I'm Back! This chapter was originally much larger but I decided to split it up a bit to get ahead of my writing schedule. I'm glad y'all have stuck with me over the long update waits. Y'all are the real MVP's. IMPORTANT EDIT! check out the poll on my profile. I need some feedback.

"Ooooh these old bones are aching, I don't think my back can take another night of sleeping on the ground." Jiraiya groaned, resting his hands on his knees, breathing hard with what he hoped looked like genuine exhaustion.

"And I'm sure your sudden pain has nothing to do with the hot spring we passed about 10 minutes ago, Jiraiya-Sama." An obviously irritated Kakashi drawled out sarcastically.

The jounin's frustrations were not unwarranted, it had been a week since they'd left the village and they hadn't made any progress at all. All the leads that the toad sage had been so confident about had turned out to be about six months old, so they were left to rely on various "witnesses" hearsay. This, along with the older man's constant need to be within ogling distance of a pair of breasts, was starting to test the limits of the anxious father's already overtaxed patience.

"Aww come on, don't be like that Kakashi, take pity on an old man." The sannin whined in what the younger shinobi was sure was his best attempt at an innocent plea, before switching to an annoyed tone.

"And how many times do I have to tell you to ditch the "Sama" garbage, its "Jiraiya" or "The Sage formerly known as Jiraya"

Knowing from experience that arguing with the lecherous old man would be pointless, the masked jounin just sighed in resignation as he picked his pack up from the ground where he'd dropped it, turned a full 180 and began walking back in the direction of the hot spring hotel.

Jiraiyah grinned at his disgruntled companions back before laughing and belting out " You're good people kid, don't ever let anyone tell you different." and hurrying after him.

Kakashi stayed silent pretending not to hear his mentor's mentor as the older man came jogging up to fall in step next to him. Undeterred by his traveling partner's lack of response Jiraiya continued "and who knows maybe we'll find her in the bath."

Both men would end up being disappointed to not find the Slug Princess in the bath, though their reasons would be exceedingly different from each other.

After three more days of traveling and one more hotspring the two Konoha shinobi found themselves in The Grand City of Ro Yuka, the Capital City of Fire Country. All of the gossip the sage had been able to gather put Tsunade in this general area, and this city was well known for its extravagant Red Light district and gambling the two together the men decided to take their chances with the lively capital.

Kakashi had been to "The Hearth", as it was sometimes called, of the Fire Country many times over his life as a shinobi, and the only visit that didn't end up with someone dead was on his first trip as a toddler with his father.

"Here's hoping I break the streak." The silver haired jounin thought to himself only half joking.

Jiraiya, unaware of Kakashi's morbid inner monolog, slapped the younger man on the back before speaking.

"Alright Kakashi, seeing that this is the second largest city in the country it would probably be in our best interest to split up and start searching on opposite sides of the gambling District."

The younger man, seeing no flaws in the sannin's logic, voiced his agreement.

"Excellent, we'll meet back at this hotel tonight unless one of us spots her." The toad sage gestured to the hotel they'd just checked in at, before continuing. "If you do find her, send Pakkun and I'll find you. DO NOT approach her without me."

Kakashi nodded somewhat absent mindedly, as he studied what little bit of the city he could see. The capital itself was surrounded by a massive stone wall forty feet tall and easily 10 feet thick. The wall itself was said to have been built during the warring clan era as a supposed impenetrable defence by the ancestors of the country's current Feudal Lord.

That defence would end up being shattered by the soon to be founder of Konoha, Hashirama Senju, who decided to befriend the wealthy clan instead of wiping them out. That friendship would be essential in later years when Hashirama played his essential role in making the city of Ro Yuka the capital, and seat of power for the Feudal Lord.

With those facts came the memory of where he'd learnt them, on that trip to this city with his father. It was one of the few memories from before he met Naruto that didn't immediately fill him with dread.

He had sat on his fathers shoulders and listened as The White Fang of The Leaf told him stories of the First Hokage and the history of their country. His father had always loved to talk about the First and Second Hokage, so he himself had grown up on the stories of the Senju Brothers. Most of the tales were of Lord Second, Tobirama Senju, though there were many of the First as well. Sakumo had grown up under the Second's rule, and Kakashi had always thought that the Silver haired Senju was his fathers personal idol. That trip had been the highlight of his childhood. He had never seen his father smile as big as had in this city. It was one of the last times he could remember feeling like a Son and not a soldier.

The small breakfast he and Jiraiya had shared that morning still soured in his stomach as his thoughts once again turned, as they often did these days, to his own son still comatose at home. He couldn't even hope that Naruto had already magically awoken because Bull, whom Kakashi had left behind as an extra guard, hadn't reverse summed him.

His eyes drifted from the wall at his right to the wide expanse of city on his left.

While Konoha was technically a larger city land wise, Ro Yuka had almost twice the population, this was made immediately evident to any visitor by the way all of the buildings were built up instead of out. Multi story buildings littered the skyline some reaching heights of up to 150 feet or 15 stories. The closest building was a lavish hotel casino covered in more flashing lights than Kakashi had ever seen.

"Maybe I should start there-"

"Kakashi?"

The jounin was brought back to the present by Jiraiya's questioning voice. He turned his attention back to the sannin who was staring at him quizzically.

Kakashi sheepishly rubbed the back of his head with one hand in embarrassment, a gesture he had unconsciously adopted from Naruto, before apologizing.

Jiraiya waved off his apology before showing the first serious expression the younger shinobi had seen during their trip.

"Don't worry about it, I think you're entitled to be a little distracted" He placed a comforting hand on Kakashi's shoulder before continuing.

"We are gonna find Tsunade and we WILL save your boy, that's a promise."

Kakashi was touched, but unsure how to take the words of comfort. The silver haired jounin wasn't used to being reassured, he was more familiar with being the one doing the reassuring. On just about every mission he went on he was the most experienced,

or the squad leader, so it was always his job to raise the morale of his troops and keep their heads in the game.

If Kakashi were being honest with himself it felt... Nice.

But, since he was Kakashi Hatake, and wasn't really all that good with "feelings" he just nodded and awkwardly thanked the older man.

Surprisingly this caused the white haired sannin to burst into laughter.

"Wow, now that takes me back," he chuckled as he wiped a nonexistent tear from his eye before continuing. "Minato was never very good with that kind of thing either, this trip has shown me that you two are far more similar than I had thought."

The jounin's initial reaction was to refute the sage's claim, and insist that he was nothing like Minato. He was neither kindhearted nor noble, while smart he was nowhere near the genius Sensei had been. Minato was a paragon of everything a shinobi should strive to be, Kakashi on the other hand was a failure who had murdered his own teammate and allowed his son to be put into a coma by a terrorist.

Instead though, he just nodded before changing the subject.

"Is there a particular reason why I shouldn't approach Tsunade-Sama without you?

If Jiraiya noticed the deflection he didn't mention it before responding.

"The second she sees a leaf headband she's gone, but she and I have enough history that she'd at least hear me out before causing untold destruction to get away from me... I think."

Ignoring the uncertainty in the older man's voice, Kakashi pressed on.

"So lose the headband and dress civilian. Got it."

"Sure, as long as you have something else to cover that eye of yours. She'lll detect any chakra used for a transformation, and that sharingan isn't exactly commonplace anymore."

The end of his sentence was tinged by a bit of sadness that hadn't been present before, but neither man wanted to explore that particular topic at the moment. Instead a melancholy silence settled over the two men only broken when a small girl no older than four dressed in rags bumped into Jiraiya and fell to the ground.

The Sannin immediately picked the girl up and put her back on her feet before offering to buy her a treat from a nearby snack stall in an attempt to quell the small beads of tears forming in the corner of the obviously homeless child's eyes.

The whole exchange ended smoothly with the girl running off smiling holding a popsicle in her hand.

Only Kakashi saw what else she ran off with.

"You know Jiraiya-Sama, a shinobi of your level should really be able to tell when you're being pickpocketed."

The jounin however was surprised that instead of confusion or shock the Sannin just gave him a small smile.

"It's a terrible thing to be poor Kakashi, and I have seen enough starving children in my life to

recognize desperation when I see it."

For the first time since meeting the old man Kakashi truly saw the "Sage" part of the famous Toad Sage. This was the man Minato Sensei Regarded as his hero.

That image was then promptly ruined when he waved a quick goodbye to chase after a rather physically blessed young woman in a short skirt.

The jounin just shook his head before ducking into a nearby alley and quickly donning his civilian garb. His headband was removed revealing the hidden orb sporting three black tomes circling a red iris, it took in the sight of the dank alley for only a moment before being deftly covered with a plain black eye patch. His flak vest was then removed and sealed into a scroll from which he had previously pulled a black hooded sweatshirt. He pulled the shirt on before reaching up and sliding his hood over top of his easily recognizable gravity defying silver hair, he then removed his gloves and hip pouches sealing them as well.

Being without weapons wasn't new for Kakashi, there had been many times he had been forced to go undercover in places that checked for instruments of death. It was a common occurrence in their line of work to be expected to defend oneselves bare handed, but everytime it left him feeling just a bit more exposed. He'd made sure to drill into Naruto just as his father and Minato Sensei had drilled into him that a single kunai can mean the difference between life and death.

His father would go on to make that notion abundantly clear.

He immediately felt like shit for the dark humour, but still stepped into the busy street without a pause in search of his son's only hope.

Darkness...

Dripping water…

Floating...

Naruto was confused. He couldn't quite tell where he was or what was happening, in truth he couldn't feel much of anything at all except the weight of his heavy water soaked clothing. It felt just like the time Kiba had dared him to jump into the lake fully dressed after school. He hadn't agreed until the feral boy had offered to buy him Ramen, a fair trade in his opinion.

Except this time unlike that day, he didn't pop up to the surface and laugh with his buddies on the way to a steaming bowl of noodles. No, this time he couldn't make his body so much as twitch. All the blonde could do was slowly sink deeper and deeper into the impenetrable darkness.

With his mind foggy and his senses muddled, the only thought that came easily was the unforgettable memory of the cold lifeless eyes of the Uchiha girl. Lifeless accusing eyes asking the boy why he was too weak to save her. Those eyes suddenly burned deep scarlet scarlet and the girl lunged for Naruto's throat.

He tried to scream but no sound escaped him as he sunk once again into unconsciousness.

At the same time unknown to the struggling Hatake, gargantuan hateful red eyes glared down at a small blond boy laying on his back in ankle deep water.

Kurama thrashed his massive tails in annoyance against the bars of his prison.

"I'm so close, the boy is helpless at my feet but I can't do anything because of these DAMN BARS!

He finished his sentence with a mighty roar that shook the very cage around him,but still the small boy did not stir.

He loosed another frustrated howl before laying down on his front paws as he contemplated the situation he now found himself in.

Everything was happening far faster than he had anticipated. He hadn't expected the brats body to be able to handle his chakra for at least another five years. It seemed that the training the sharingan user had been putting the boy through had seriously accelerated the growth and strength of his jailer's chakra coils.

This was both a boon and a detriment to the fox. On the one hand Kurama was now able to start weakening the seal and influencing the boy far sooner than he had originally hoped, meaning he should be free several years ahead of schedule. The downside is that the fox had been planning on using that 13 years to gather back the half of his chakra that the fourth Hokage had stolen from him before he crammed him in the brat in the first place.

Simply speaking, the Fox was not yet back at full strength which meant that even if he was able to force his way out early there was a chance that in his weakened state the effort would leave him totally drained making him easy to capture and reseal.

The bijuu would've taken the risk and pushed more chakra to weaken that cursed seal even further had it not been for that Masked bastard. He did not feel like escaping to be enslaved once again. This was the second time that scum had interfered in his life, neither experience ending pleasantly for the fox.

"Twice that bastard has crossed me, there won't be a third time. He will be the first one I seek out once I've taken my freedom."

His eyes once again settled on the defenseless blonde half Uzumaki slumbering before him.

To think at only eight years of age he was able to, at least somewhat, handle a full tail of Kurama's poisonous chakra.

The beast would've been impressed if he didn't despise the child so much.

With that thought in mind the monster fox settled down for a, in his opinion, well deserved nap, as he imagined the taste of that masked Uchiha's blood.

A tired Kakashi stifled a yawn under his mask as he waved goodbye to an oddly chipper Sannin the morning of their second day in the fire Capital. They hadn't found Tsunade the previous night, but for the first time on their trip they'd finally hit a concrete lead.

Tsunade had been sighted in the city earlier that day, and a quick detour into the Wall Guard's gatehouse revealed that she had not yet completed the required checkin/out all travelers to Ro Yuka were subjected to. She had checked in three days ago along with a "Shizune" (confirmed by Jiraya to be her assistant and student) and neither name was marked for exit. With fresh life in his step Kakashi easily replaced the logbook he'd pilfered and made a quick exit.

The lead had excited the Hatake Patriarch causing him to stay out searching a bit later than he had intended. Luckily, as a former Anbu, Kakashi was more than familiar with missing a few nights of sleep.

"The yawning gets old though." the jounin thought as he lazily walked along the street seamlessly blending in with the daily rabble of vendors and tourists. All the while sending miniscule amounts of chakra to his visible eye, ears, and nose in an attempt to boost his senses just enough to give him a slight advantage in picking up the minute details that could often go unnoticed in crowds.

Unfortunately after an hour the hunt had yet to be successful, and Kakashi was starting to feel the effects of having skipped breakfast at the inn that morning. His enhanced nose caught the scent of a small dumpling stand and his hunger won. So focused was he on the thought of breakfast the man didn't notice he had bumped into a young woman sending her, and oddly enough, the pig in her arms straight to the ground.

But Kakashi Hatake wasn't considered one of the fastest shinobi in the village for no reason.

Just before the woman crashed butt first into the ground she was suddenly stopped by a firm grip on the front of her kimono.

"Sorry about that miss, I didn't see you there." Kakashi apologized sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head with his free hand as he did so.

As he pulled the woman back to her feet he took in his accidental victim's appearance.

She was pretty in a plain sort of way, delicate features unobscured by makeup and kind brown eyes (comically wide at the moment) were framed on either side by short brown bangs with the back pulled messily into a bun. The kimono she was wearing was dull purple in color with cream cuffs and seams held closed by a tightly wound lighter purple obi. The cloth was wound tight enough to hint at a slim waist but any other discerning features were hidden by the layers of fabric.

Shizune Kato realized that at this point she had been silently staring at the masked man who caught her for around twenty seconds and should definitely be speaking by now, but for the life of her couldn't form words.

She was standing in front of Kakashi freaking Hatake… Tsunade-Sama was not gonna like this one bit.

When one of the casino bouncers warned them that two men had come into town asking about them, they had assumed it was the usual debt collectors from one of her Master's many losing streaks. Tsunade had told her to lay low until tonight and they would escape under the cover of darkness. But of course TonTon was starving so she had to leave to grab them both some breakfast, and now she was face to face with whom some would argue was the most dangerous active duty shinobi in Konoha.

"Um miss, are you ok?"

The question voiced with slight confusion ("surely not because some strange woman was silently staring open mouthed at him like an idiot") finally managed to jumpstart the poor woman's brain.

"Oh, I'm fine really. It wasn't your fault, my friends always tell me I need to watch where I'm walking. I just got a little overwhelmed because I realized I have no idea where I am and this city is freaking huge." Gone was the surprise from a moment ago seamlessly replaced by the near frantic rambling of a ditzy tourist separated from her friends.

"Medicine wasn't the only thing Tsunade-sama taught me." she thought triumphantly once the silver haired shinobi seemed to believe her act.

At this point she was now firmly back on her own two feet and trying not to squeeze the life out of the pig in her arms from anxiety.

"Well regardless I am sorry for bumping into you, why don't I help you find your friends as penance." the disguised jounin offered with one of his patented eye smiles.

On the outside Shizune put on a bright smile and nodded eagerly while thanking the man for his kindness, but on the inside she lamented.

"Shitshitshitshitshit, he's made me, I'm so screwed!"

Kakashi, ignorant to the young woman's worries, offered his arm for her to accept before asking her name.

She decided to use one of the fake identities she and Tsunade had crafted over the years, "I'm Keiko Nemoto from Ashido Village. It's a pleasure to meet you Mr.?"

"Kakashi" the jounin supplied smoothly in answer to her unspoken question.

"Well Kakashi I left my friends back at the hotel, but I have no idea how to get back." the poison expert lied effortlessly.

Her masked companion gave a hum in understanding before asking the name of the establishment.

"The Golden Calf Inn" another lie, she and Tsunade were actually staying at the Lucky Party, a hotel and casino located about sixty feet to her left at the moment. The Golden Calf was a cheap inn on the outskirts a few blocks down from the capital's main gate.

Her goal was to take the Sharingan user as far as possible away from Tsunade before 'returning' to the cheap inn and slipping out the back so she could warn her master of exactly who was looking for them.

The walk to the outskirts was rather uneventful. Both shinobi maintained easy small talk for the entirety of the stroll. Shizune despite her trouble in the beginning played her part to a tee, seeming the perfect balance of ignorance and innocence.

The man was eating out of the palm of her hand. Laughing at her jokes, answering her 'innocent questions' easily with no hesitance. Though, she was ninety percent sure that all of his answers were bullshit. He claimed to be a photographer from Lightning Country, but he did mention that he was in town looking for someone. When she pressed the subject the man's entire demeanor changed. His entire body seemed to deflate a bit before he tiredly spoke what Shizune believed to be the first truthful thing he'd said since his name.

"I'm looking for a healer. My son, he's in a coma and the local doctors and medical ninja don't know why. This healer is his last hope, if we can't find her.." he trailed off for a moment before realizing his slip and putting his good samaritan facade back on.

"Well now that I'm done being a sad sack, it looks like this is where we part ways." he finished with a gesture towards the entrance to the seedy looking Golden Calf Inn.

Shizune was so distracted by Kakashi's revelation that she almost forgot her cover story. She turned to address him, but before she could offer any sort of response to his story or even thank him he had already turned around and was throwing her a wave over his shoulder.

Not wanting to seem suspicious, the medical shinobi leisurely strolled into the lobby and turned down the first hallway she saw before heading towards the marked exits at the end of the hall.

She needed to talk to Tsunade.