Naruto, Sasuke, Kyu, Kurama, and Kakashi all walked towards the front gate, with the intention of walking out of the city to find a plant for homework.
"Hey, where are you going Kakashi? You don't have a mission, at least, not last I checked," one of the gate guards asked.
Kakashi eye smiled at them. "I'm subbing for Shisui and Itachi and helping these two do their homework. There's a large field full of this plant they need right outside of the wall, and that would be easier than trying to find it around the training grounds."
The gate guard who'd spoken nodded agreeably. "Alright, but sign out, alright?"
Kakashi nodded agreeably, and crossed to the sign out area, signing his name, party names, and reason for leaving. The sign out only applied to civilians, and ninja not leaving on a registered mission.
Kakashi finished, and herded the two five-year-olds and two shadow clones outside of Konoha.
He led them a little ways away, to a field full of the plant the boys were looking for. Now he just had to distract the boys for a few hours. Shouldn't be too hard, right? Hm, there was that one game Rin had used to distract him and Obito that one time Sensei was late, what was it called, something with a cat? Or was it a cradle? Never mind, he remembered it had occupied him and Obito until Sensei arrived, a good hour and a half late, even later than Obito. Now to see if he could remember how to do it…
Kakashi pulled out a random long piece of yarn, one he wasn't entirely sure why he had, and tied the ends together. He looped it around his wrists a few times, Naruto and Sasuke watching him curiously, Kurama and Kyu contemplative.
"Is that's cat's cradle?" Kurama asked first, nosing the string woven around Kakashi's fingers and wrists.
Kakashi nodded. So it was both cat and cradle. Huh, well, now he was wondering why a fox knew what it was…
Kyu poked at it, inserting his fingers into the woven string, and doing the correct movements to transfer it to his fingers. "I am assuming you are going to show it to the boys? You realize you cannot teach it without a second person, right?"
"I can make shadow clones," Kakashi dismissed.
Kyu watched him, unimpressed.
Kakashi shrugged, taking the string from him, the string woven in a different pattern around his fingers.
"What're you doing?" Naruto asked, peering over Kyu's shoulder.
"Playing cat's cradle, would you like to try?" Kakashi replied, eye smiling at him.
Naruto frowned thoughtfully. "If you help me and Sasuke finished our homework I'll play with you."
Kakashi sighed. "Alright, we can do that instead."
Shisui and Itachi found them like that an hour and a half later, both dripping wet, as they had done a quick dip in the river to get rid of the blood.
Kakashi looked up from where he was lying on the ground, Naruto, and Sasuke using his back as a table.
"Shisui-nii!" Naruto shouted, launching himself at Shisui.
Shisui caught him and held Naruto away from himself. "Careful there kit, I'm all wet. Fell in a river."
Sasuke didn't look impressed. "Both of you fell in a river?"
Shisui nodded solemnly. "The root tripped both of us."
Now all five people in the clearing were staring at him, unimpressed. Well, four humans and a fox. Itachi was just standing there, being no help at all.
Shisui pouted. "Can't you just believe me?"
"Nii-san's not clumsy," Sasuke replied, deadpan.
"He has a point," Kurama said, smirking at them.
Shisui stuck his tongue out at the fox. "Come on, we're leaving."
"Leaving where?" Naruto asked confusion and worry warring on his face.
"Outside of Konoha," Itachi said gently. "We're finding a better place for you to grow up."
Sasuke sat down in shock, and the closest thing to sit down on just so happened to be Kakashi, who let out a grunt as the five-year-old sat down on him heavily. "What about Mom and Dad?"
Kurama sighed, jumping into Sasuke's lap and settling down. "They're dead, kit. We can't explain now, we have to leave.
Sasuke sat there, stunned for a moment, then tears began to well up in his eyes. "Dead? Why?"
Itachi walked over and picked up his little brother, Kurama jumping onto his head. "We can't explain now. We need to go. We'll explain as soon as we reach the place we're going, alright?"
Kakashi, the weight on his back removed, stood up. He bit his thumb, summoning two of his dogs. "Bull, can you carry Sasuke for the time being? Pakkun, can you obscure our passage?"
"Naruto," Kurama said, hopping down to land in front of the kid. "Do you think you can handle two tails?"
Naruto looked hesitant for a moment, but nodded, a determined face taking over. "Yes. I can."
"It may hurt," Kurama cautioned.
Naruto swallowed, and make the ram sign, the one Shisui had said was used to channel chakra. A red stream of chakra came from his stomach, pouring into Kurama. Kurama grew to about the size of Bull, so his shoulder was comfortably above Naruto's head. To be fair, he was a pretty short five-year-old.
Naruto blinked open his eyes and looked at the now two-tailed Kurama. "It worked! And it didn't really hurt, more like, tickled a bit!"
Kurama nodded, folding his front legs so Naruto could clamber up. "I'll be carrying you, kit. We'll move faster that way."
Naruto smiled weakly, perhaps remembering why they why needed to move so quickly. He quickly clambered up, wrapping his arms and legs around Kurama best he could.
They moved quickly, keeping to the trees in order to move quicker. They had to get further away from Konoha. Hiruzen had promised to not send out hunter-nin for a while, but it wouldn't be forever, and they had to get distance. With any luck, they wouldn't have to go through Ame looking for the Akatsuki, and the Akatsuki would instead find them. They were three S-ranked missing-nin, after all. None of them had drawn the line through their headband yet, figuring they could do it after they crossed the border sometime in the next hour. They'd go over the border, then go as far as they could before resting for the night.
"Shisui-nii," Naruto asked suddenly. "Aren't there people who chase people who run away?"
Shisui sighed, moving up to branch hop next to Kurama. "Yes there are, but think about it like this, the Hokage knows what we're doing, and why we're doing it, so he's going to stall them, and not send them out till next week. We have some important people to find before that time runs out."
"Importitant people?" Naruto asked, tilting his head.
"Important," Shisui corrected. "They're called the Akatsuki, and they're based in Ame as far as we know."
Naruto scrunched up his nose. "Rain?"
"Rain," Shisui agreed.
"Wet," Naruto decided, burying his face in Kurama's fur.
"Wet," Shisui agreed again, before falling back into his original position.
They made it over the border with an hour or so before dusk.
They stopped for the night an hour later, most of the way to Ame. They only had a few hours to go before they reached Ame, but it wouldn't do to have the boys passing out and falling off their respective rides. Plus, while Kakashi was rested, Shisui and Itachi, having had to kill an entire freaking clan of shinobi, were much more tired. When they stopped, both were barely on their feet, and that was just pure determination.
"I'll keep watch," Kyu said before anyone else could say anything. "I slept in the seal during the academy, I'll be fine. And I can dispel and sleep while you're moving tomorrow if need be."
The three jounin just nodded, knowing the intelligence in that. Kyu was a sturdy shadow clone, and Kurama would most likely be up and around, keeping watch as well.
Kurama laid down to allow Naruto off his back, Itachi managed to pick his brother off of Bull's back. The large dog dispelled with a nod to Kakashi.
Kyu immediately nicked the camping supplies scroll from Shisui, and opened it. He quickly unsealed the tents, and Itachi immediately began to set them up, settling his almost catatonic brother in one of them as soon as he had it set up. Kakashi stole the scroll from Kyu, unsealing the cooking supplies, setting them up, and heading off with a kunai in hand.
Once the boys were peacefully sleeping, the three jounin gathered around the dying campfire for one last thing they had to do.
Shisui stared at his headband, situated on the ground. "I thought I'd never do this."
Itachi grunted in agreement.
Kakashi sighed at his headband. "It's for the best. If it's anything, I think Kushina-nee would be proud of us, of all things."
The two Uchiha hummed in agreement.
Kakashi took his kunai to his headband first, drawing a rather sloppy horizontal line through the Konoha symbol. He tied it back on his forehead. "To keeping the boys safe."
Shisui drew a much neater line through his headband, and tied it on as well. "To keeping the boys safe.
Itachi sighed, drawing a very nearly perfect line through the Konoha symbol. "To keeping them safe."