Time Skip - Five Months

"Hey, I'm back."

Kise said, her voice echoing as she stepped further into a completely isolated cave. She removed the hood that was covering her head from the heavy rainfall outside as she walked over and placed the plastic bag she was holding on the floor next to a small lanturn. With a flick of her finger the launtuen turned on, showering her face with a soft orange glow as it barely illuminated the dark cavern with its calming light. Kise hummed a small tune as she got to work emptying the contaminants in the bag letting them fall out onto a nice wooden board that she had made from spare logs she had cut down. She began chopping up the assortment of vegetables and fruit and with another flick of her finger the firepit in the center of the room blazed itself on. Kise smiled happily as she looked up to the fire, not bothered at all by the dark silhouette that was standing behind the burning flame.

"Thanks, it saved time." she said quietly as her puppet that Sasori had given her floated into view, without a word spoken the puppet scooped up the food that Kise had prepared and put them in a small bowl that was placed just above the fire. Kise, satisfied that the food was indeed cooking nodded her head and made her way over the back of the small cave. Her face soon fell as she bent down in front of a large bundled up pile of blankets, carefully unraveling the blankets letting a soft head of spiky blonde hair visible to the world. She blinked back a fresh batch of tears as she revealed the pale body of Naruto to the cold cave for the first time. Making sure she was careful again and slowly lifted his plain back shirt up and over his chest, the bandages that she had wrapped around his stomach were once again soaked with a thin layer of blood as she removed them from his skin and tossed them to the side as she cleaned up his wound.

She had been doing this routine now for the last five months ever since she had found Naruto almost dead in their hideout. After her little show against the Kumo shinobi she had quickly scooped up Naruto and fled from Kumogakure, the forest fire that Sasori had caused was still being contained and it had given her enough time to squeeze her way through the trees that were relatively unharmed and jumped into the forest, she was careful not to alert any of the remaining shinobi as they without even a glance back. After their escape they had finally made it out of Lightning Country and were not slowly making their way through Kusagakure, or more specially, Grass Country. And if Kise was being completely honest with herself, she wasn't sure where exactly she was going, or where their destination was. She had a vague idea where she wanted to go, but the means to get there were far beyond her realm of understanding. Even all those years ago when she had killed her brother Ren, Kise hadn't the faintest clue where she was headed. She just wandered the world until Itsumi had found her and brought her to Yukigakure, and with Naruto like he is now, she was afraid.

But she did have a vague idea, in the scroll that Sasori had given her there was a small note that the red-head had hand written and explained some missing pieces of the puzzle, like her puppet. Her puppet, as Sasori had called it, was the Sandaime Kazekage of Sunagakure. Kise was much to Kise's shock and slight disgust, was the actually former living body of the man who used to rule over Suna with his famous magnet release, and the use of his incredibly powerful iron sand jutsu. He was the only shinobi in history to have such a powerful magnet release to the point where iron sand can be utilized effectively.

Until now however.

Kise had figured that since this was the actual human puppet of the Kazekage that it helped strengthen her connection to it since he had his own chakra network still working into his body and that they might have connected through their similar bloodlines. Of course this was all just a hunch for Kise since she really didn't understand why she felt much more powerful using the Kazekage, but she did find the use of his iron sand to be effective. Sasori had made sure to leave a detailed list of the exact changes he had made to the puppet before gifting it to Kise, like how it kept a massive amount of iron sand in the interior of the puppet along with a small pouch on his legs that held a good amount as well for quicker and easier access. Kise had also made sure to keep a small gourd on her side as well filled with the black substance in case the need arose for her to use it, she wasn't a master of the iron sand in the slightest, but she was proficient enough without the Kazekage puppet to hold her own against most shinobi.

The note had also said that there would have been an Atarashi group meeting in the Fire Country...the only problem with that was Kise had no idea where it was. The note said nothing else, no directions, no destination, nothing. Kise wanted to curse at Sasori for leaving such little information for her, but she apprehensively understood why. It would have been horrible if someone else had gotten their hands on the note and knew exactly where they would be, and given the stressful and quite crazy situation that had caught themselves in it had made sense.

But even with the help of the Kazekage puppet, she still felt like she was alone in this. Naruto had yet to wake up from his deep slumber and she was afraid that he would never come back to her. Every night when she would wake up she would check his pulse to make sure he was still alive, and before she went to bed that same day, she would check again. Everyday he stated sleeping would just cause her anxiety to grow as she tried to stay optimistic in her current situation, but she was finding it very hard. She blinked the tears back in her eyes as she gently wiped a wag down his stomach and wiped up the dry blood that stained his once tan skin. Even looking at his new wound was unsettling for the girl, it had looked like something had taken a bite of his stomach and had ripped the flesh clean off all the way down to the bone. Her healing puppet had done everything it could to heal the broken skin and flesh, and repaired it the best she could, but Naruto was once again branded with a deep scar that she was sure would never heal.

Kise wasn't sure how he had gotten the wound, but for the life of her she couldn't understand why it wasn't healing itself like his other injuries. She knew his blood jutsu had granted him abnormally fast healing since he was able to heal from minor cuts in literally seconds, and major ones in less than a minute, but this was something else entirely. The wound itself would continue to bleed but the blood that leaked out of his repaired skin would always come out dry and a much darker shade of red than she was used to seeing from anybody. It was frightening to see Naruto lose so much blood but the doctors she had taken him to had all said that his blood looked normal and he wasn't in any danger of blood loss.

Wrapping up Naruto's scar in a fresh set of bandages, she pushed his blonde hair out of his eyes, placing a warm rag over his forehead in hopes to get his body back to a regular temperature. Even his temperature would fall below what should be, usually whenever Naruto had gotten cold he would just channel chakra into his veins and his blood style would help to keep his body warm, he had even gotten so good at it that he could even maintain the technique while he was sleeping. But now his body felt like it was freezing and from the looks of it, added on that his wounds aren't healing, Kise was scared that he might have lost the ability to use his blood jutsu all together. She had no concrete evidence and she couldn't go see a shinobi medical nin, since all were most likely going to try and turn them in back to Konoha for the bounty or straight up kill them. She had tried seeing a medical nin once back in Sound Country when she passed through there.

Lets just say they made the wrong move trying to harm Naruto, and Kise wasn't having any of it.

Kise wiped a bead of sweat off her brow with her arm as she laid down directly next to Naruto. She eyes the boy next to her with apparent sadness, she scooted a little closer to him and reached out and held one of his pale hands within her smaller ones and brought it close to her chest offering as much warmth as she could. Kise didn't even bother to try and wipe the few tears that had wiggield their way free from her golden eyes and used her other hand to brush back his blonde hair. Her heart ached as she looked at his stoic and blanke expression, but she was glad to faintly see the slight lift of his chests as he breathed softly. Kise snuggled into his arm as her eyes fluttered closed, forgetting all about the food she had been cooking as the Kazekage puppet felt itself go limp and fall to the floor. She wished that Naruto would return to her, these last five months had been incredibly hard for her and she needed him back. She felt her consciousness begin to fade as she whispered a goodnight to her older brother.

"Happy birthday Naru-nii.."

Earlier in The Day - Konoha

"It's just..it's just AUUUUGH! How could he be so stupid!"

Shizuka yelled as she fell down onto the soft grass beneath her with a huff. Her face was stained pink as she looked up into the sky irritably. Narumi, who was standing over her just looked at her with a bashful expression on her face, she rubbed her arm slightly uncomfortable in her current situation. The red-head shrugged her shoulders, not sure what she could say to Shizuka to ease the girl's growing frustration.

"Well I mean he's pretty dense so he might not-"

"That can't always be his excuse! How can he not tell, does he really not find me attractive?" Shizuka asked, her anger diminishing greatly as she sent a pleading look over at Narumi as a look of insecurity passed through her features.

Narumi blinked back her surprise, she had never seen the usually confident girl ever give such a vulnerable look before. It really didn't suit her pretty features as she tried to hide the embarrassed blush on her cheeks. Narumi played with the hem of her shirt as she offered a kind smile to her teammate.

"No, you are beautiful Shizuka. Sai is just an idiot, he just needs a little push in the right direction, and I mean come on he has to like you, you're the only one whose nickname has changed."

Narumi said teasingly, feeling greatly amused at seeing the Shizuka's face glaze over in a deep blush as she snapped her head away mumbling to herself. Narumi wanted to laugh but held it in, she didn't want to embarrass her friend anymore than she already was. Thinking back on the long year and a half she was still surprised that she had become such close friends with team 11. It had taken them several months to finally warm up to her, and a few more to start including her when they went out to have fun or just hang out. And Narumi was happy that they finally accepted her, Shizuka had particularly warmed up to her since they had a lot more in common then they thought, and the red-head was a perfect outlet to ramble too whenever Sai pissed her off. Which happened a lot, but it didn't stop the growing affection she felt for the painter.

Narumi had to practically beat it out of Shizuka to admit that she had feelings for Sai, I mean it was painfully obvious and even Anko was beginning to get annoyed at the back and forth between the two. But Sai, much to Shizsuka's annoyance and chagrin, never acted or seemed to notice the signals being thrown his way and seemed absolutely oblivious to it all together. It was almost embarrassing, how could he be that dense? It wasn't like Shizuka was hiding her feelings anymore, but as each day went by she was starting to grow more and more nervous that Sai actually didn't harbor any feelings for her.

Shizuka felt herself scowl as she sat up and sat cross legged on the ground and crossed her arms with a huff, hoping her blush would leave as she recalled the new nickname that Sai had given her. Just the thought of it made her heart beat thunder in her chest and she wanted to curse herself for being so love-struck.

"Isn't that right Zuka-chan?"

Shizuka scoffed as her face exploded again and glared at Narumi.

"W-whatever, hey you're going on a mission with him today right? Can you see if he likes me?" Shizuka asked, her face contorting into a hopeful smile as she whisked the embarrassment away.

Narumi just nodded her head in response, she had no problem with asking Sai if he truly did like Shizuka, even if Narumi was positive that he did share the same feelings he just didn't know how to act on them since he was a bit socially awkward and not very good at social cues. Shizuka looked up grateful, her smile threatening to rip her face in half as she jumped to her feet and pumped her fist happily,

"Yes thank you Narumi! That bastard won't know what hit him and he'll come crawling to me, begging for me to date him!" Shizuka said gleefully, perhaps a little too gleefully at the mere idea of the black headed painter boy coming crawling to her. Narumi laughed awkwardly at the scene but couldn't fault her best friend for her enthusiasm, it must have been hard to deal with the oblivious attitude without snapping and blowing up at him. Something Shizuka held back which shocked both Narumi and Anko greatly, they were certain that Shizuka would have already snapped at this point and either give up on Sai, or end up making a fool of herself and proclaiming her love in an inevitable and embarrassing way. Narumi giggled at that thought, finding it all too amusing and silently wished that was the case just to see the outcome. Thinking back at her friends words she let out a sigh,

"Yes speaking of my mission I should really start heading home and get ready."

"Oh yeah. Hey let me walk with you."

Narumi generously accepted her offer and the two team 11 members soon left the calming training ground and made their way down the streets of Konoha straight to the Namikaze estate. As they were walking they made small talk to one another as they grew closer to the large house, both not looking forward to their respective missions.

"I wonder why Hokage-sama had put you three together for a mission, doesn't Kurenai-san have her own team? Why doesn't he just use them?"

Narumi glanced at the puzzled look on Shizuka's face and could only shrug. Honestly she was a little annoyed at being called in for a mission today, this was supposed to be her only day off for the week and she had intended to finally have much needed relaxation time. She had wanted to check out the new bathhouse that had just opened up in Konoha a few weeks ago but sadly hadn't had the chance to see for herself how good it was. Narumi sighed as she put her hands in her pockets, kicking the ground softly as she walked, slightly curious about what Shizuka had said about Kurenai and her team. It was strange why the Hokage was so keen about using Kurenai for more and more missions without the rest of team 8, Kurenai was a very strong shinobi, most likely the strongest kunoichi jounin that the village had to offer, excluding Tsunade Senju. But why give her the position of a jounin instructor if you would consistently keep taking her away from her team? Narumi tapped her chin with her finger in thought,

"That's true, it is a little odd on why tou-san keeps putting Kurenai with us, maybe it's because he knows we work good together?" Narumi said, though it came out sounding more like a question. That was true, Kurenai and Narumi had been sent on a few missions together and the genin and jounin pair did work very well together and had a perfect mission success rate. Narumi brought her attention to Shizuka as the girl hummed in thought

"Maybe because her team finally made chunin? I'm pretty sure most of the graduating class was promoted." Shizuka said as she neatly smoothed out her own chunin vest that she wore over her usual attire. Narumi blinked in surprise at that, she wasn't aware that so many of the graduating class had been promoted to chunin besides Shizuka and Sai since she didn't really have contact with anyone else. The chunin exams were held in Konoha about six months ago and the exams went smoothly, and Narumi was happy to see that both Shizuka and Sai had passed with flying colors, and Sai was even asked to return to anbu work which he respectfully declined as he wished to stay with team 11, something Shizuka was ecstatic to hear.

Sadly, the exams were held during her probation period so Narumi was forbidden from participating in the exams and was now the lowest ranking member of team 11.

Karma was an incredible thing.

"Well that does make sense." Narumi said, losing interest in the conversation topic, "Aren't you going on a mission with Anko-sensei and Kagami-kun tomorrow?"

"Yeah Hokage-sama has us listed for guard duty for some business man living in Nata town. Apparently he paid a hefty price for this mission, it's even classified as an A rank." Shizuka said resting her hands behind her head as she walked forward.

Narumi raised an eyebrow at that, "An A rank for a simple protection mission? Wonder who he pissed off so get him to paranoid."

"That's what I said! Anko-sensei said he had a bad run in with a small bandit group awhile back, guess he's just really scared for his life." Shizuka replied nonchalantly with a shrug. It was her first A rank mission and she was pretty disappointed that it was a simple protection mission. This was a B class mission at best but the man was just too paranoid for his own good, but at least her paycheck would be pretty good once they returned. The two continued their talk until the large estate finally came into view, Shizuka bid her farewell as she ran off, as she was running she made to remind Narumi about her promise to ask Sai for her. Narumi just rolled her eyes with a smile but agreed that she would, with a laugh she waved at her friend as she pushed open the door to her house.

The intense smell of ramen invaded her senses and her nose scrunched up at the scent. It was very overpowering and she silently wondered why her family was so obsessed with the dish. Sure she liked the food, but it wasn't her favorite and her mother and Natsu were almost addicted to the flavor sensation as they called it. Ignoring the overpowering sensation she called out that she was home, she heard a faint reply come from upstairs but she wordlessly ignored it as she walked over to her kitchen walking right past the comically large bowl of steaming ramen and grabbed a dango stick that she had prepared the night before. As she ate she sat down on the large red comfortable couch. She sunk into the soft fabric with a sigh of content as she ate another of the colorful assorted balls of food. Dango had grown on Narumi ever since Anko had invited her to the foodstand after a pretty harsh training session with the team. The food wasn't particularly amazing, but it was the first time they had invited Narumi anywhere and as they all ate together, Narumi finally felt like they had acknowledged him as a member of the team and it was hard for her to contain her joy as they ate loudly together, enjoying eachothers company. She smiled at the memory, she would never forget that day.

Her thoughts then started to drift back to her family as she could faintly hear the soft vibration in the walls as her mother talked upstairs, it had been quite a long time now that Naruto had left the village and his family behind. Her father, Minato seemed to bounce back the quickest out of everyone in the family (Narumi excluded) and just grew deeper into searching for him as he juggled that with his endless supply of Hokage duties. Narumi did take slight pity on her father at how stressed he had seemed lately, he had spent most nights huddled alone in the Hokage tower making his whole family worry. But he always found a way to put a smile on his face as he eased the worries of his family, swearing he would bring Narutto back to them and for them not to worry since he had Jiraiya looking nonstop over the Elemental Nations for the boy.

Narumi wasn't very expressive in her disagreement with her father's words about Naruto, but she didn't fight it whenever he brought it up, knowing full well they wouldn't listen to her as they clung to whatever hope they had left for their third son. Kushina especially, seemed almost ignorant to the fact that Naruto no longer saw them as family, but Narumi still couldn't find it in herself to blame her for thinking like that. She knew her mother was taking it hard, harder than father was for sure. Kushina had made it very clear that they would bring her baby boy back to the village and made sure that his family knew that they loved him and cherished him. She wouldn't even cry anymore, her tears well long forgotten as she desperately clutched onto her hope, but deep down Narumi could see past her ignorance to see a hurting woman who hated herself for what they had done to their child. In a way it was admirable at the strong facade Kushina put up whenever someone brought up Naruto in her presence, but in the end it would always crack and a sliver of the guilty mother would always appear for a fraction of a second.

Narumi never fought them on their decisions regarding Naruto, she had done her part to make sure they knew that Naruto had chosen his own path away from them and she respected his decision and wouldn't compromise it because of some stupid guilt just to make her self feel better.

Narumi's ears perked slightly as a male's voice this time echoed upstairs, the tone of voice was very familiar and she actually tilted her head to look at her staircase as the voices became much clearer. Loud footsteps rang into the almost empty living room as she watched her mother walk down with a happy smile on her face, she was talking rather animated as Narumi's eyes shifted to her left, her blue eyes going widening slightly as her mouth fell open in shock. The boy next to Kushina looked over at Narumi as a grin found its way to his face.

"Long time no see nee-chan."

Narumi shook away her surprise as an identical grin found itself onto her face as she looked at her slightly taller brother. Natsu looked genuinely happy to see his sister as he watched her walk over to him.

"You're telling me, it's been months now." Narumi said as she bumped fists with Natsu, her grin then evolved into a smile as they looked at one another. It was nice to see Natsu after so long, he had been gone almost non stop for missions and barely spent any time in the village since he was so busy. Narumi and her brother were pretty close, not as close as they were as kids but they managed to keep a healthy sibling relationship over the past few years. The only thing she couldn't piece together about Natsu was his feelings towards Naruto, even now it was hard to read him. Narumi was the only one open enough about her feelings towards her ex-brother, she would tell everyone that asked that they weren't family anymore and left it at that. Narumi still remembered the day that their family had told Natsu about Naruto. It was about five months after he defected and Natsu had returned with Jiraiya from mount myoboku after he had finally gotten the hang of his sage training. Once Minato had broken the news to Natsu, he went dead silent for several minutes. His face was blank and it was impossible to read what exactly he was feeling, even the Kyuubi was having a hard time trying to read Natsu. His chakra didn't spike, he just stayed frozen in place as his amethyst eyes bored a hold through his father as he spoke, unmoving and expressionless. Narumi didn't understand what was happening with Natsu, not even the view of his crying mother would shake him or the overwhelming weight of guilt on their fathers face wasn't enough to spark a reaction within him.

Then, he had just walked out and wasn't seen for the rest of the day and when he finally returned it was in the middle of the night. He never said where he went, or what he did, he wordlessly went to his room and the next day he acted like normal and no one questioned him on his strange behavior that day. When they tried he would always go expressionless and end up changing the subject and it was always unclear on his feelings, but what Narumi found most odd most of all, was his continued use of calling Naruto his brother.

"How's genin life treating you? Is the annoyance finally settling in at being demoted?" Natsu asked as he walked past his sister and over to the large bowl of steaming ramen. Narumi blinked out of her thoughts as she shook her head at her brother, a smile in place as she joined him at the table.

"Don't get all cocky because you made jounin so young." Narumi teased as she glanced at his dark blue jounin vest over his current attire causing Natsu to grin again. "But to answer your question no I don't mind at all, I've really taken a liking to the team, in fact we actually have a mission later today."

"Oh yes Minato-kun told me about it, you're heading to Grass Country right? They have the most beautiful set of golden roses there." Kushina gushed as she took the seat directly next to Narumi. Kushina then grew sad as she frowned, "It's sad thought that we can't do anything special for your guys birthday today, stupid Minato-kun giving you both missions today." Kushina said, mumbling towards the end as she pouted. Both kids chuckled at their mother as Natsu just shook his head.

"It's alright kaa-chan, it's just our 16th birthday, and i'm pretty sure we are a little old for parties." Natsu said with a laugh as he scratched his cheek a little embarrassed. Kushina's pout just depended as she crossed her arms with a huff.

"Yes, as your mother I have already planned a party for the three of you once you return from your missions." Kushina explained, making both kids freeze. Natsu felt his face go blank again as his chopsticks found themselves long forgotten in his almost empty bowl of ramen. Narumi herself had just looked at her mother in an uncontrolled amount of shock as her mouth fell open from her words. Kushina looked oblivious to her kids sudden change as she continued to talk about what she had planned, ignorant to the tense atmosphere as it grew thicker and thicker the longer she had talked.

Narumi shifted a little in her seat before standing up, her mother looked at her concerned. Narumi scratched her arm uncomfortably as she tried to break the overwhelming and tense density of the room.

"Kaa-san, what do you mean three of us?"

"O-oh, I guess I was thinking optimistically, just thinking maybe if he came back today." Kushina said as she looked down, playing with her fingers to help ease her growing guilt.

Narumi slowly nodded her head as the previous playful atmosphere was now entirely gone, just the mere name of their lost brother/son was enough to kill whatever fun they were having. The talk was actually going pretty well before that, and Narumi wanted to scowl at her mother for bringing him up. She wanted to scream at her and just force Kushina to get over it already, to move on like she had. But she couldn't, or in fact she wouldn't do it. It was their grave and it was their choice to dig it. No matter how much it hurt them, or how much it pained Narumi to sit and watch helplessly as her family bathed in their own bath of guilt and pain, ultimately it was their fault and they needed to move past it.

"Excuse me, but I should really get ready for my mission."

Narumi said using a shunshine and vanishing from sight leaving both Natsu and Kushina alone in the large living room. Kushina wanted to curse at herself for once again driving away one of her children, she wasn't even aware that she had included Naruto into her plans but she couldn't help it, she just wanted him back so badly. She tried her best to move on and accept it but it was hard to sleep at night knowing what a terrible mother she had become and she wanted desperately to make things right with him, to prove to him that she cared.

"It's alright kaa-san, i'm sure Naruto-nii will come back."

Kushina looked up at her remaining son and smiled, she wiped her eyes slightly as Natsu put up a heavily strained smile, but Kushina didn't bother to point it out. The red-headed mother nodded her head as she let a dead chuckle escape from her lips.

"Yeah, i'm sure he will too."

A Few Hours Later

Narumi breathed a much needed sigh of relief as she dragged herself down the streets of Konoha and towards the eastern entrance to the village. After her much needed exit from the tense conversation regarding her brother and their birthday she fled into her room and waited patiently until the meeting time for her mission, as soon as she watched her clock hit three p.m she got out of her bed, made sure she had the necessary materials in her storage scroll and left her house without another word, thankfully it seemed her mother and Natsu both were occupied with something and she was able to slip out easily, not before grabbing one last stick of dango.

She chewed on the food as the large gates finally became visible, she kept the stick in her mouth as she finished the last treat and raised an eyebrow as Sai and Kurenai were already awaiting for her arrival. Kurenai was the first to notice her and waved in her direction. The action seemed to have caught Sai's attention as well and he offered her a much more realistic looking smile than he used to give. Narumi waved back as she roasted the senbon needle in her mouth and scratched her arm a bit sheepishly.

"I'm sorry did I keep you waiting?"

"No not at all, in fact you're a bit early. We just happened to get here earlier."

Kurenai said with a smirk making Narumi roll her eyes slightly at Kurenai's playful tone. Narumi however felt herself smiling back as she walked next to Sai giving him a nod in greeting which he returned. The black haired boy was also wearing his pristine chunin vest over his black shirt and still left his midriff exposed as he looked at Kurenai, his face showing a bit more emotion than usual.

"Kurenai-san what exactly is this mission anyway? Hokage-sama didn't really mention anything about it to me." Sai said and Narumi nodded along with him. Her father rarely shared the mission details anymore since she had lost her rank, and since genin were never really given missions higher than a C rank it was up to the leader of their mission, in this instance Kurenai, it was her job to relay the details to her teammates directly.

Kurenai had to fight back the urge to roll her eyes as she thought about their current mission, "Apparently there had been a ton of theft in a small town in Grass Country along with a bunch of suspicious activity from a group of people, most likely bandits. The mayor of the Country seemed to be growing restless so he asked us to investigate and track down this group of people."

"Seriously? Why couldn't they just have their own shinobi deal with this?"

"In order to strengthen the village's alliance Kusa had agreed to give us a large cut of their mission earnings for exchange of protection." Kurenai explained, not feeling any better about the mission as her two teammates.

"How foolish, no wonder Kusa had been going under." Sai said as they all started running through the forest towards Grass Country. Luckily the small country wasn't very far from Konoha and at their current speed they would probably be able to make it there just after the sun had set for the night. Kurenai though she didn't like the mission, wouldn't have minded staying away from Konoha for a little while. The village just didn't feel the same and she had been busier than she had ever been ever since she had returned from Yukigakure a year and a half ago. The absence of Naruto was strange and a hard thing to cope with, she couldn't for the life of her pinpoint the exact reason on why, but she only knew that it was hard. But some good had come out of it, she and Narumi had grown much closer over the year and Kurenai was confident to call the young girl a good friend who was climbing up her list of best friends. Overall she had grown closer to team 11 as a whole and would usually spend her free time with the team whenever she had free time. Kagami would usually tag along with them since he had also been prompted to be a special chunin and labeled a genjutsu prodigy under Kurenai's teachings.

Kurenai, along with Asuma and Guy had been given a definite hiatus from their genin squads since they all had made chunin a few months ago and were all headed off into different directions of their lives. Shikamaru had accepted the offer as a tactical specialist and was mainly sent out on infiltration missions with the anbu along with Choji and Ino. For team Guy, Tenten had accepted a job at the shinobi academy and taught alongside Iruka as the youngest teacher in Konoha history and she wore the title proudly. Both Lee and Neji had been promoted to special chunin as well and were offered to join an elite chunin squad of hunter nin, and as of late the duo were top of the year for most captures in such a short amount of time.

As for Kurenai and her team, all three after becoming chunin had dispersed into their clan duties and were all getting training to take over their respective clans in the following years. Because of this it had left them almost no time as a team but they managed to find some time together for some team training and would occasionally offer their assistance in high profile tracking missions for B rank missions and above.

"Something on your mind Kurenai-san?"

Kurenai looked over at Narumi who was looking at her with a raised eyebrow. The red-head slowed her speed slightly to match Kurenai's as the jounin just nodded her head, making sure she was still paying attention to what was in front of her.

"Of course, just thinking about everything."

"Is everything okay? Are things still going good with Sarutobi-san?"

Kurenai internally flinched at the girl's words and she fought back a deep frown. Asuma and her had now been dating for the past few months after he had finally gathered up the courage to officially ask her out. Kurenai still wasn't sure what had overcome her to accept his offer, but she had. Asuma much to her surprise had been a pretty good partner, he was becoming a fine gentleman and his support was growing on her and he had even tried to stop smoking, key word tried, but he never could officially stop. But whenever they were together, it just didn't feel right, the void she felt in her chest that she wanted to fill was still very much empty. She figured that was the main reason she had accepted Asuma's offer, she was hoping to finally fill that strange void in her heart that had appeared just after Naruto's departure. Even during the most intimate of acts with her boyfriend the void remained, sitting empty within her as it nagged in the back of her mind.

"Yes everything is fine, thank you for worrying."

Narumi took note of Kurenai's emotionless tone as the jounin smiled kindly at her but decided not to press the issue further. She grew to know when Kurenai didn't want to talk about something so she would let it go until Kurenai came to her about it, which happens more often than not.

For the rest of the way the three teammates stayed in a comfortable silence as they made incredible time towards Grass Country, neither of them feeling the need to break the silence as they pushed off each tree branch with a purpose.

Their trip to Grass Country was just as uneventful as they all thought it would be as they crossed the border in record time. The sun was just beginning to set as they walked easily into the town of Ishiyama and were greeted by the friendly population of civilians that walked the streets. Several of the passerbyers looked at the Konoha shinobi in awe as they walked through the small town, not a lot of shinobi usually passed through Kusa and it was always fun to see what had brought them here. Kusa, being a very small village, didn't have a very large shinobi population and had to resort to their alliance with Konoha for most of their issues.

The mission the Hokage had given them had ordered them to look deep into Ishiyama and track down the suspicious group of people that were apparently terrorizing the town. The makeshift team of team Kurenai ignored the looks of awe as a few minutes of walking through the town a heavy rainfall started to fall from the sky drenching everything in its way.

Kurenai scowled at their luck and checked them up into the nearest hotel, she didn't even bother to pay for separate rooms for the three of them and just asked for the biggest one they had available.

Once they entered their rented room, Narumi removed her hood and started to wring out the water from her soaking hair with a scowl on his face. Kurenai was also pretty annoyed at the amount of rain that had thrown a small wrench into their mission plans, but she couldn't help but stifle a laugh as she looked at the lone boy in the group. Sai sadly didn't get very lucky as he stood in the center of the room, a deep look of annoyance on his face as his hair wetly stuck itself to his face and covered his eyes completely from view. Kurenai, for as long as she knew the boy had never seen such an expressive look pass through his features and found it quite humoring that anger was the first one to see.

Sai huffed angrily and glared darkly at the jounin, silently he pushed past the two girls and walked straight to the bathroom making sure to slam the door to show his annoyance. A few chuckles escaped Kurenai as her eyes flashed with a small amount of mirth as she removed her own soaking wet coat. Her bandage dress was a little damp but nothing she couldn't handle and after a quick genjutsu the moist feeling vanished leaving her feeling perfectly dry. Narumi looked over at Kurenai with a slightly annoyed look, she looked perfectly fine and not at all hindered by the heavy rainfall. Narumi wrung out her hair as she glared slightly at her friend,

"It's officially, I hate Kusa."

Kurenai laughed as she sat down on one one of the twin beds in the room, bristling as her fingers touched the itchy fabric that apparently classified as a bedspread much to her confusion. The red-eyed beauty shrugged her shoulders as she leaned further back trying to find a comfortable position on the bed, "Welcome to Kusa, it rains here pretty often so try and get used to it."

"I don't think I ever will." Narumi mumbled, making Kurenai break out into a laugh again. The sound of a door opening caught the girls attention as they looked over to the bathroom door to see Sai walk out confidently. His hair looked perfect and pristine and his clothes were completely dry, just looking at him now you couldn't have known that he had almost drowned in rain. Narumi looked astonished as she examined the boy in front of her as he walked by her with his usual stoic expression and sat on the bed across from Kurenai.

"H-how are you completely dry? What the hell is in that bathroom?" She asked as she poked her head into the restroom making Sai give a small smile.

His nose scrunched up as his hand rustled with the sheet under him. Kurenai grimaced as she gave him a nod of understanding. She had never seen a bed so prickly before. Kurenai shook her head to rid her thoughts, that wasn't what was important at the moment.

"Now that we're all here let's get to business, i'm sure you want to get out of here as fast as possible, and frankly, so do I." Kurenai said bluntly. Narumi pouted at seeing her previous question going unanswered by the both of them. So she took a seat next to Sai who scooted away from the red-head, not wanting to get wet. Narumi just glared at him but stayed silent.

"So this suspicious group must be around here somewhere. Narumi can you sense anything interesting?" Kuenai asked the girl as she rubbed the back of her shoulder. Narumi nodded as she closed her eyes and started to channel her chakra. Since she had so much free time since her demotion she had dedicated a lot more time to training her sensory abilities and she was happy with the improvements. Minato had caught her training and boldly stated that she was most likely the best sensor in the village next to her mother. Narumi scrunched her nose as she concentrated on feeling everyone's chakras in the small town. After about five minutes she finally opened her eyes.

"The rain is making it hard to detect a lot, but I found a pretty large chakra signature just outside the town. It's pretty large, but the user wasn't even trying to mask it."

"Interesting, perhaps this is the person we are looking for." Sai said as he pulled a long string out of the bedspread.

"Great, then let's get going."

Both Sai and Narumi looked up at Kurenai in shock, both looked like they wanted to protest but one look from Kurenai had shut them up before they couldn even find the words. Kurenai just rolled her eyes as she pulled out three identical raincoats from the scroll on her hip and tossed them at the two of them.

"Come on it won't be so bad."

"You're right, it's worse."

Narumi fumed as she had to stop herself from trembling in anger as she glared at the back of Kurenai's head as the rain pelted down on them like bricks falling from a skyscraper. Narumi only grew angrier as they all huddled together under a large oak tree trying their best to escape from the horrible onslaught, and what made matters worse was how unaffected Kurenai looked as she smirked, a little too happy for Narumi's liking.

"I'm sorry if this is rude Bandage-san. But this is a fucking terrible idea." Sai said harshly, his pitch black eyes glowing darkly, and if looks could kill, Kurenai would no doubt have been killed hours ago.

Kurenai just rolled her eyes at her dramatic team, how did she get stuck with the world's biggest rain haters? Personally she liked the rain, she had always found it calming and quite peaceful. It always seemed to calm her down and wash away all her negative thoughts away into a sea of forgetfulness, to her the rain was a blessing in disguise. Kurenai didn't mind as the rain fell on her as she shifted her head to look back at Sai, blinking in surprise as a large umbrella made of ink covered the heads of both Sai and Narumi as they glared at her.

"Would you two relax? It's just a little rain, it won't hurt you."

"Just a little rain?" Sai and Narumi angrily thought at the same time, their glares burning brighter than ever.

"Regardless, Narumi, you said the chakra signature you sensed is in that cave, correct?" Kurenai asked as she pointed her finger in the direction of a pretty well hidden cave that was just barely hidden behind a large overgrown patch of vines and branches.

Narumi sneered at Kurenai but nodded her head in acknowledgment, "Yes i'm sure, there's a second chakra signature that I feel now that we're closer. It's very small, just barely even large enough to be considered alive."

Kurenai hummed in thought at that. Narumi had said that the person's chakra seemed to be large, almost as large as hers which greatly surprised Sai and Kurenai. So it was safe to assume that whoever was hidden away from the town had to be at least a high chunin in strength, maybe even closer to a jounin if there chakra was anything to go by. Kurenai narrowed her eyes as she thought about it again, personally she wasn't expecting anything more than a small throwaway group of petty bandits that had just been harassing a small town just for the fun of it. It happens far too often and due to Grass Countries already iffy reputation, the Country was a bandit gold mine for lowlifes to make a quick and easy living off stealing from the locals.

And thinking about the much smaller chakra signature that Narumi had mentioned, it led Kurenai to believe that maybe this was a hostage situation. Or perhaps they were protecting someone? That was unlikely, they would have a better chance at protection deeper in the forest instead of just outside the town. Afterall the closer they got the easier it was for Kurenai, and even Sai to sense the chakra oozing out of the cave in waves. It almost seemed like the person wanted to get tracked down as they made no motion to try and attempt their chakra signature. It was a tad concerning for Kurenai and she was starting to second guess if they should continue their ambush for the night.

The more she thought about that however the more perfect it was for them, the rain was already doing a decent job at masking their own chakra signatures, added on that they were also masking it they were basically untraceable at this point. And whoever it was most likely wouldn't be expecting an attack during such heavy rain.

"Alright we're going to go with tactic six. Sai, I want you to make several animals to surround the perimeter and scout to see if anyone else is hiding among the forest, and make sure to set some aside in case we get ambushed." Sai nodded at his instructions. Kurenai then looked over at Narumi

"Narumi and I will sneak in as quietly as possible. I'll cast a silencing genjutsu over the cave just for some extra precaution in case whoever is in there realizes they have been compromised. While we do this Sai, I want you to have our back in case we do end up getting ambushed."

Narumi agreed as the group slowly made their way to the cave, all deathly silent as they let the rain drown out any possible noise that they would make. Kurenai looked back at her team confidently, this was probably the team Kurenai had felt most confident in. Both Sai and Shizuka were powerful, much stronger than their official shinobi rank and it was beyond her on why they both weren't already jounin. Well she understood why Narumi wasn't, but not Sai. Looking back Kurenai nodded her head and mouthed if they were ready. Both her students nodded confidently as they charged into the cave just like Kurenai had told them too, with the silencing jutsu already put in place with the cave surrounded with a mixture of ink bears and tigers hidden in the forest greenery. But they were not expecting what awaited them in that cavern, and just as quickly as the mission started.

All hell broke loose.