Kakashi goes to open the door as Sakura and I stand. Jori and another ninja stand at our door.
"Kakashi, this is Taku he was the ninja on duty when the scroll was taken, he's finally out of the hospital and hopefully able to tell us more of what happened," Jori tells us Taku looks embarrassed as he stands behind Jori.
"Well let's make our way to the scroll room and you can tell us what happened there," Kakashi says, stepping out of our room as Sakura and I follow. We follow Jori through the elaborate cavern, up and downstairs, and finally down an elevator where we touch the bottom of the cavern and walk to a door shut into the wall of the cliff, a guard standing in front of it.
"Jori are these the ninja you told us about?" He asks.
"Yes, now please open the door to let us in." He answers nodding. The guard steps away from the door and I realize there is no handle. He makes some hand signs and presses his hand to the door where it opens. I blink in surprise.
"The rogue ninja got in even though you need hand signs?" I don't realize I said it out loud till I feel all eyes on me. Taku looking even more upset and embarrassed than before. I flush red but stand a bit taller looking at Taku waiting for an answer, might as well act like I meant to say it out loud. Taku sighs and nods.
"We aren't sure how he knows the way to get in but what I can say is he either knows how to make a sleeping powder or knows a sleeping Jutsu, why he let me live I don't know." He turns around and goes to walk into the scroll room.
"Wait for just a second," Kakashi calls to him, we all turn to him. "No one has been in here since you all investigated, correct?"
"That is correct," The guard answers. Kakashi makes a few hand signs and summons a few dogs. I smile at all of them as they look around and the pug sitting on the giant dog's head talks.
"What can we do for you Kakashi?" He asks.
"Pakkun, I need you to go into that room and see whose scents you can make out, ignore any scents that are of these 3 people here," Kakashi explains and points to the 3 earth ninjas. All the dogs nod and make their way into the room sniffing away and lightly muttering to each other. After a minute they come back out and sniff the 3 earth ninja.
"We have 3 scents that don't match these 3." The small grey dog says. "Should we follow them?"
"Not all the way," Kakashi says looking at the sky, it was getting late. "Follow them and if they leave the village stay just come back, we have to eliminate it down to one scent." The dogs agree and bound off splitting into 3 groups. We wait for about 5 min when 2 of the groups come back.
"The scent we followed leads to an earth ninja guarding the village." One of the small brown dogs says.
"And ours lead to the Earth Daimyo the ninja on guard told us he was the only one in the room we followed the scent too." Answers the giant dog. The other dogs make it back to us.
"The scent we followed leads out of the village heading south," Pakkun tells us.
"That has to be the rogue ninja, that's in the direction that Jori pointed on the map," Sakura points out and we all nod.
"All right, we will follow the trail tomorrow morning, for now, we will head back to our rooms and get some much-needed rest," Kakashi says looking at Sakura and I. We nod and all make our way to the room.
"I had dinner brought for you all, I hope you enjoy," Jori states as we all chime our thanks. "Of course I will be back tomorrow morning with breakfast. Goodnight for now." He says and he and Taku leave. Kakashi opens the door to the main room and I laugh when all the dogs pile in. One of the brown dogs with a shinobi marking on his forehead turns to me and sniffs my legs, I raise an eyebrow at him. Kakashi and Sakura sit at the table as the other dogs make themselves comfortable around the room; the only cushion left at the table is next to Kakashi.
"So, Kakashi, are you going to introduce us to this pretty girl here?" Pakkun asks as he watches the other dog sniff me, I can't help but blush at his words.
"Everyone, this is Princess Shinokane, she is assigned to Team 7 for training," Kakashi answers, starting to dig into the dinner, all the dogs stare at me.
"Princess?" One asks as I am finally able to make my way to sit down.
"Yes, I am the Princess of the Hyohaku-sha clan," I explain grabbing some food of my own. "But please just call me Kane, no need for formalities. What are your all names?"
"I'm Pakkun, as you have heard," The pug says.
"I'm Bull," The big brown dog with a spiked collar answer.
"Urushi," A light beige dog answers.
"Shiba," The grey dog answers.
"Bisuke," The dog that sniffed me says as he curls up next to me, I just smile at him.
"Akino," The dog with glasses says.
"Uhei," A dog with bandages answers.
"I'm Guruko," The last brown dog answers.
"It's nice to meet you all." I smile at them.
After dinner, we all take short showers and get ready for bed. I sigh as I lay down in my bed, Sakura was already in her bed.
"You okay?" She asks turning to me, I nod turning to face her.
"Just nervous about my first mission with you and Kakashi," I answer.
"Why?" She asks, looking at me confused.
"Well I don't want to mess up, and we just met and we don't know a lot of each other's abilities," I explain, Sakura nods but shrugs.
"I'm sure we will be fine, as long as we all communicate hardly anything can go wrong."
"Hmm… Right." I smile and yawn. "Well, we should get to bed. Goodnight, Tomodachi."
"Goodnight, Kane-san." She smiles.
The next morning I wake up with my legs numb. I try to stretch them out but realize something is on them, I sit up and see Bisuke on my bed sleeping, he tiredly opens one eye, sighs, and moves to the foot of my bed.
"Did you have to sleep ON my legs?" I ask cringing at the needle-like feeling as blood rushes through them again.
"Sorry," He says as he stretches and curls up again.
"How did you all get in here?" Sakura asks sleepily as she sees Shiba sleeping on her bed next to the wall and Bull sleeping by the dresser in between our beds. I look to the door, seeing it closed. Good question, I think standing up and yawning.
"I opened the door," Bull answers. I just shake my head at them grabbing my clothes needed to get ready and head for the bathroom, Urushi, Guruko, and Akino were asleep on the cushions or sofa in the main room, I assume the other 2 were in Kakashi's room. I wash my face, brush my teeth, and get dressed for the day grumbling the whole time as I can't seem to wake up fully. I open the door and bump into something.
"Umph…" I look up to see a tired Kakashi his mask a little lopsided and his hair disheveled, I stair as I notice his other eye for the first time, it was closed but he had a scar across it. "Sorry," I mumble and look away.
"It's okay, you look exhausted. You okay?" He asks I look to him again and nod. He moves out of my way and I make my way to my room again.
"Hey Kakashi, what is today?" I ask him before he shuts the door.
"It's Monday, why?" he asks and I nod.
"That explains why I'm so tired, I haven't had blood in a week," I answer as he looks at me slightly worried. "Don't worry I brought some with me," I tell him and he nods shutting the door. I open the room door and sit on my bed grabbing my brush and brushing my hair.
"So Mondays are the day you need blood?" Sakura asks shyly as she brushes her hair. I just nod and yawn again. "Why does it make you so tired?" She looks at me with concern.
"It's the first sign of my blood being used to create my chakra if I were to do even a shadow clone right now it would tire me even more," I answer as I finish my hair and grab my backpack. I pull out my blood pack and open it taking out one of the bottles, I open it and take a long drink without thinking anything of it.
"Huh, does that taste as weird as it smells?" Bisuke asks from the foot of my bed, I look around noting that all the dogs have made their way into our room and Kakashi is standing in the doorway, all of them are staring at me, I blush and look down at the bottle in my hand. It never used to embarrass me to drink blood in front of others, granted I only ever used to drink in front of my clan, it was normal to them.
"Bisuke!" Pakkun growls at him when he sees my embarrassment, Bisuke shrinks into my covers looking away.
"It's fine. Umm… no," I answer barely audible but I knew they could hear.
"Are you going to be okay today?" Kakashi asks from the doorway, I notice he's ready except for his Jonin vest and shoes.
"I'll be fine, once I finish this," I answer looking back down, getting embarrassed again. I shake my head, we're all going to have to get used to this, I think shrugging and downing the bottle. Once done I lick my lips, cap the bottle, and place it back in the blood pack, I close that and pack it into my backpack again. Thankfully, I hear a knock on the door as I'm doing this. I didn't know why but I was afraid to look up at the others. I follow Sakura to the main room where Jori has brought us breakfast. I smile as I sit on the sofa letting the others sit at the table, Sakura looks at me confused.
"Are you not going to eat Kane?" She asks and Kakashi looks up from his rice and fish.
"No thank you, I'm not hungry, but please eat," I answer her with a smile. She still looks confused.
"Does the medicine you drank this morning fill you up?" Kakashi asks I look at him noting that he kept my blood-drinking a secret.
"Yes it does," I smile at him and he nods they all go back to eating. I close my eyes and stifle a yawn as I stretch out on the couch, I open my eyes when I feel a weight on my legs, Bisuke is laying on me again, I shake my head at him as he gets comfortable laying his head to face me, I can't help but pet him. I look up when I feel someone staring at me, Kakashi is watching me. I tilt my head in question and he slightly shakes his and I think smiles, I blink but smile at him anyway. After breakfast, we grab our weapons, I also grab a few things of poisons and antidotes placing them in the pouch on my back hip.
"Well good luck with the mission," Jori says as we walk out the door.
"Bye," I say waving and following the Ninkin to the spot where they last found the scent.
The Ninkin sniff around for a sec, nod, and bound off to the south following the scent trail. We follow the trail for about 30 miles when the dogs stop and sniff around again spreading out to see if one can pick up the scent.
"Lost them?" Kakashi asks when they all come back to the spot we stopped.
"Seems we have," Pakkun says, a bit disappointed.
"This is around the area they said they lost them," Sakura says looking at the map.
"Pakkun where exactly does the scent end?" I ask and he sniffs for a sec and sits.
"Right in front of me." He points with his paw.
"Ok," I say sitting next to him. I concentrate my chakra growing a small vine in the ground. I pull out a kunai cutting my palm and plucking the small vine I grew by the roots. I can feel the others watching me as I place the roots near the blood on my hand. I wrap my wounded hand on the vine as I feel the roots move into the cut, I make a few hand signs.
"Vine Essence Link Jutsu," I say as I place my palm downwards on the spot Pakkun pointed to, I close my eyes and concentrate as I make the vine push into the ground and grow. The vine shutters in my hand and I can tell through the link created that the vine isn't happy about pushing through the ground. 6 ft down though the vine no longer meets resistance and I think I've found the tunnel.
"I think the tunnel is about 6 feet down," I say as I concentrate more and make more vines come from my hand and use them to dig a hole big enough for a person to fit through. I pull the chakra from the vines making them turn to dust and stand up. Sakura grabs my hand and heals my cut for me."Do you have to cut yourself for all of your Jutsu?" She asks with a slight frown on her face.
"Not all of my Jutsu no, not even most of them." I smile at her and wipe my palm when she is done. "Thank you."
"I found their scent again." I hear Pakkun say and look down to see that 4 of the dogs have jumped down to the tunnel.
"Let's go," Kakashi says to us and jumps down. I follow suit and Sakura jumps in last. Kakashi grabs a flashlight and we follow the tunnel for another 25 miles. Where the tunnel starts to turn from dirt and soil to sand.
"We seem to have passed the border into the land of wind now," Kakashi says. We continue to follow the sand tunnel for a good 10 miles before it ends. "Shinokane can you make a hole out of here?"
"Can do, and don't worry Sakura I won't need to cut myself this time," I smile at her and she shakes her head. I make the vines grow and concentrate to have them dig through the dirt and sand. "You might want to step back,'' I say as the dirt starts to fall. I turn my head from the dirt and sand as it pours in. Once I can see light I make the vines turn to dust and step back brushing most of the dirt off of me. Kakashi and the dogs jump up before Sakura and me.
"Alright, from here we need to be more careful, Pakkun, pick up the scent and see where it leads if it leads more than 5 miles come back and get us, please," Kakashi says and the pug runs off. "You all scout a perimeter, please," He tells the others and they leave as he turns to Sakura and me. "Let's take a small break, but keep your guard up."
10 minutes later Pakkun makes his way back to us, he found the rogue ninja with a group of 3 others about 4 miles from here, they are at an oasis.
"From what I gathered, they seem to be talking about the scroll." He says sitting in front of us. "They were talking about something giving them access to secret techniques used to make an extremely big pit of quicksand. As in able to bury a big village." I gasp in surprise and think of the best-known village near where we were.
"Sunagakure is the closest known village I can think of," I say looking to Kakashi. He nods as his hand comes up to his chin.
"Shiba, I need you to take a message to the Kazekage," Kakashi says kneeling and taking out a small scroll writing a quick message and sealing it. He gives the message to Shiba and he bounds off towards Suna. "The rest of us need to get going now."
"Right," Sakura and I say and we all follow Pakkun we get as close as possible and scope out the Oasis.
We could see all 3 men talking near the large pond, Kakashi begins silently communicating our strategy, he will rush in first with Sakura and I coming in from the sides in a pincer-like maneuver. He then points to the dogs telling them to stay unless needed. We all nod and I sneak to the side, the rogue ninjas seem to be arguing and not paying attention at all. Once Sakura and I are in position Kakashi runs in making hand signs, the ninjas all gasp in shock and jump out of the way as 2 other Kakashi form and run at them. Sakura and I nod to each other and she puts up her fingers counting down from 3, on 1 we come running out I slice at the ninja closest to me with my tessen bladed fan. He barely dodges me, glaring and moving with me as he throws a couple of Shuriken. I swat them away with my tessen fan. I run to the side putting my bladed fan away and grabbing my senbon tessen fan flicking it at him, he manages to dodge all but one needle. As he throws a kunai, I dodge, only to see the paper bomb attached to it at the last moment.
"Shit!" I yell jumping up in the air grabbing my Gunpai from my back and placing it in front of me I curl just in time as it goes off the shock wave sending me flying I twirl in the air to try and land on my feet but I land hard and my knees buckle under me.
"Kane!" I hear Sakura scream as she watches me fall to my knees.
"I'm fine!" I growl getting up as the man I was fighting shouts in frustration and begins to make hand signs.
"Earth Gravel Jutsu!" He yells and I feel the earth under me start to shift and break I start to sink in it and concentrate my chakra making vines, just like I did in my practice fight with Kakashi, the vines help me out of the ground. I sit in the vines as they grow to hold me above the ground I pull a vile out of pouch opening it and pouring the content on my senbon tessen. I throw the empty vile at the ninja, he easily dodges by jumping over it; putting him right where I want him. I quickly open my fan flicking my wrist so the senbon flies at him sticking in his arm and torso. I smile, jumping down from the vines grabbing my Gunpai's by the strap from the ground and run towards him. I hold the Gunpai above my head and last-minute swing it towards him letting it open fully striking him in the stomach. I hear his gasp and watch him fly backward into the pond. I turn to watch as Sakura punches the ninja she is fighting and he flies further than I expect, I blink as he falls to the ground dead. I turn when I hear a splash and watch the man I was fighting trying to stand up but falls in the water again, I smile knowing the poison was taking effect. I take pity knowing that if I let him fall into the water with the poison in him he would drown painfully so I throw a kunai aimed at his heart it hits him just as he was starting to fall again. I walk to him and start searching the man's body, but all the scrolls I find are useless, I turn to Sakura and she shakes her head as well. I turn to Kakashi as I watch all the dogs holding the last man captive.
"He must be the one with the scroll Sensei," I say making my way to him. Kakashi nods and starts to search the man but he starts to fight again. I sigh and use the but end of my tessen fan to smack the guy in the head. He goes unconscious, Kakashi looks at me with a raised eyebrow. "Was I not supposed to do that?" I ask sheepishly.
"It's fine just wasn't expecting it," He answers. "We're not the ones that need to worry about him."
"We aren't?" I ask confused. Kakashi shakes his head.
"Even though he is the one that stole the scroll, his more serious crime was going to be hurting Suna, that's why I sent them the message, our mission was to get this back and return it safely." He explains holding the scroll in his hand, I nod understanding.
"Gaara, Temari, Kankuro, Nice to see you all again." I hear Sakura say I turn confused as to who she's talking to and see Shiba came back with 3 people watching us, one with black eyeliner and red hair the other with face paint and scrolls and a girl with blond hair in 4 buns and holding a Gunpai slightly smaller than mine. It's only then I remember Sakura telling me of another tessenjutsu user named Temari of the Sand. They make their way to us and look to the man that was lying unconscious on the ground.
"This is the offender?" The man with the face paint asks, Kakashi nods, "we will take him in for questioning then, anything we should ask?"
"How he knew how to get ino the scroll room is something the Earth Daimyo would like to know." Kakashi answers.
"We will figure it out and send an answer to them and the Hokage, and on behalf of the Land of Wind we thank you." The redhead says giving a slight bow.
"Of course thank you Kazekage," Kakashi nods giving his slight bow again. My eyes widen a bit at the fact that this person only seeming to be 16 is the Kazekage. I look down not wanting to be rude.
"You guys are a long way from Kyokokugakure, and it's getting late, you can stay in Suna if you would like?" The girl finally speaks. I look to Kakashi waiting for an answer. "You won't have to deal with all the dangerous stuff in the desert at night as well." She points out making Kakashi accepts the offer.
The Kazekage waves his hand and sand pick up the unconscious rouge ninja, I grab my Gunpai and turn to follow all everyone to Suna. I stay quiet as the others talk.
"So how have things been back at Kohona?" The redhead asks Kakashi.
"Things are good and Suna?" Kakashi answers.
"Things are good here, may I ask who the new team member is," The Kazekage turns to look at me.
"My name is Shinokane Hyohaku-sha, Sir," I answer giving a slight bow.
"Hyohaku-sha? From the wandering clan?" He looks astonished.
"Yes," I nod.
"You mean the vampire clan?" The man with the purple make takes a step away from me as I turn glaring at him.
"We are not vampires!" I harshly yell.
"Kankuro!" Temari chastises him with a smack to the arm and turns to me. "Sorry about my brother." I just nod and start walking again, angrily trying to ignore the insult. I was used to people assuming that were vampires but to blatantly be insulted was rare and made me upset and mad. I barely notice Sakura walking next to me until she speaks.
"You okay?" she asks worry on her face. I just nod and turn to her when she puts her hand on my shoulder.
"Princess, you're not paying attention which means you're going the wrong way." I look down to see Bisuke was next to me, I sigh and look around seeing the others patiently waiting 10 feet away.
"Let's go," I huff and walk to the others. "Bisuke what did I say about formalities?" I ask as the others lead the way.
"You are a princess so I will call you Princess." He looks up at me like this was obvious. The 3 sand ninjas stop in their tracks making us all stop.
"Great Kakuro, you insulted a princess no less!" Temari throws her hands up in frustration. I shake my head looking to Kakashi, he just shrugs.
"I didn't mean to insult her, her clan is known as vamp…" He starts to say.
"ENOUGH!" I yell to gain their attention, I take a deep breath to calm myself. "First off, I will say it again, we are NOT vampires. Yes, we drink blood but we don't die in the sun or have fangs. Second, yes I am the princess of my clan but I am in Kohona in training, while in training I don't want or need the formalities as it causes these awkward conversations besides not everyone needs to know it can lead to Kohona getting into trouble and not so great things for me."
"Are you saying that my people would kidnap you, Princess?" The Kazekage asks I turn to face him fully.
"No, I assume that because Kakashi Sensei didn't say anything when it was first brought up that he at least in some way trusts you, but as a Princess, I would not put it past anyone," I answer plainly.
"Kohona and Suna have a new but strong alliance right now, and Gaara would not allow anything to damage that," Kakashi says.
"Good, now can we drop the subject?" I ask the others nod. "Then let's be on our way,"
We finally make it to Suna are shown to where we will be staying for the night. I wash up and curl under my blanket trying to sleep when I hear a knock on my door. I sigh and sit up.
"Come in," The door opens and Kakashi steps in. "Sensei," I greet.
"You brought up an interesting point I wanted to talk to you about," He says shutting the door and leaning against the wall.
"The possibility of being kidnapped," I say and he nods.
"I already talked to the Ninkin and Sakura about not bringing it up anymore while were out on missions." He tells me and I nod. "I guess as a princess you have to worry about that kind of thing all the time," I nod again.
"What about the Kazekage and his siblings?" I ask and Kakashi nods.
"I talked to them about it as well, of course, they have no wants or reasons to talk about it anymore." He reassures me.
"Thank you," I smile at him, I think he smiles back as he nods.
"Well, goodnight Shinokane," He says stepping away from the wall and turning to the door.
"Goodnight Kakashi," I say laying down again as he leaves.