One hand seal was all it took to break the connection, he had learned to feel chakra signatures, not at the same level as a true sensor but close. The same day Ino had placed the Shindenshin inside his brain he learned on his own how to find the signature, she had showed him the way to block the connection but not how to break it, it was something he had to figure out by himself.

Naruto was in a meditation state almost, all alone in the living room of the house, his right arm slowly lowered releasing the seal and then he finally opened his eyes and took a deep breath. Her words bothered him, his perception of Ino had changed in less than twenty four hours and the only image he kept of her was that of a liar, he was her mission objective and she did a tremendous job to bring him to Konoha, playing her part very well in the process.

He mentally cursed his luck for having to meet her, fall for her act and not realizing sooner deception was a part of her game, still, regretting the past would not change anything, he needed to remain focused and keep a stronger mind moving forward, soon he realized being a shinobi meant being also a good liar. The main door opened and his house mates entered, immediately the energy in the air changed, Naruto stood up and went into his room without uttering a single word.

"Naruto, wait..." Shikamaru called.

"I'll leave tomorrow guys, don't worry..."

Both of them looked at each other clearly not knowing what he was referring to.

"Huh? what do you mean?"

"It's obvious I don't fit in your team so I'll move elsewhere tomorrow, I don't want to be a burden."

"Naruto... you're not a burden." Chōji said.

"Didn't seem that way to me tonight..." his voice showed a hint of cockiness. Shikamaru spoke next.

"Stop acting like you didn't do anything wrong, we're at fault for not doing anything as well, but you changed the plan midway, had you followed instructions we wouldn't be talking about this!"

"The only reason I came to this village was to find a way to see my mom an dad again and nobody said I wasn't allowed to do what I did, it's why I went back there and while I appreciate your help I don't feel like explaining myself to anybody, good night."

Naruto went to close the door of his room but Shikamaru quickly stepped in and blocked it using his foot.

"Hey, I'm not done talking to you!"

"Move aside Shikamaru..." Naruto glared.

Chōji realized the situation would get out of hand if he remained there without interfering, he grabbed Shikamaru by the shoulders and gently moved him away from the door, he looked at his friend and nodded to let him know he would take care of this, he stepped back and let his friend talk.

"You must be tired, all of us are, and I don't suppose you want to hear a lecture from anyone right now..."

Naruto surprisingly did not close the door.

"Ino doesn't speak for us Naruto, you're still my teammate and my friend and I'm sure Shikamaru here thinks the same way." He looked over to his pony tailed friend who remained silent, Chōji gently smiled "Get some rest, I hope we can talk tomorrow with a cooler head and some food in the belly, everything makes more sense when you have food in your belly!" he chuckled "Good night." He saluted and stepped away from the door, he motioned Shikamaru to do the same and let him be for now.

Chōji was right, Naruto was very tired and had he not stopped Shikamaru from entering the room he would have hurt him, then again he did not know what the Nara boy could do in a fight so his guess was as good as any. He slowly closed the door and pondered on Chōji's words as he finally let himself fall to the bed, his eyes stared at the ceiling for a long time.

"I guess I have no choice do I?."

The Hokage currently found himself in an argument with the Toad Sage regarding the next course of action, the last couple of hours had been rough and he was not in the best state of mind to argue, especially with his former student.

"It's the perfect plan, I don't know why you're so worked up about it."

"It's bad enough he's national news, I still think staying here would be safer for him but I can't go against his wishes, but you're a great asset to Konoha, who knows for how long he'll be away, have you considered that?"

"A lot, I think it's better to travel with the boy, I can keep an eye on him, keep training him and find out what the Uchiha are up to, you know I work better when I'm outside of this village, staying here is like I'm aging faster around you people."

Hiruzen scoffed "You have a point there, your spy network is more efficient with you on the move."

Jiraiya had a huge grin on his face "I knew you'd say yes!"

"He mentioned he has family in Osaka, do you know who it is?"

"Not a clue, I will ask him when I get the chance."

"I need you to send me a report whenever something important happens, make sure you're on the move always, don't stay too long there..."

"I know I know, I'll set some hideouts once we're there, Naruto can take care of his own and I'm sure he'll like to spend some time with someone he actually knows, speaking of that... There's this girl from the hospital, Sakura Haruno, she will ask you tomorrow to let her join Naruto as well."

"Sakura? Hmm... I thought she wanted to remain in Konoha longer, her parents might actually be glad for once if she's out of here."

"While I think it's a good sentiment, I doubt she's leaving because of the whole inheritance deal, if I had to guess, she's doing it because of Naruto."

"So you think...?"

"It's none of our business Sarutobi-sensei, young love is a complicated thing."

"I see... what about Ino?"

"What about her? They're not on speaking terms for now so I doubt he wants her close."

The older man stood looking again through the window at the village, it was very late and most if not all activities had ceased at that hour.

"I suppose it's for the better."

"What do you mean by that?" Jiraiya's curiosity was piqued.

"Not of importance, do you have any contacts in Osaka that could help you with Minato and Kushina's whereabouts?"

"There is... one person there who can help, yes, not so sure if he'll be willing to help though... Kakashi Hatake"

That name made the Hokage feel uneasy, the man was a rogue shinobi, he had deserted the village long ago seeking a different path, soon they learned he had tried to assassinate the Raikage, the shinobi leader of the village of Kumo that resided surprisingly very far from Japan, the attempt however failed and Kakashi, although he survived, never returned to Konoha to answer for his actions and remained away from the village to lead a quiet life apparently, but in the village they knew he was still acting as a vigilante of sorts, killing criminals all over the country but without raising the suspicions of the general public.

"He's not reliable, why him?"

"We've kept our distance ever since that incident with Kumo but I never stopped keeping in touch with him, regardless of what he did he's still a valuable asset in my opinion, if anyone can help us find Naruto's parents, it's him."

"What about Tsunade? Isn't she a more reliable source?"

"I... Tsunade and I haven't spoken for some time and honestly I don't know how happy she'll be to see me or even hear of me..." Jiraiya looked away, Hiruzen decided not to press the matter.

"Fine... I hope you're right on this one Jiraiya."

Morning came fast, Naruto had managed to get just enough rest and wake up earlier than his housemates to avoid them entirely, he left the house and met Jiraiya at the Hokage's building, the older man had already packed for the trip and had told Naruto to leave his clothes in the village as he would buy the boy new ones, they were waiting on Sakura, the girl was currently talking with the leader of Konoha to inform him about her plans as Jiraiya had previously mentioned. Minutes later she emerged from the building with an energetic mood to let them know everything was fine, she would join the trip to Osaka and help Naruto find his relative, however she would need to head back once the mission had been completed, her duties to the hospital could not be left unattended.

The trip itself would take around eight hours if they were lucky, first a highway express bus to Mishima and then take the train directly to Osaka, they would have plenty of time to discuss their plans. Traveling by foot was also an option since they could run at high speed thanks to their chakra but opted not to do it to avoid getting attention on their way there, it would be hard and unnecessary to explain to a pedestrian or a farmer why they were running so fast across fields. Naruto did not know how to use the Henge or transformation jutsu to hide his identity so instead chose to wear a black hoodie to cover his yellow hair and part of his face, it was not much of a disguise but it was something at least, Sakura opted for a plain white shirt and a red jacket, Jiraiya only placed a brown cloak over his usual shinobi attire. The group walked past the gates of Konoha to the outside world once again and headed to the open road in search of the nearest bus stop that would take them to their first destination, Naruto remained oddly quiet.

"So who's this family member you mentioned?" Jiraiya asked to break the ice.

"A cousin."

"Cousin eh? a boy? girl?"

"You'll see when we get there, I'd rather not talk about it right now."

"What's with all the mystery eh kid?"

"Yeah Naruto, there's supposed to be trust in a team." Sakura added.

"It's not that I don't trust you guys, even though I have some issues with that, but I want to keep her identity a secret until we get there, she's also a shinobi like us."

"Ah, so it's a girl." Jiraiya smirked.

"... Damn it!"

"Hahahaha it's okay kid, if you don't want to give us her name we can wait until later, speaking of that, have you thought how long you want to stay there?"

"Honestly no, I don't even know if she'll like the idea of coming to Konoha, she has a life of her own already and is doing well."

"What does she do? You can tell us that right?" Sakura asked.

Naruto nodded "Last time we spoke she was getting a job in a big gaming company, she didn't want to get a career because she believes you could teach yourself to do anything you want like she did with chakra so she became a computing engineer, like she helps with all things that have to do with programming or coding and that sort of thing."

"So she's a techie, good, when was the last time you saw her anyway?"

"I dunno, a few months ago I guess? Why?"

"It's a good thing you guys kept in touch despite the distance, she must be someone important to you."

"She's the only family relative I have left aside from mom and dad, ever since coming to Konoha we haven't talked and I want to make sure she's alright, I just hope the Uchiha don't have her on their radar."

"If they did they would've gone after her already kid, do you know if she received any sort of training as a shinobi?"

"No, as far as I remember she taught herself, when we were kids we used to spar a little, we never got too serious but she was good, at the time we didn't know anything about chakra so we just went with our instinct to fight." Naruto chuckled and looked through the window "I even remember one time mom got mad at us because she helped me to get back at some kids on the streets who were mean to us, we beat them up really bad, after that... After that we stopped sparring and found other things to do like normal kids at that age, playing video games and things like that."

"What about her parents?"

"They... died in a car accident when she was a baby, she doesn't remember anything about that so I'd prefer if you guys don't question her about it."

"He what?..." Ino's eyes went wide.

"You heard me, he left." Chōji responded.

It was almost noon, Ino got little sleep the night earlier due to the guilt, she had spent her sleep hours instead thinking about what had happened with Naruto and figuring a way to talk with him personally again the next day, to her surprise when she arrived to the house of her friends she was greeted by a confused Shikamaru and Chōji who were also as surprised as her, they found nobody inside the room when they went to knock on his door that morning to invite him for breakfast.

"But when...?"

"We don't know, probably before the sun came up, we have no clue where he is now."

Ino tried sensing for his chakra but found no trace of it, she expanded her sensing range further like a radar but still nothing came, unless he somehow had learned overnight to suppress completely his chakra, which she thought was impossible as it flowed naturally like blood inside the body, he was no longer in Konoha.

"I need to talk with Hokage-sama, maybe he knows where he went to."

"Wait. what do you mean?" Shikamaru asked.

"He's not in the village Shikamaru, I... I can't sense him."

"Let's go then, if he left the village then he could be in danger."

"There's no need for you to worry..."

The voice startled the trio who who turned to see the Hokage walking towards the house.

"Hokage-sama!"

"Naruto left the village on a mission he requested, he's with Jiraiya and Sakura in case you're wondering."

"Sakura...? why her?!" Ino's mind took a moment to process the last part.

"Can you tell us where he's headed?" Shikamaru asked.

"No, he asked me not to divulge information about it, all you need to know is he's under good care and should be back in a couple of days, in the meantime you two..." He eyes Shikamaru and Chōji "I have a mission for you as well, come by the office when you have a minute." Then he looked at Ino "You can take the day off Ino."

"Wait! Hokage-sama!"

He was about to leave "Yes?"

"I would like to join that mission if possible."

"It's not necessary, the mission requires male shinobi only and Asuma will be joining them."

"I meant Naruto's... wherever place he's headed, I want to go too."

The place remained silent, her partners looked at her surprised at her determination to go after him despite the recent events, she was not about to quit, not until she made things right.

"No."

"But Hokage-sama-"

"That's an order Ino Yamanaka..." he sentenced.

Not only she went speechless, she felt also powerless, the worst feeling in the world for her, none of her teammates dared to protest, if it was a direct order then it was out of their hands. The Hokage resumed leaving back to his office leaving the trio once again by themselves.

"Why...?" Ino said to herself.

"Hey Ino..." Shikamaru approached her and placed his hand on her shoulder "He'll be fine, go home and spend some time with your dad, when he's ready to talk then he will, he needs the space right now."

She did not say anything, her eyes only stared at the road where the Hokage had been a moment ago.

"Shikamaru, we should go take a look at that mission Hokage-sama mentioned."

Shikamaru nodded "Think about what I said Ino." he went back inside the house with his friend to get ready, Ino stood there in front of the house by herself for several seconds.

"An order? Like hell it is!"

She was thinking about doing something really stupid, perhaps Naruto's recklessness had rubbed on her somewhat, she left the area in a hurry and followed the road where the leader of Konoha had gone to a few minutes ago, in her head she knew she could convince him to let her go as well to whatever place Naruto had gone to. She continued moving at a fast pace but was not able to find the elder shinobi, it was impossible he had already reached the office at his walking pace and she should have reached him by now, she stood there in the middle of the road as soon as she felt the presence of another man behind her.

"Something about what I said not clear young lady?" it was the Hokage's voice, Ino was impressed but remembered he was the Hokage for a reason, she relaxed and turned to face him.

"No Hokage-sama, I understand clearly what you said."

"Then? What is it?"

"All in good consciousness, I can't follow that order, I must speak with Naruto regardless."

Hiruzen sighed "I thought you said you understood clearly..."

"I don't mean to defy you, I... I just can't stand here and do nothing, I made a mistake and I will regret it until I set things right."

"What if he doesn't want you there? He specifically said he didn't want you on his team despite my suggestion."

"I get it, he has his reasons for that but even if he doesn't want to see me, I gotta try at least..."

The Hokage remained silent and in deep thought, he knew the girl would not change her mind "This isn't about your past history with him is it? Must I remind you you're forbidden to share that information with him?"

"I don't intend to do that, besides it's not my call, what I want is to get his trust back, that's all."

"I see..." He turned his back and continued smoking from his pipe "Unfortunately I cannot authorize you to leave the village, not officially anyways..."

Ino looked at him confused.

"I hear there are some great venues in Osaka this time of the year..." his head turned slightly to look at her and smiled "Do what you have to do lad."

Ino's expression changed immediately understanding what he meant, her heart filled with joy once more, she bowed politely.

"Yes Hokage-sama!"

"Sir, the team from Tokyo has arrived, they have the package."

"Good, where is it?"

"An old abandoned warehouse just a few blocks from here, we'll arrive shortly."

Fugaku Uchiha was well aware of the recent events in the city, he was inside his limousine escorted by guards riding in other trucks, with him his assistant Naori currently heading to an unknown location, Suigetsu surprisingly was told to take the day off and gladly he obeyed, Sasuke on the other hand found an excuse to avoid his father for a few more days claiming he was sick, for the time being his training activities remained a secret, Naori was actually turning out to be a woman of her word but her intentions remained a mystery, she was there with Fugaku completely unfazed by the potential risks she could face if her boss found out what she was up to.

"Sir, if I may ask... why a rescue instead of silencing him? It could have been done easily as well."

"I don't work that way Naori and you know that, people have their uses and I believe he's still qualified to do some more work for us, aside from the fact that if he dies I won't be able to read him."

"With all due respect sir, the media has already covered the events of last night so I don't understand what reading him would do differently for you."

Fugaku kept silent, he stared through the window waiting impatiently to reach his destination.

"What's the word on the rest of the hidden villages about last night?"

"It would seem at least three of them have placed a bounty on the boy's head, Kumo, Kiri and Iwa will probably send assassins in the next couple of hours, Suna has not declared a statement as of yet."

"Konoha will have to respond in some way if they want to protect the boy... What will you do Hiruzen?" he said the last part to himself.

"Sir, is it okay to let these shinobi enter the country unchecked? What if they actually kill the boy?"

"They're more than welcome to try, we'll send out men if needed to intercept the ones who reach the city, still their presence could help root out the kid wherever he is now, even Konoha."

The limo started to slow down, they found themselves in an large alleyway.

"We're here."

The driver opened the door and allowed Fugaku to step out first, he proceeded to do the same with the other door for Naori who adjusted her skirt as she looked around the area.

"This way sir."

Naori signaled the driver to wait there while she guided her boss inside a large old warehouse that seemed empty at first glance, after walking through several corridors inside the structure they started to see the armed men that were the custodians of the place, eventually they reached a large room where a black van stood, the sun's light pierced the old ceiling highlighting the vehicle to some extent. Fugaku looked at one of the men who went to the back of the van and opened the doors, two other men inside pushed to the ground another person whose hands were tied from behind and had a burlap bag over his head, the man grunted in pain as he tried to recover and regain his footing but was denied and pushed to his knees instead, Fugaku personally removed the piece of cloth from his head and the man struggled to adjust his vision as a shining light blinded him for a few seconds, he was wearing what was once a grey suit minus the upper part, covered in dirt and smog patches, he had light blue hair.

Soon realizing the situation he found himself in, with fear he slowly raised his eyes to face those of his boss, stoic as ever.

"I-I can explain!"

"We know you didn't talk to the authorities Mizuki, we had surveillance on you the whole time, what I really am curious about is how a 16 year old kid beat you like you were nothing..." Fugaku circled Mizuki.

"I-it would seem... the shinobi of Konoha trained him well s-sir..."

"In one month? No, something else is required to beat a Chunnin, look at me..."

Mizuki trembled and lowered his face down as he thought what was about to happen.

"Look at me Mizuki..."

Fugaku's voice was more demanding this time but he never raised it, Mizuki was clearly scared to death of looking straight into his eyes, he knew what an Uchiha was capable of doing with them, yet he had no other choice but to obey that command or face a more painful consequence. Trembling, he slowly raised his head again and his breath was cut short when Fugaku grabbed him by the neck almost choking him and placing him on his feet, then he yelled as he looked into a pair of crimson eyes, demonic almost, that pierced his very soul. Only five seconds passed in reality but it felt like an eternity to Mizuki, Fugaku released his hold on the chunnin when he saw exactly what he wanted to see and Mizuki fell unconscious to the ground.

"Did you find anything important sir?" Naori approached her boss but was stopped when she saw his expression, she had not seen him like that in some time. He looked worried.

"That kid... it can't be."

"Sir?"

"His chakra... that kid has Sage chakra, but how?"

"Sage? As in Senjutsu?"

"Change of plans." He looked at the other men "Take him to the laboratories, he might have some use left." Fugaku started walking outside, Naori followed.

"Sir what are your orders?"

"We cannot allow other shinobi to harm that boy, call Naka and tell him we need to intercept and deal with any external bounty hunters going after Naruto Uzumaki."

"See ya tomorrow!"

Karin Uzumaki had just finished her shift at the office and proceeded to leave the building, it had been a long day and she definitely needed a break. She was a very attractive girl and caught the eye of more than one employee at work, she never paid attention to anyone though, she was focused on investing time and money only in herself and not some other guy who most likely would not meet her expectations. She had become a target of sexual harassment from some of her coworkers at some point but remained neutral and away from the drama choosing to ignore these individuals rather than making a scene, in reality she could have handled them herself but it would have caused too much attention, especially after her cousin's intrepid stunt that caught the eye of the media.

She wanted to live a quiet life and on her own terms, if she had to deal with a few idiots along the way then so be it, but definitely not causing a commotion or physically hurting anyone, hitting a person's pocket worked way better for her than a confrontation and risking unwanted exposure. The other side of the coin was however that her bosses had too many connections to risk telling them what her issues at work were and potentially losing her job as a result, these companies would rather let go of good employees sooner than listen to them and that was a huge issue, an issue they did not deem worth the time.

She liked to travel on foot, her apartment was around a good twenty minute walk from the office and she could put her earplugs and listen to music from her cellphone while she reached it, maybe buy a few groceries along the way if her fridge was running low on supplies or something to decorate the place or maybe a new pair of shoes or clothes, she worked for that after all.

Karin soon reached the building and walked the stairs of the complex to the third floor, she walked to the front door and reached for her keys but something stopped her. She removed her earplugs and put them away before realizing there was a chakra signature around her, actually it was closer than she initially anticipated, too close in fact, someone was watching her from the shadows within that same floor.

"Who's there?"

A figure started to walk into the light to reveal a young boy dressed in a jeans and a black hoodie, he had whiskers and blond hair, blue eyes and a cheeky smile.

"I see your sensing skills are as sharp as ever cousin."

"Naruto...?" Karin's eyes widened, before he said anything else she jumped onto him and hugged him for dear life, Karin almost yelled in happiness as she spun him around while keeping the hug, Naruto could only chuckle and return the gesture.

"I can't believe you're here! Why didn't you call me earlier! What?! Five month?!" she said excitedly as she finally released the hug.

"Something like that, yeah." he scratched the back of his head "Sorry I came here uninvited "

"Nonsense!" she waved it off with her hand "You're family so you're welcome to visit anytime you like, come come! We got lots of things to talk about!" She urged Naruto to follow her as she once again reached for her keys and opened the door "And tell those two hiding back there to join us also, they're with you right?"

Naruto was not surprised, she was able to sense Sakura's and Jiraiya's chakra along with his own from the start, he was actually waiting for her to say something about them.

"Yeah, you guys can come out now." he signaled the duo to join them.

"The kid wasn't lying, her sensory skill is better than I thought." Jiraiya said proudly.

"Yeah, that takes a lot of chakra control, I thought Ino was a good sensor, guess I was wrong." Sakura finished while they walked to meet her.

"I'm Karin Uzumaki, and you guys are...?" she extended happily her hand.

"Sakura Haruno" The pink haired girl was the first to shake hands.

"I'm Jiraiya." He also greeted her.

The group entered the apartment and watched as Karin quickly tried to dust off and clean pieces of furniture going from one side to another.

"Sorry, I wasn't expecting any visit, do you guys want something to drink?" she walked over to the fridge and opened the door "I got some orange juice."

"I'll take a glass, how about you guys?" Naruto looked over to Sakura and Jiraiya, both declined.

"So what have you been up to? I tried calling you a few weeks ago but your number is always off, something going on?" She poured two glasses full of juice meanwhile.

"It's a bit complicated, I don't have a phone anymore and honestly I doubt I'll get one for now."

"Does it have anything to do with that stunt of yours on TV? You're all over the news now..."

The apartment grew silent as they looked at each other waiting for someone to speak, Naruto went over to take a seat on the couch.

"There's something I need your help with Karin, you better take a seat."

"Actually I'll be going, something's been bothering me since we arrived to the city that I need to check, you guys have a lot to talk about anyway and I doubt I'm needed here to explain anything."

"Wait, Jiraiya-sama, isn't it a bit late to go out? Where will you stay?" Sakura asked.

"Don't worry, there's a hotel I saw on the way here, I'm sure they can spare a room for an old man like me, I'll see you in the morning, is that okay Naruto?"

The blonde boy nodded "All right, be careful Jiraiya-sensei."

Jiraiya also nodded and proceeded to leave the apartment without saying anything else, Sakura looked over to Naruto in confusion as did Karin.

"Sensei?"

"Yeah, it's a long story."

"Naruto where are you...?"

Ino's mind was rushing as she darted through the dark corridors of the city desperately looking for a chakra signature, something that could tell her where Naruto was, she knew he was in the city as small traces of his chakra could still be sensed despite her previous Shindenshin jutsu being lifted, the problem was pinpointing his exact location, her sensing range was small at the moment so it made it difficult for her to locate him. Ever since her arrival to Osaka for the past hour she realized her mission would be much harder than anticipated, after all other shinobi lived in the city as well but none of them was the signature she needed.

"This is gonna be harder than I tho-"

A barrage of shuriken interrupted her thoughts, they came from behind but she was quick enough to duck under them, a second barrage came from one side, this time Ino jumped to avoid the danger and flipped in mid air to face her attackers, she readied herself going for the scroll holding her katana.

"Show yourselves!" She demanded.

Three figures started to emerge from the shadows walking calmly towards her position, once they revealed themselves in the light they stood in front of the lone blonde girl looking at her almost in a mocking way, a male and two women. The man had dark skin, black eyes and short white hair, he wore a grey vest and a katana strapped to his back, he casually chewed on a lollipop, one of the women was also dark skinned but had yellow eyes and red hair instead, like her partner she also carried her katana on her back and wore the same grey vest, the last woman who stood in the middle of the two was taller, she had fair skin, short yellow hair that reached to her shoulders and blue eyes, a long grey trench coat covered her torso and legs, she had a stoic look on her face. Ino spotted the emblem they all all shared in common in the form of a plate tied around their left arms.

These were shinobi from Kumo.

"So you're the famous Slayer..." said the red haired woman. "You don't look as intimidating as I thought."

"Hey Karui don't underestimate her, remember the reports said she has killed hundreds of people already, some of them shinobi, what if these reports are true?" said the man of the group."

"So fucking what? Stop being a chicken and man the hell up Omoi!" said the woman named Karui.

"Kumo?! What the hell are they doing here?!"

"Ino Yamanaka, we're here for Naruto Uzumaki, where is he?" said the stoic woman.

-0-

Disclaimer: The usual, I don't own Naruto

Hey there! Sorry for the long wait, hope the next couple of chapters I'm releasing along with this one are more than enough for now to satisfy those who are hooked to the story, thank you for your patience!