Twenty minutes later, one young lady, one girl, and two boys departed from Konoha, traveling at a light jog amongst the tree branches as they headed south towards the Tea/Fire Country border. With good weather and light rests, they'd reach the port town in question in about two days. Three at the latest.
Midway through the journey, Naruto couldn't help but notice an uncomfortable silence having descended upon the other members of the team, and dropped back a bit to jump branches alongside Hinata. Kurenai he didn't know very well yet, and Shino still creeped him out, so he felt most comfortable around the Hyuuga heiress. And she didn't seem to mind his company in the least.
"Oiy, Hinata...?"
"Y-yes?"
"What do you think is so 'special' about this kid we're going to find?" he wondered aloud.
"Uh... uhmm..."
"Tsunade-baachan sure was evasive when I asked that question... you don't think it's a noble, do you? The son of a noble?"
"M-maybe," she replied quietly, unsure. That didn't sound quite right.
"Or maybe it's the heir to a ninja clan or something... or the son of a famous warrior..." surmised Naruto aloud, allowing his imagination to run wild. And if there was anything he was infamous for, it was a wild imagination. He had regular dreams where he was made the Hokage, after all.
"There is a possibility the boy has a bloodline technique," remarked a quieter voice. But it cut into the conversation so smoothly that Naruto nearly jumped clean out of his orange jumpsuit. And he did stumble after the next jump, having to grab the next tree branch with his arm and flips himself upright, and then catch up to where Hinata and Shino were. It was the bug specialist who had startled him.
"Don't scare me like that, Shino!" he yelled angrily.
"Keep your wits about you," retorted Shino quietly, his expression unreadable behind his sunglasses. His response didn't seem all that mean either, just a proper comment on keeping alert. Naruto growled, but could not find a proper reply, for Shino was absolutely right. He should've been aware of his surroundings, like a proper shinobi.
"Kurenai says you two are falling behind," remarked Shino. "We are to pick up the pace," he added, before turning and pushing off from another branch, rocketing ahead. Naruto growled, and gave pursuit, and Hinata was close behind him.
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Two weary days of travel later, the team arrived in the city on the edge of the Tea Country. Standing on a hillside, they could see out into the wide blue ocean and the bustling town below them, where most ships made dock heading to and from the Sea Country to the south. It was a very beautiful view. Few from the Hidden Village of Konoha got the chance to see the ocean on a regular basis.
Naruto arrived with energy to spare, of course, and he was largely immune to the view, since he'd traveled to the far off countries of Wave and Sea before, and the ocean was nothing new to him. Shino was his usual stoic self, quiet, calm, and completely unreadable. Kurenai was cut from a similar mold, though a faint smile on her lips indicated she was happy enough that they'd reached their destination. And Hinata, though worn out from the long trip, was overjoyed at her first chance to see the beach.
It was so... romantic... she thought.
But then she stubbornly pushed that thought aside. They had a mission to do here.
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"... and so we found out the sea monster wasn't really a monster at all," said Naruto, gesturing emphatically to his makeshift audience. Shino and Kurenai focused entirely on their meals, paying only cursory attention, but Hinata was entranced by the tale of Naruto's last trip to the Sea Country.
The four of them had found a quiet inn to rest their feet and get some dinner. Kurenai chewed quietly on some salty octopus and sipped at her rice wine, her mind elsewhere, busy with the mission. Shino had claimed he wasn't hungry, though he was indulging in some tea. Hinata and Naruto had, predictably, ordered the same thing. Or rather, Naruto had loudly proclaimed he wanted their best pork ramen, and Hinata had timidly requested the same thing.
It wasn't Ichiraku ramen, but it was ramen none-the-less.
"It was just a girl who... well... had her destiny sort of forced onto her by other people," he finished, not really sure how to explain it. "She thought she was a monster, but she wasn't..."
"And you brought her back to Konoha when the mission was over, right?" asked Hinata. She'd heard this story before, of course, but she never failed to appreciate the way Naruto breathed life into his stories.
"That is correct," interrupted Shino politely, placing his chopsticks down over his empty bowl. "Isaribi is still under the care of the Hokage at present. So far she has been unable to determine how to reverse the effects of Orochimaru's tampering."
A hush fell over the table at the mention of that name. All in Konoha knew it, and by now most of them had a fair idea of just what sorts of evil were attached to that name. Genetic experiments. Unholy jutsus. Death and worse than death.
"Well, even if she can't... can't change back," Hinata spoke up softly. "At... at least she knows she isn't a monster anymore... right?"
"Right!" replied Naruto with a cheerful grin on his face. "That's totally right, Hinata!"
Hinata's face turned beet-red and she lowered her gaze to the table.
"Hinata? Are you coming down with something? Your face is all red."
Shino rolled his eyes behind his sunglasses, and Kurenai had the good nature to hide her smirk behind her hand politely.
Before they knew it, it was time for bed, and the four ninjas were climbing up the stairs with still weary legs and full bellies. Tomorrow, they'd start their search in earnest for the strange boy they'd been sent to find. Their room arrangements was simple and cheap, a large one-room. Since they'd all brought their own sleeping bags for their camping midway through the trip, they'd have their own beds. But it was nice having a roof over their heads.
Kurenai lay flat on one end of the room, with the Genin lined up along her side and under her, like cubs lying near a sleeping lioness. As one, they all drifted off to sleep.
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Morning for most shinobi came long before the sun arose. By the time they began their career as Genin, most had learned to spring up from sleep instantly, since their Jounin teachers could come for them at any time for any sort of mission. It was rumored some had forgone sleep altogether so they could be perpetually awake for missions. While Naruto scoffed at such notions (being a heavy sleeper himself) he -was- forced to admit he'd never been completely positive if Shino was ever asleep or just lying down.
However, today was a bit more relaxed, and Kurenai allowed her students a chance to sleep in a little as she made early morning preparations, including rummaging through some of the scrolls hidden in her pack, discreetly slipping them into hidden pockets on her robes. They were designed to capture and contain demonic chakra, taken directly from the First Hokage's Scroll of Forbidden Seals.
After the three Genin in her care had awoken and taken care of basic morning necessities like washing and getting dressed, Kurenai outlined their plan of attack for the day.
"Our first priority is to find this boy," she explained to them, holding up the rough sketch that they had. The features were rough but they did their best to memorize him. With such unusual coloration, he'd be easy to spot, or so they hoped. "Emphasis on find," she repeated. "Do not approach until the whole team is together, we do not want to scare him off.
"Shino, I want you to spread out your bugs as wide a radius as possible. Scout the western edge of town, especially along the three gates and into the forest, the boy may be living out there."
Shino nodded.
"Naruto, I'd like you to disperse your Kage Bunshin throughout the city proper and explore, but quietly and discreetly," she added, stressing the last two words for Naruto's benefit. Unusually attentive, the blonde Genin saluted her and nodded.
"Hinata... I need you to handle the eastern edge of the city, near the docks. It's a lot more cluttered in that region, lots of places people can hide. That's where we'll need your Byakugan the most."
"I u-understand," she replied.
"Good... if you find something I want you to report back to me immediately. I will be in the very center of the town. We passed through it yesterday, so be certain to come find me the instant you discover anything," she said. She did not add she would also be keeping an eye out for such things as black coats and red clouds. She would, however, and if they were anywhere in the city she'd do her best to sense their chakra before they struck.
"Move out!" she called, throwing open the sliding window to their second-story room. As one, Naruto, Hinata, and Shino sprang into action and leapt gracefully out of the room and onto rooftops, speeding towards their respective destinations.
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Surprisingly, it was Hinata who first found their objective.
The young kunoichi had been approaching her mission with dead seriousness for the first few hours, Byakugan activated, scanning amongst the docks and the ships found there, and then later patrolling up along the rocky beach that was the edge of the Tea country, but finding nothing. Several orphans, though not enough to make her think the village was suffering through turbulent times, but none of whom suited the description she had. They were too lean, too tall, too blonde, or too small.
So she'd allowed herself a chance to relax just a little, content one of the others would find the boy (if they hadn't already) and would be coming for her soon. But in the meantime, this was one of her very first trips to the ocean, and she was in awe of it's beauty. She'd seen lakes and rivers and such, but to see so much water waving in the breeze, the air salty but sweet... it was amazing.
It was beautiful.
That really was a perk to being a ninja, she'd discovered (to say nothing of being a step closer to her favorite person in the whole wide world). She got a chance to -see- the whole wide world. And really appreciate the sort of beauty that could flourish anywhere.
So it was naturally, quite by accident, she'd simply stumbled across the boy in question.
A soft 'plunk' caught her attention and she tilted her head to find the source of it, surprised to see it was a young boy sitting on the edge of the beach with his arms wrapped around his legs and a forlorn expression on his face. To her shock, his features were instantly recognizable... dark blue hair, green reptilian eyes, no more than eight or nine years old... it was him!
Instantly, she leapt out of view behind a nearby rock cropping. Long years of avoiding the limelight had given her a knack for quickly disappearing when people weren't looking for her.
She lifted up her hand, two fingers raised. "Byakugan," she whispered, activating her bloodline limit.
As her vision cleared and magnified to untold levels, she allowed her gaze to slip past and -through- the rocks to study the boy. As she watched, he picked up a small, rounded pebble from the beach and tossed it half-heartedly, letting it skip on the water a few times before sinking with a 'plunk' sound. He repeated this a few more times, then simply sat there, staring out at the horizon and across the expanse of sparkling blue ocean. But his view must have been dull, for his expression didn't change. It only grow sadder.
And for an instant, Hinata felt she was going to cry. She'd seen someone exactly like this before.
A boy all alone, desperate to be loved, ignored and forgotten, seeking mundane activities to keep entertained far away from everyone who hated him. A boy sitting on the swing outside of the Ninja Academy, just swinging back and forth with no one to push him and no parent to come and pick him up when class was over.
For a moment, the vision was unsettling sharp, and Hinata shook her head to dispel it, replacing the blonde-haired boy with the dark-haired one before her. The mission. She had to focus on the mission.
But it was no longer just a mission for her. If this boy was the one they'd come for (and she'd bet her entire mission salary it was) then this wasn't just business anymore.
She would see to it the boy was helped. One way or another.
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Author's Notes:
I got nothing.
