Chapter 20:

When Shikamaru regained feeling in his limbs, it was too late. He opened his eyes and looked around. He was alone.

The nobleman, the donkey, the king, his men and Naruto were gone.

Gasping, Shikamaru scrambled to his feet and spun in a circle, looking in all directions. He was in the field behind the warehouses, having collapsed where he was. He tried to recall what took place after he saw that mirror but he couldn't remember. Something knocked him out, that much he was certain of.

He was also certain of something else.

He looked in the direction of the king's seaside city and glared. The nobleman mistook Naruto for a spirit and took him as his prize. That was why they wanted the transformation to occur in front of them.

Question now was where had they taken him? The nobleman appeared to be alone but anyone he brought along could have been hiding as he had been, showing up when needed. The king's palace was within the city and they had a dungeon. It made more sense to take him there since it was closer, but, given that Shikamaru was uncertain of involvement beyond this point, couldn't be sure they could use that location. If the nobleman wanted Naruto, it made equal sense to take him back to his own city, even if it was further.

Had the king known all along this was the nobleman's plan or had he been deceived as well? Shikamaru had no idea what happened after he blacked out. All he knew was that he wasn't important to them which was why they left him behind. If the king hadn't known where the Leaf was, Shikamaru would have suspected they allowed Shikamaru his freedom because they wanted him to lure them to his village. A standard tactic shinobi learned for several missions. That didn't mean the nobleman didn't intend to do just that for his own purposes, however. It seemed doubtful, but Shikamaru planned to keep an eye out and throw any spies off his trail just in case.

Shikamaru knew something was wrong and now he knew why.

He also knew that he couldn't do this alone. He needed to go back to the Leaf Village and inform the others. He needed help.

Shikamaru gave the walled city one last look before turning around and running towards home, silently promising Naruto he'd come back for him.

Naruto opened his eyes, finding himself on a cold stone floor. As everything came into focused, he noticed the metal bars between him and a man hunched over something on a table. Naruto's whole body was sore and he couldn't remember how he got into this cell, but he remembered the man standing outside his cell.

"This was never about Kai, was it?" he asked, chin on the ground. Naruto was lying on his stomach and intended to remain that way to make the nobleman think he was too weak to move.

The nobleman cracked a smile as he turned to look over his shoulder. "I, like many, dislike Kai with a passion. If you lined up every person who wanted to exact revenge on him, it'd be out the door. But I am not so petty. I was never interested in revenge. And it was good I didn't waste my time with such things, see as where his path has led him."

"How did you get here so fast? Is that why the king had us wait? Because he needed to inform you?" Naruto asked him.

"Actually, after you left my home, I told the servants to arrange a ride for me to come to this kingdom. After meeting the shinobi he hired to help him with this task, how could I not?" He laughed. "I have to say, I'm quite surprised. I had no idea the person sitting across from my table was the very one I had been seeking."

Naruto started to lift himself up, his shoulders stinging from being on the stone floor for so long. "Seeking me for what? What do you want?"

The nobleman rummaged on the table for something, turning his back to Naruto.

"I come from nothing and am nothing," he told Naruto. "I was no one back home. My family lived in poverty and barely got by. I saved my coins to afford a new garment for myself instead of food so I could fit in with the other children, too ashamed of my rags."

The garment he wanted wasn't fancy but trendy and most of the children wore something similar. He hoped by dressing like them, he would be accepted. More than food, he wanted friends.

"Even when I dressed like them, they rejected me. No one wanted anything to do with me." The nobleman sighed, his head sinking below his shoulder as he propped himself up on the table with both hands. "Yes, I lied to you. But it wasn't the first time."

The scorn, the rejection. The children taunting him and laughing at him. It was too painful. All he wanted was to be their friend. To not be alone. Not be ridiculed.

"To be accepted by them, to win their favor, I lied. I told them I came from money. That I knew people. Suddenly, everyone wanted to do me favors. They tried to win my approval so I would reward them with gifts and tickets to see their favorite stars. Oh, I was surrounded by people all clamoring to make me happy."

He closed his eyes, basking in the memory and sighed. When he opened his eyes, there was malice in his glare.

"Children are easy to fool because they don't think logically and are quick to believe anything, no matter how farfetched. The adults heard my claims and knew I was lying through my teeth. They stayed out of it because we were children and I wasn't their child. However, soon even the children caught on to me. They even put me to the test when a singer was on tour and stopped by to sign autographs for the children. They wanted me to pull some strings and get them tickets but I said I couldn't do that, so they went up to the singer and said that since I was their close personal friend, they should be allowed tickets because they were my friend. Everything unraveled after that."

Naruto's eye twitched, thinking about all the lies he had ever told to appear better in the eyes of others. Recently, he had told Sarada and Chocho that he was the most popular kid at the academy and in the top spot alongside Sasuke. Chocho believed him but Sarada thought it was fishy.

He meant no harm by it, only wanting to impress them. The nobleman seemed to have been the same way when he was a child, only his lies were a bit bigger.

"I started fresh in a new place and had to build myself a name all over again. New place, same issues. People scorned me and pushed me around until I told them I was a member of an important clan. Then they respected me." He gripped the edge of the table in anger. "Until I told the same whopper to an actual member. I didn't know who he was. But he sure let me know, and told everyone that I was not part of his clan. They just about ran me out of town."

"I get it," said Naruto. "You were only trying to get people to accept and respect you. I get that."

The nobleman went on as if he hadn't heard him. "Then I came to the city. And I met a girl. I flattered her and she clung to my arm. I had won her over with minimal effort. Then I discovered who she was. The second daughter of the noble family. I knew I had to impress her father or all of this would go away. I couldn't tell him I came from another noble family because he'd know them all. So I told him I was a business man and came from a long line of intrapreneurs. It was enough for him to know I understood money. I could back it up, too. That's the plus side of coming from the gutter. You understand money far better than the rich who throw it away. I knew how to stretch every coin and make the most of so little."

He always hated the wealthy because they never shared any of it with him. They wouldn't even hire him to clean up their garbage in exchange for scraps. The children from well-off families made fun of him for not having the latest fashions or toys. They threw rocks through the windows of the poor homes for laughs knowing the cold wind and rain would come in the night and freeze them. Even the moderately rich were cruel and it filled him with hate.

Still, he strived to be accepted by them. If they accepted him or saw him as one of them, they would allow him to dine at the same table where he would feast on foods he had only dreamt of. They would talk to him and be invited into a warm home he thought could only exist in heaven.

"I married her and I finally got the good life," the nobleman said. "It was everything I had ever dreamed. I wanted for nothing for the first time in my life. And now that I had become a part of her family, she revealed to me their treasures. Including this."

He turned and showed Naruto the mirror, holding it so neither of their reflections were caught in its surface. He bent down to be at eye level with Naruto in his cell.

"She said her family happened upon this item years ago in trade. And it came with a story. The men who sold it to them said it had been taken from a spirit years ago and wielded powerful magic. Her family kept it tucked away since receiving it, protecting it. According to what she told me, its powerful on its own but without a spirit to control it, the magic within it is too dangerous to use. A human could only tap into a fraction of its capabilities."

A spirit item. Naruto knew that's what it was though he had never seen this mirror before. From this short distance, he could sense its power and it made his hair stand on end. It was neither good nor bad, the mirror, but in the wrong hands it could only be dangerous.

"I thought it was superstitious nonsense," the nobleman said with a laugh. "After my wife passed, it came into my possession and I decided to put it to the test."

"You used this thing?" Naruto asked. "Without knowing what it could do? Are you nuts?"

"She told me it deals in opposites, according to what she was told."

"She could have been mistaken. You don't know what that is. For all you know it could-"

The nobleman cut him off, continuing his own story. "With me as the new head of the noble family, I was tasked with making sure we had a steady income. Contrary to what I led them to believe, I wasn't really a businessman."

"You said you were more of one than Kai."

"And I stick by that," said the nobleman. "I am a good talker and I do know the value of money. However, making money was never my forte. My father-in-law did have stocks, so I tried my hand at that. I tried to invest and become a shareholder of different local businesses. Not everyone went for it. Some were even outraged that I would ask. When they refused to do as I wanted, I tested the mirror's so-called power on them. Sure enough, they did the exact opposite."

Whenever a business owner refused to sell to him, all he had to do was make them look into the mirror and they would instantly change their minds. He got his way every time.

Sort of.

"Turns out my wife was right," he said with a sigh. "They didn't always do the opposite of the deal. Sometimes it was their personalities that changed. Since I am not a spirit, I can't wield this thing to its full potential."

"Then you heard about Kai," Naruto deduced.

He chuckled. "Yes. My wife heard stories when she was a child. When she got the mirror, she became even more interested, not that she took any of it seriously. That was how I knew what happened to Kai was a spirit's doing."

"So you came up with this whole scheme to flush out a spirit."

"Exactly right," he told Naruto, smiling the entire time. "Kai's transformation being what it was, only a spirit could change him back. That was why I arranged this whole thing. And now that I have an actual spirit, you will use this mirror's power to its fullest extent."

Naruto cracked a smile, glaring at the nobleman. "Tch. I got news for you, moron. I'm not a real spirit."

"You can't fool me. I saw what you were doing back there."

"Ever hear of jutsu? I was tricking you. It was all an illusion. I'm a human. And you're delusional."

The nobleman scoffed. "We shall see." He stood up, holding the mirror in his hands so it continued to face the ceiling.

Naruto was so relieved that he hadn't taken anyone to the shrine if this was the true goal, but he could hardly get excited about that, knowing the severity of the situation.

Naruto had been born a human and was a human, but at the moment he was both human and kitsune. If this man had a test to prove he was a spirit in some way, Naruto would surely fail. If he didn't, as long as he maintained control over himself, he wouldn't display any of his kitsune abilities.

Looking behind the nobleman, Naruto spotted a heavy door on the opposite wall behind the table. Naruto thought about his options carefully, knowing one poor choice could lead to catastrophe.

He could enter his Kurama Mode and force his way out of the cell and the building. The problem was that mirror. Naruto wasn't sure how it worked beyond what the nobleman told him and wasn't sure of its accuracy. If the nobleman used the mirror to stop Naruto from leaving, anything could happen.

He could use his kitsune abilities and use an illusion of himself as a decoy while the real one shifted into fox form and squeezed through the bars to safety. After that, he could jump into the nobleman's body and use him to get out of the building along with the mirror.

That seemed like the best option but in order to do that, he needed to conjure his fox fire. Which the nobleman would see. He would then most likely use the mirror to stop him.

Naruto thought about breaking the mirror, but he didn't know if he could. Spirit items he knew of were very durable. If he did succeed in breaking it, what would happen? That mirror had an owner. He couldn't do that. What if it killed the owner, the spirit and the mirror being linked? What if it stranded the spirit with no way to get home? What if it caused the fabric of reality to crumble? He had no way of knowing and couldn't risk it.

If Naruto played along, the nobleman would probably give him the mirror to use, which Naruto could then use on the nobleman. That seemed dangerous, but as long as he had the mirror, he had options. Once he had the mirror, he could then use whatever means he could to escape and the nobleman wouldn't be able to stop him. Unless he had something else up his sleeve.

"What makes you think a spirit would help you anyway?" Naruto asked him, trying to sound important.

"Because that's what you do," said the nobleman. "According to all those stories my wife grew up with, spirits served nobility. You have to do as I say."

"What makes you think a powerful spirit would waste their time serving a human? Powerful spirits have far better things to do than cater to your human whims."

"Then you admit you are a spirit," he said with a smirk.

Naruto frowned. "I'm saying that if I were one, I don't see myself helping you. You haven't even proved yourself worthy."

"And how would I do that? Isn't being a noble enough?" he asked.

"All you've done is lied and cheated your way to this position. You manipulate people to get your way."

He laughed. "If that is your view than you are a hypocrite. Did you not admit that you were using an illusion to fool everyone? Everyone lies, even you, so don't get all high and mighty."

Again, Naruto thought of all the lies he had told in his childhood and most recently. Being just as popular as Sasuke, taking the top spot in school, being able to change Kai back, not being a kitsune. Even about there being a magical land where Kai could be cured instead of telling people about the cat spirit.

About the kitsune in the mountain.

Naruto knew he was a liar from time to time, and so were the kitsune when they disguised themselves as humans to protect themselves. Shinobi lied on missions because it was what they were hired to do. But they still maintained their integrity. The kitsune trusted Naruto to keep their secret. Shinobi couldn't blow their cover when rescuing a princess or a member of their own village from kidnappers and assassins. The motivation and reason were important.

When Naruto and his friends bent the truth, the intent was to help, not to harm. Because of this, when the nobleman compared the two of them, Naruto found it downright insulting.

"If I help you, you'd be using that mirror to get rich and cheat people out of their businesses. You make family-owned stores close their doors just because they disagree with you. That goes beyond exaggerating your popularity or covering up a surprise party."

"It's called staying ahead of the game."

"People in your city are already suspicious of you," Naruto told him. "They know something's going on."

"And that's where you come in," he said.

"Fine." Naruto held out his hand without sticking it through the bars. "Give me the mirror and I'll show you what it can do."

He pulled it away from Naruto. "I'm not that foolish. You'll use it on me and escape."

"How am I supposed to help you if you don't give me the tools I need?"

"The king still has that boy of yours locked up and I can have him invade your homeland if you don't cooperate."

"Then fine, I'll cooperate."

"I don't believe you."

Naruto grabbed the bars with both hands and growled at the nobleman. "Is there any answer I can give that you'll accept?!"

"No need to worry." The nobleman bent down, grinning wickedly. "If you don't agree to help me sincerely, I'll simply make you."

Naruto moved away from the bars. "You can't use that thing properly. Just give it to me and I'll do what you want."

"Then let's test it." The nobleman grabbed Naruto's wrist and pulled it between the bars so his fingers touched the mirror's rim. The noble had a strong grip on it so Naruto couldn't take it from him. He pointed it at something Naruto couldn't see and waited.

Naruto could feel the power radiating from the mirror in his fingertips. He shut his eyes tightly, wondering what would happen now that a kitsune was touching it.

The noble let Naruto go and moved away from the cell. "I knew it."

"What?" Naruto asked.

"You refuse to help me." The nobleman pointed at the mirror. "With you touching it, I should have been able to use it to its fullest extent but nothing's changed."

"Maybe because I'm not a spirit?" Naruto asked, raising his brow.

"Or because you simply won't help me, no matter your claims to the contrary." He smiled and rotated the mirror in his hands. "Which is fine. If you won't help me, I'll simply make you."

Naruto crawled to the back of his cell, refusing to look at the mirror. "You don't know what you're doing," he told the nobleman, shielding his face with his arm.

"It does the opposite," the nobleman told him, pointing the mirror in Naruto's direction. "The opposite of whatever's caught in its surface. Whether or not you're looking at it. So if you refuse to help me, the mirror will make you do the opposite."

Despite what the nobleman told him, Naruto kept his eyes shut and hid behind his arms, hoping it would protect him from its magic. He didn't want to help this man, he didn't want to hurt anyone, he didn't want to tell him about the kitsune or where they lived, he didn't want to abandon Boruto. He was afraid of what the mirror would make him do.

To respect the mystery boy's secret, Sarada didn't tell her mother the truth about what he was. She ordered Mitsuki to do the same, knowing that spirits liked their privacy. Mitsuki agreed and didn't ask the mystery boy too many questions. He felt he already knew enough anyway after their talk a couple days ago.

Sakura arrived home and, in an effort to get the boy out for some fresh air, invited him to come along while she ran errands. The boy agreed.

Sarada walked close to the boy in an effort to protect him from any danger. At least, that was how she wanted him to feel. After telling them that he was actually a spirit, Sarada worried that he would feel exposed and wanted to remedy that by showing him that he could rely on them.

Sakura stopped at a nearby stand to buy them a snack to eat on the way. To appease the woman who had been taking care of him all this time, the boy ate what was handed to him while Sarada watched closely. Sakura looked relieved to see him finally eat something and led the way down the street towards the next shop.

"That food's not going to hurt you or anything, right?" Sarada whispered to him.

"I told you that human food does nothing for me. I can't even taste it."

"So you just put it in your mouth and it disappears?"

"I suppose. I don't really eat. There's no need to."

Sarada moved away from him to enjoy her own snack. It seemed their food wasn't poisonous to him, so she decided not to worry.

They were soon joined by Mitsuki and the boy handed him the food he wasn't going to finish. Mitsuki ate it then asked if there was any word on the Hokage.

After the incident at the main gate, things had been quiet but several shinobi were on edge. They even doubled the guards just in case and increased patrols. Sarada noticed some shinobi pass by their home the other night to make sure no one suspicious had gotten in. She wasn't sure if they would have reacted the same way if the Hokage had been in the village.

Sakura stopped to speak to someone standing with their son and the group peered around her to see Shikadai and his mother. It seemed they were shopping, too. Temari was the one to bring up the incident, grumbling about the gall of the soldiers who dared invade the Leaf. Sakura thanked her again for looking out for Sarada, word having traveled quickly in the village. Shikadai just slumped and kept his lips pressed together.

The conversation ended when someone came running towards them from down the street.

"Shikamaru?"

They were surprised and relieved to see him. The younger ones interpreted it as good news until they noticed he was alone. The two women looked concerned, especially since it looked like he ran here from somewhere far away.

"We got a problem," he panted.

"Where's the Hokage?" asked Sarada.

"That's part of it."

Temari moved closer to her husband. "Shikamaru, what's going on? When you said you'd be away on business, you didn't tell me it'd be a week at least." The only reason she wasn't hitting him was because she could tell something was wrong.

Catching his breath, Shikamaru spoke in a hushed tone to the women, but the children could hear him, too.

"Naruto's been captured."

"What?!"

"By whom?"

He shushed them, not wanting anyone walking by to hear. "I got a couple theories on that. But my money's on the noble. I'm pretty sure I know where they are keeping him."

"And you just left him there?" Temari asked angrily.

"It's not like I could take on a whole army by myself. I had to come back for reinforcements. The problem is that we're limited in who can come along."

"Why?" asked Sakura.

"Because Naruto was mistaken for a spirit," he whispered.

"Why would they think that?"

"Long story."

Temari put her hands on her hips. "This has something to do with those soldiers who showed up and tried to kidnap Sarada, doesn't it? That's it, we're bringing the fight to them."

"Not so fast," Shikamaru told her. "The king's been pretty inconsistent during this mission, as subtle as it may be, but I think I know why. He's being manipulated by the noble who sent us on this crazy adventure. He never cared about Kai being changed back to human form. He was trying to flush out a spirit."

"And he thinks Naruto is one."

"Yes. He's probably being kept in the king's kingdom, since it's the closest, but there's a chance he took Naruto back with him to his own land far away. Slim chance, but still a chance. I'm still betting he's in the king's kingdom, but if we send an army to rescue him, there's a good chance of us being noticed. We also don't know where in the kingdom he's being held captive. Plus, we have the Boruto situation."

"What Boruto situation?"

"The one where he followed the Hokage and Shikamaru to their meeting place in an attempt to stop their transaction by scaring them off and led to him being captured," said Mitsuki.

"Are you kidding me?!" Sarada snapped, glaring at him.

"They asked," he said innocently.

Temari waved her hands in the air. "All that aside, we can't take this sitting down. They captured the Hokage and his son. Their soldiers came here starting trouble."

"They were sent on orders from their king who only gave those orders because of the noble who started this whole thing," said Shikamaru. "Naruto wanted to handle this a certain way to avoid war. If we go there with an army of shinobi, it'll cause exactly that. And we still don't know everything, like how the nobleman's doing this."

Everyone looked at Shikamaru's head.

"Uh, Shikamaru?" said Temari, pointing. "You got…"

"I know," he said in annoyance. "The ears again, right?"

Sakura blinked. "I get it," she said, remembering something from the past. "You went there to get help, didn't you?"

"Went where?" Temari asked, having never been to the mountain and knowing nothing of it.

"Not important," said Shikamaru.

"Are you keeping secrets from me?"

Shikamaru's cat tail popped out next as his eyes darted around. "N- n… But… Maybe… It's not… The Hokage… Not personal."

Temari frowned harder, leaning in closer.

"We should probably rescue the Hokage, shouldn't we?" Mitsuki asked, getting everyone back on track.

"Well, I'm going for sure," said Temari. "I'll give those soldiers a piece of my mind."

Shikamaru shook his head. "While that would be great, we need to keep this small and Naruto only has so many people in the know about this and would probably want them involved, but…"

Taking her annoyance out on Shikamaru, Temari said, "Weren't you there to make sure nothing happened to the Hokage?"

"You're saying this was my fault?"

Temari tried to rephrase. "No, I'm not saying that. But couldn't you have used your shadow to stop them from capturing the Hokage since it sounds like you were right next to him? And you don't sound too sure about where they took him. And you ran all the way back here instead of…"

"I blacked out," he told her. "When I came to, they were gone. I raced back here as fast as I could."

"That's it? You didn't see anything else? Was there a fight? Why'd you let them knock you out so easily?"

"I don't know. I just remember seeing a mirror. After that…"

The boy pushed his way to Shikamaru's side. "A mirror? What did it look like?"

Shikamaru looked down at the boy, already sensing he was different from those around him. "I only caught a glimpse of it, but it was round and didn't have a handle. The outside seemed to be silver."

The boy looked at the ground, picturing it in his mind. At once, he knew it could only be his. "Where?"

"Uh…"

Sarada stepped forward, standing beside the boy. "That's his mirror, Shikamaru. He said someone took it from him years ago."

"Take me to it," the boy said.

"Everyone, slow down," Shikamaru said, cat ears twitching on top of his head. "We have a lot to do and little time to plan. We need to sort this out before we do anything."

"My mirror is dangerous in the wrong hands. If he tries to use it, there's no telling what can happen and if he tries to force its power…"

"I get that," said Shikamaru. "I promise we'll get it back for you. But we also have to rescue Naruto and Boruto. We have to stop this noble, as well. He has the mirror. He's the one pulling the strings. We need to focus on him as our enemy and not the king."

"But the king was the one…"

"He was being manipulated by the noble who has the mirror. If he's no longer a factor, the king's got no reason to do anything and will be next to harmless."

Temari folded her arms. "Ok, so what's the plan and who's going? You said a big group would be easily spotted and you need to send only those who are aware of the situation or whatever. What's that leave us?"

Shikamaru rubbed the back of his neck with a groan. "We don't know where they're keeping Naruto, so tracking shinobi would be ideal but we don't have any who know what's going on."

"What about Sai?" asked Sakura.

"He's better at collecting intel than tracking, but he does know what's going on and he does have some tracking skills. But wasn't he just sent on a mission not that long ago? Is he back yet?"

"I think he is."

"We can go," said Mitsuki.

"No way," said Shikamaru. "The king's looking for you because of your last mission there. He said he was willing to overlook it but that was before the noble started doing something. Now there's no telling how the king feels about it."

"If he came here looking for us because he needed to get to Naruto, then doesn't that mean we're in less danger now that he's been captured?"

"We can't rely on that. But I do know where they're keeping Boruto," said Shikamaru. "Finding Naruto's location will be more difficult."

"Not for me," came a voice.

They turned around and saw an unfamiliar human standing beside another stranger who kept his arms tucked close to his stomach. His smile was oddly catlike.

Shikamaru had never seen this man before but felt that he knew him. "Seki?"

He grinned. "Comes with an additional tail. I said I'd catch up to you, but you didn't make it easy."

"I'm sorry, Seki," said Shikamaru. "We ended up traveling a lot farther than we had planned. It's been an ordeal. I hope you weren't running after us this whole time."

"I stopped when I reached the abandoned town," said Seki and gave a sideward glance to the human behind him with the cat smile. "He told me what was discussed and I convinced him to come here after I caught your scent."

"My scent?"

"We were heading in a different direction until I smelled you returning to this village and followed you. I'm glad we did."

Shikamaru gave Seki a sad look. "Did you hear the part about Naruto being captured?"

Seki returned the look. "I did. And I'm willing to help you."

"Even though we're up against a human being?"

"A human with a spirit item," Seki clarified. "That is something we can interfere in."

"A human wielding a spirit item cannot be overlooked," said the human beside him with unusually sharp teeth. "They wouldn't know how to control it. That is undoubtedly how you ended up in this fix. There is a reason we tell humans not to touch something as powerful as that."

Shikamaru was already gaining confidence that this mission could work. He wouldn't have to worry about guarding the secret as Naruto would have wanted, but their involvement created another issue.

"I don't know if you should come," he told the two of them. "This noble is after spirits. If he discovers you…"

The catlike human laughed. "We've existed longer than you humans and have occupied this world for centuries with the majority being none the wiser. If we don't want to be spotted, we won't be. And humans are skeptics these days, allowing us to become myths."

"Even so, there's still risk involved," said Shikamaru. "Risk to you."

His limp-wristed hand waved in the air dismissively. "A human's mistaken another human for a spirit, so they obviously have their own ideas."

Shikamaru looked to the side. "He technically is part spirit at the moment so…"

"Shikamaru," said Seki, seeming to take this more seriously than the other. "If a kitsune doesn't want to be seen, it won't be seen. We're stronger now and can do it well."

"But Naruto would never forgive me if anything happened to you," Shikamaru said earnestly, feeling the weight on his shoulders.

"And if anything happens to Naruto because of the curse we gave him, it will be our fault. He was only mistaken as one because of us."

"That's not true," said Shikamaru, though he knew it was in part. Naruto cast an illusion because he couldn't use a jutsu to the same effect. It was his decision to use his kitsune abilities in that way because his ninja abilities weren't enough.

"Naruto is one of us," said Seki. "We've always thought so. If he's in danger, we'll help him if possible."

Shikamaru wanted their help but the thought of something happening to them made his heart sting. He had run with these kitsune himself and came to understand them a little better, considering them friends. Naruto had a deep bond with them. Their trust in humans also played a part. If anything happened, be it a gamble or an accident, so many would be affected.

"Spirits are involved and so is a spirit item," said Seki. "So we're involved."

"Yes…"

"If this were a human confrontation, we would keep out of it and hope for the best. Even if it involved Naruto. Friend or not, we're not supposed to meddle in human matters. This involves certain creatures and dangerous items humans should not be using so carelessly. That means we should get involved. We're involved, Shikamaru, so it makes more sense to work together on this, don't you think?"

Shikamaru had to ask one last time, "Are you sure?"

Seki grinned a foxy grin. "I'm certain."

He was grateful to have their help and had to trust that they knew how to avoid falling into greedy human hands.

"Ok," said Shikamaru, getting to business. "You can track Naruto's scent, so you can help locate him. I'll handle the noble."

"And my mirror?" asked the boy. "I should come, too. It's my mirror, after all. I'm the only one who can control it properly."

The catlike human snickered. "But without it, you don't have enough power. And if this human has it, he'll need you to use its power."

"Which mean you'll be in danger," said Shikamaru to the boy. "It's best if you stay here. We'll get the mirror and return it to you."

"He should come," said Mitsuki. "And so should we."

"It's too dangerous. The king, the noble, the mirror… There are too many factors. Just stay put while we go in and out."

"You think it'll be that quick?" Temari asked with a smirk and hand on her hip.

"He's just saying that so they'll stay behind, obviously," said Shikadai. "He's done the same to me before."

"Then you know the drill." Shikamaru looked at the young shinobi and the mystery boy. "Just stay put, please. We can't have more people getting captured or hurt. Stay in the village in case those soldiers come back and I'll help you get your mirror back, uh…"

"My name is Sugata," said the mystery boy.

"Ok, stay here and look after each other. We'll get your mirror back." Shikamaru looked at the others. "We better hurry before anything happens to Naruto."

The catlike human chuckled gleefully. "This is so exciting."

"You can't possibly do this on your own," Sakura called after Shikamaru. "Just the three of you and only one being a shinobi? What's your plan, Shikamaru?"

"We're working it out. Just stay here."

"He's insane if he thinks he's leaving me behind," said Temari.

While the adults argued, the younger ones slipped to the side to have their own conversation.

"We're not staying in the village, are we?" asked Shikadai.

"No matter what Shikamaru thinks, it's not wise to send only one shinobi for something like this," said Sarada. "And we've been there before."

"And if the noble's gotten what he wanted, the king won't be needing us," said Mitsuki. "We have to get Boruto out of there along with the Hokage."

"It's my mirror. It makes sense for me to go after it."

Shikadai sighed. "This is so troublesome…"