Hinata is brushing Sparkles when the unicorn pricks his ears up and starts sniffing the air. "What can you smell, Sparkles?" asks Hinata, taking a wiff of the air herself.
Sparkles nickers softly and trots out of his unicorn house.
Hinata follows and find Neji leading a sparkly purple unicorn towards the unicorn house. "Oh, hi Neji," says Hinata. She still isn't sure how to feel about Neji now.
"Hello Hinata," says Neji, a little shyly. "This is Mrs. Sparkles. While we were on our mission, Naruto and I found both Mrs. Sparkles and Mrs. Sparky."
"Oh, um, that's great…" Hinata is happy, she really is, but she still isn't sure about Neji. Hanabi is completely fine with Neji, but then, Neji never tried to kill her.
"I brought her back so that she can be reunited with Sparkles," Continues Neji. "And so you have another business partner…"
Sparkles and the new unicorn trot up to each other and rub their head together.
Hinata does some quick thinking. "I shall call you Moonbeam," she tells the purple unicorn. Moonbeam sniffs Hinata's face.
"So, uh, Hinata…" says Neji, wringing his hands.
"Yes?" says Hinata, turning towards her cousin.
"I need an excuse to throw a party."
WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!?
Rain is busy clipping his finger nails when Wind runs into the room. "Nagato, Mei and Namiko were captured by the Hidden Leaf!" she says.
Rain sighs. "We had better go and get them, then." He clips the last few fingernails, pulls his glove back on and grabs his mask. He places it over and stands up.
Wind pulls up her cloth mask and says, "Let's go by that shortcut: we need to get there quickly."
"Of course," says Rain. The pair heads off to tell Haku where they are going and to ask her to look after their child a little longer. She agrees happily, and the pair say goodbye to their son.
Then they head to the Hidden Leaf.
They stop halfway to discuss their plan to take Nagato, Mei and Namiko back. "The real question is where the Leaf is keeping them," says Rain. "If we know that, we can sneak in and out before anyone knows we were there and take them."
"We could ask Ichiraku," suggests Wind. "He knows most things about the Leaf, and he has helped us before."
"I don't want to drag him into something like this," sys Rain, shaking his head. "We need to sneak in and out with little to no fuss."
"So where should we start?" wonders Wind. "I suppose we could sneak in on the outskirts of the village and transform into generic citizens to scope the place out."
"That is probably best," agrees Rain. "Training Ground Seven, where we spied on Team Seven's Bell Test that time?"
"Yep," agrees Rain, getting up off his seat to finish the second half of the journey. "Since Sasuke is in hospital, the team is not likely to be there. And if they are, they have no reason to think we are enemies."
When they do arrive in the Hidden Leaf's Training Ground Seven, Wind and Rain instantly hide. Team Seven is there, although it is just Naruto, Sasuke and Madoka. Sasuke is in a wheelchair, and Madoka is covered in bruises, but Naruto seems absolutely fine. Not at all like someone who fought Nagato, Mei and Namiko should be.
The trio is crowded around a seal that Naruto is drawing. What are they up to? Rain signals to Wind to get closer. They creep forward to see what the three Leaf ninjas are up to. Just as they are close enough to see, Naruto activates the seal three times: first on himself, second on Madoka and lastly on Sasuke.
The seal turns their hair bright green.
Once all three young members of Team Seven have green hair, Naruto seals away all evidence of sealing equipment. Then the three settle down to wait for Kakashi while Naruto tells the Dramatic Tale of His Adventures With Iruka-nii, Neji, Shisui and Grandpa Arashi, and the Many Friends They Made Along the Way. Wind and Rain listen in fascination to Naruto's flashback. Eventually, he get up to the part where they meet Nagato and Iruka summons a herd of unicorns and a flock of phoenixes. Wind and Rain exchange looks. This is the part where they might find out what happened to Nagato, Namiko and Mei. They keep listening, intent on finding out what Naruto is about to reveal.
"...And then we pretended to take Miss Mizukage, Namiko and Nagato-nii prisoner," Naruto says, as he winds his tale to a close. "We had to get them to the Leaf so we could discuss sealing away Zetsu. But no one can see what's on Dave's Scroll, and Mr. Nice Hokage said that he'd talk to Lord Second, since Lord Second wrote the scroll, but I don't know if he has yet. Nagato was stupid, and thought we took him prisoner for real."
Madoka and Sasuke laugh.
"They are staying at my house, along with Gramps Pants, Burifu and Kurama's Guards," finishes Naruto. "Grandma got funds for their upkeep from the Village's Important Guests Fund. I didn't even know that was a thing, dattebayo."
"Neither did I," admits Madoka.
"I did," says Sasuke, smugly.
Kakashi appears in a whirl of Leaves and says, "Yo, sorry I'm late, my house turned into a hedge, and I had to wait for Lord First to fix it before I could leave."
"HOW DID YOUR HOUSE TURN INTO A HEDGE!?" demands Madoka.
"YEAH SENSEI!" yells Naruto. "YOU TOOK SO DAMN LONG, OUR HAIR TURNED GREEN, 'TEBAYO!"
"HN!" Agrees Sasuke.
Kakashi looks very, very disappointed.
"Oh, no," whispers Wind. "He's going to yell at them, isn't he?"
"You guys…" says Kakashi in a threatening voice.
All three of his students huddle together and look generally terrified.
"...should've waited for me," says Kakashi, grinning. "Turn my hair green too, and we can prank the whole village. If all four of us have green hair, we can say something crazy happened while we were training, and people will be more likely to believe it."
The three younger members of Team Seven all start grinning. "You're the best, Kakashi sensei!" says Naruto.
Wind and Rain share a silent look and begin to creep away to find Nagato, Mei and Namiko. Rain hears the sound of paper and sealing brush. He stops and turns to look back at Team Kakashi a little confused.
Kakashi isn't actually letting them turn his hair green, is he?
He is.
Rain is so surprised he loses his balance and falls off the tree branch he is standing on. He ends up hanging upside down by his coat, because apparently it got caught in the branches when he turned.
Instead of helping him before Team Kakashi notices, Wind starts laughing hysterically. Rain, afraid of falling on his neck because that would be bad, tries to use chakra to stick his feet to the tree branch above him. Unfortunately, his efforts result in Rain getting his foot stuck.
Team Kakashi notices Wind and Rain and heads over to see what all the noise is about.
"Don't just laugh, help me!" says Rain, trying to wriggle free.
Team Kakashi arrives, and Naruto and Madoka immediately start laughing. Sasuke smiles. Kakashi walks right up to Rain, unhooks him from the tree and holds him in a half-nelson. Then Kakashi pulls out a kunai and holds it to Rain's throat.
"Kakashi sensei, he's not our enemy, 'tebayo," says Naruto.
"I know these two have helped us before," says Kakashi, his voice made of steel. "But I'm guessing they are here because they heard about the Leaf capturing Nagato and the Mizukage. Is that right?"
Wind stops giggling and says, "Yes, we're here for Nagato, Mei and Namiko. Where are they?"
"They are with the Hokage," says Kakashi, still not releasing Rain. "We will take you there on the condition you tell the Hokage everything you know about Zetsu and his plans. We have agreed to help Akatsuki defeat him, but we need as much information as possible."
"You aren't really in a position to be bargaining," says Wind, straightening up. Rain feels Wind preparing to use her secret power.
"No, Wind," says Rain firmly. "If the Leaf wants to help us, then let's accept that help. Who knows how badly we will need it in the coming days?"
Wind calms her power and takes a deep breath. "Alright," she says. "But if we end up putting more people in danger than we otherwise would have, I'm blaming you."