pointed towards the large window. "However, since this widow has metal bars on it which look undamaged…"

"So you're saying that whoever took the baby has been in this house before?"

Shino nodded. "If not as a resident, then as a guest."

"Um… I think that might not be the case…" Hinata spoke up.

"Why is that?" Shikamaru walked up next to her and noticed her activated byakugan.

"I see cuts at the base of the bars on the window. It's like someone took them off to enter then put them back on. But the cuts are perfectly straight. What could cut metal that way?"

"And you know, cutting metal five feet away from a sleeping baby…" Naruto rubbed his chin.

"Good point." Kakashi commented. "So either the kidnaper cut them beforehand or used a tool or a jutsu that would have not made any noise."

Choji opened the window and pushed on the bars thinking that they would fall right off but they stayed in place. "Huh?" He pushed harder and harder but the bars wouldn't budge. "What the…?"

Asuma pushed against the bars as well. "That's strange… Are you sure they were cut, Hinata?"

"Yes, see?" She approached the window and pointed towards one edge of the bar which had some moss growing on it. The moss had been cut in the exact same place.

"I see." Asuma frowned. "The mysteries just keep piling up."

"Speaking of mysteries, I found the footprint." Sakura spoke drawing everyone's attention towards the upper left corner of the crib.

The jonin examined the footprint.

"It's quite big, most likely from a male." Kurenai stared at the print noticing an extremely unusual detail.

"But…"

"Why doesn't it have any toes?"