Part 1: The Hidden and the Hunting

Urameshi Yuusuke, for all that he was almost continually involved in strange situations, was not very swift on the uptake when it came to anything more complex than: "Look, it's a monster. Go hit it until it falls over." And that was on a good day.

Today was not a good day.

"Fix it!" Hinageshi cried as soon as he materialized into existence in front of her. Her eyes were wide and pleading and she even dared to grab his shirt and shake him a little. "Fix it! Fix it! Please!"

"…Huh?"

There were trees, Yuusuke noticed. Lots of trees and—where the hell was the ground? Vertigo, for a moment. Yuusuke lurched and caught onto a thick tree trunk and oriented himself.

"I've done something awful," Hinageshi was saying, miserable. "I'm going to be in such trouble! And Botan-san, too."

"Why the hell are we twenty feet off the ground in a tree?" Yuusuke demanded loudly.

"Shh!" the ferrygirl-in-training pressed a small hand to his mouth and cast a furtive glance to the forest floor.

Yuusuke followed her gaze and noticed three people: two small and one tall. They were a blur of speed as they ran deftly through the trees, and he only caught a glimpse of details. One was wearing what looked to be a red dress and had pink hair. The tallest one, with spiky silver hair, was carrying a fourth in a bright orange outfit that was splashed liberally with dark red (blood, Yuusuke's mind supplied, although he couldn't be sure). The small, dark one paused and shot a suspicious glance back toward Yuusuke's position.

Yuusuke pulled Hinageshi in to shield her, held very still and willed himself to be one with the tree.

When they moved on, both he and Hinageshi gave a sigh of relief.

"All right," Yuusuke growled softly. "You're going to start from the beginning. And you're going to speak slowly and use small words, since you yanked me out of bed, and according to my inner clock it's only four-something in the morning."

Innocent eyes blinked up at him a few times. Then Hinageshi took a step back, and actually looked at him. He knew the moment she realized she'd been pressed up against a boy wearing loose, light sleepware because the blush started at her cheeks and swept all the way to the tips of her ears."

"I-I'm so sorry, Urameshi-san!" she squeaked and bowed low.

"It's all right, jeez. Call me Yuusuke. None of that formal stuff. It makes my head hurt. Just…where the hell are we? And what's going on?"

So Hinageshi explained about how Naruto (guy in orange, Yuusuke noted) was supposed to have died, but the ferrygirl-in-training had appeared to him too early and then Naruto had saved her (and broken her oar) and how she had felt so guilty she'd not only failed to take his soul, she'd also healed him.

Then she told him that because she couldn't return to the Spirit World without her oar, she'd decided to use a technique he'd never heard of before to summon him here. How she was hoping the great Urameshi Yuusuke, the boy who had beaten more than one near-apocalypse, could help her solve her dilemma before it became an even bigger problem.

"So…" Yuusuke was sitting on the tree, looking off in the direction that the four had gone and letting the story sink in. "You want me to kill the guy?"

"NO!"

At his look, she flushed and looked down.

"Er. Please. There must be another way. Can't… can't you maybe… maybe go back to Koenma and…convince him to…" she faltered. "Do…something? I mean, after all, you got a second chance to live, didn't you, Urameshi-san?"

"Huh." Yuusuke thought about this. "Not exactly the same situation though, was it?"

Hinageshi bit her lip and looked as if she were about to cry. Yuusuke had absolutely no willpower when it came to crying women.

"All right all right! I'll go see what I can do. Sit tight. Keep an eye on Mr. Orange Pants, and I'll get back to you."

Her eyes lit up. "Oh thank you!" She hugged him.

"Yeah…" He patted her shoulder awkwardly. "Okay, so…send me back."

The long blank silence he received in answer was not encouraging.

"Hinageshi… you do know how to send me back, right?"

"Um…"

"….GODDAMMIT!"

"I…I really should think these things out before I do them. Botan-san always says I would be so much better at this if I gave my decisions even a minute or two of thought."

Yuusuke didn't respond to the nervous humor in Hinageshi's voice. He shoved a low branch out of his way and tromped on in hostile silence.

"Well, but… I panicked!"

His foot caught a vine and he nearly fell over.

"I'm really really really sorry…."

Since the vine wasn't letting go, and Hinageshi wasn't shutting up, Yuusuke stopped shoving his way through the forest and turned to her abruptly. She bumped into him and blushed.

"Look," he growled. "I know you didn't mean to, all right? Just…enough already."

He couldn't stand the tremulous-but-brave look she gave him, hands clasped in front of her chest, so he bent and yanked at the greenery wrapped around his ankle and relished the long moment of silence.

"But," Hinageshi burst out, "but what are we going to do?"

Yuusuke straightened. "If you wanted a good plan, you should've summoned Kurama. I was just more or less planning on walking around until the guys who've been following us for the past half hour show themselves and then we rumble. Or, you know…talk."

There was a rueful pause, and then three shapes dropped out of the trees in a blur of speed, landing in triangle formation around Yuusuke and Hinageshi. They were dressed in the same uniforms as the silver-haired guy from earlier—green and dark blue, vaguely military.

The one in front was hard-eyed but politely professional. A thick, diagonal scar cut across his face. "State your business with the Leaf," he said.

Yuusuke glanced at Hinageshi, and the ferrygirl gave a little start as if realizing she missed her cue. Taking a quick breath and throwing her shoulders back, she stepped forward.

"We…um," she faltered when the lead man's gaze fell to her. After a hesitation, she rallied again, voice firm. "We have come seeking help from those Hidden in the Leaf."

It occurred to Yuusuke that he should've questioned her a little more about where the hell they were and what the rules were around here instead of just sulking off into the forest.

"I will deliver your request scroll to the proper authorities." He held out an expectant hand.

"Oh. Er." Hinageshi bit her lip. "We'd really rather…we don't have a scroll. We were hoping to deliver the request in person…"

The lead man's eyes grew colder. Yuusuke heard the two behind him shift subtly and the battle awareness in him prickled. It took a lot of effort not to turn to see what they were doing.

Guard dogs, sensing something suspicious, Yuusuke thought with a little smirk. Well, he had to admit, they weren't really being very subtle about this.

"You'll have to file a request for a visitation rights and then return through the north pass if you receive notification of approval. That's, of course, after the minimum two week waiting period," the scarred man said stoically.

Yuusuke closed his eyes and breathed deeply. Demon time. Everything became molasses-slow because he was speeding up.

His heart was loud in his ears as hearing became more acute. Quietly, to himself, Yuusuke counted the beats.

One.

"Please," Hinageshi was saying in that sweet, pleading tone.

Two.

Yuusuke's fist moved with almost lazy speed as he clocked the lead man right in the temple. The man behind him went down as easily. The woman moved fast enough that his first strike only clipped her jaw, but the next caught her full in the stomach.

Three.

"It's very important that we…Yuusuke!"

Yuusuke opened his eyes again to the sound of bodies hitting the mossy ground and Hinageshi's indignant squeak. She looked at the three unconscious people, and then shot a glare in Yuusuke's direction.

"That wasn't very nice!"

Yuusuke shrugged. He couldn't really disagree with that. "What are 'those Hidden in the Leaf'?"

After an incredulous pause, she sighed and turned away, moving off into the forest again. "They're a ninja clan."

"…Seriously? Ninjas?"

Hinageshi nodded.

"Aren't ninjas supposed to…I don't know, run around in black or something? Or at least be harder to knock out?"

"They'll be harder next time," she huffed. "Since now they'll be alerted to us."

Yuusuke had to look a little shamefaced about that, even if he still didn't feel particularly sorry.

"Look," he countered after a moment. "This wouldn't be a problem if you hadn't let some kid break your oar. Then we could just fly to where we needed to, and wouldn't have to tromp though the forest trying to avoid the local patrol!"

He instantly regretted raising his voice when her anger faltered into guilt and worry.

Bowing her head, she whispered, "Y-you're right. I'm sorry. It's all my fault."

This was not going well, Yuusuke decided as he patted Hinageshi's shoulder in what he hoped was a comforting manner. He was really far too used to hanging out with Kuwabara and the other guys. People who didn't take his crap and who hit back as hard as he hit them.

"Er, it's not…completely your fault. It's, um. Hey, a clearing!"

They finally stumbled out the dense foliage, and onto a ridge that dropped into a sheer cliff, and overlooked a wide expanse of flat land.

"Whoa." That was all Yuusuke could find to say.

The ninja village stretched out beneath him, all the strangely shaped houses and miss-match, criss-crossing streets almost too small to see any detail. From this distance, the people where only as big as grains of rice. Directly across from him, four huge, carved faces loomed out of a mountain of sheer rock.

"We're… we're supposed to find him in all of that?" The impossibility of it made his knees weak and he had to sit down before he fell over.

"It's smaller than Tokyo," she pointed out, and he looked at her in surprised, blinking when he noticed the determined expression set on her sweet features.

"Yeah," he conceded. "I guess it is. But, Hinageshi…this isn't going to be easy."

"It doesn't matter." Her small hands clenched into fists. "I have to fix this. I have to…I have to prove I'm a good student. Botan-san has done so much for me that—"

"Okay okay!" Yuusuke stood up and brushed himself off. "Don't wear yourself out before we get started. I mean…" The wind pressed against him as he took a step closer to the edge of the cliff. "I've defeated gods before, right? Breaking into a ninja village and finding one kid shouldn't be too hard."

The hopeful expression she shined up at him immediately made him want to take back his optimistic words. He winced a little.

Think, Yuusuke. This isn't your strong point, but you've been hanging out with Kurama for years. What would he do? Think!

"You…said he got hurt, right? Hurt badly enough that he should've died. Then let's…check out the hospitals!"

She smiled. "That's a good idea."

Yeah! Yuusuke grinned and gave her a thumbs-up.

"HEY! YOU THERE!"

Yuusuke turned and spotted more figures in blue-and-green uniforms blurring toward him.

"Shit!" Yuusuke swore, casting a quick look around. There was nowhere to go. Nowhere to go and no time to think, and he wasn't sure if he could fight that many without hurting them, since he no longer had the element of surprise.

This is not my day, Yuusuke lamented as he grabbed Hinageshi, took a deep breath, and leapt off the cliff.

Naruto woke up and recognized where he was by the look of the ceiling. Konoha Village Hospital, with its subdued, hushed atmosphere and clean-washed scent. It confused him for a moment, since he didn't feel hurt enough to warrant what looked to be the critical ward. He was hooked up to a variety of machinery, all of which, as far as he could tell, were informing him of his perfect health.

He sat up carefully. Nope, still no pain. Huh.

It took twenty minutes of careful pulling and prodding and wincing and cursing to get himself free of all the wires and needles holding him in a delicate web.

Immediately, alarms and buzzers began screaming at them. He flinched, pulled plugs at random and kicked things until most of them shut up, but by then footsteps were hurrying down the hallway.

Naruto really didn't feel like explaining to the doctors that he was okay. They would insist he wasn't even if he danced a jig on the ceiling, and then they would make him sit still until they could find Kakashi-sensei. Naruto hated sitting still.

A jump and flip-roll took him out to the roof where he lay flat on his back, face to the sky, letting the heat from the tiles sink into his body. Voices in the room below him drifted on the breeze. Sharp questions fired back and forth, footsteps again, running now. When the noise died down he sat up and looked over the roof's edge, planning the best way to get down.

"Yo!" Kakashi said cheerfully, nearly nose to nose with Naruto.

"AAH!" the blond fell back and then hopped up again as the silver-haired Jounin climbed up on the roof to join him. "KAKASHI-SENSEI! YOU SCARED THE CRAP OUTTA ME!"

He pointed accusingly, but neither his yelling nor his emphatic finger seemed to ruffle the older man.

"Why aren't you in bed, Naruto?"

"Because I'm fine."

"Really?" Dark eyes studied him closely.

Naruto grinned and straightened, daring Kakashi to see anything wrong with him. "Yep!"

"That's funny…" His teacher's expression was mildly curious, now, but the tone of voice nettled Naruto.

"Why's it funny?" he demanded.

"Because you ought to be dead."

Naruto felt denial stick in his throat as a chill trickled down his spine and he knew Kakashi was not exaggerating. Involuntarily, one hand drifted to his side, half expecting to feel hot blood and something heavier, more solid, leaking out of a deep gash. But there was nothing, just the clean, soft feel of the hospital shirt. He swallowed.

The perpetual bland pleasantness had slipped from Kakashi's expression again as he looked over Naruto one more time. But before Naruto could say anything, his teacher was smiling again.

"Well, since you're all better, you can join Sakura and Sasuke at the training grounds."

Naruto perked, all fear forgotten at the chance to spar Sasuke. "Yeah! I'll show that asshole he can't show me up and get away with it!"

"We're going to focus on your defense, Naruto," Kakashi countered. "They're not nearly what they should be at your level."

The blond wilted a bit, sheepish. "Eeh hee hee… Aw, c'mon you old pervert. Cut me some slack! That guy just surprised me and…um…Kakashi-sensei?"

Kakashi's one visible eye was hard and searching as he looked off into the branches of the trees that surrounded the back of the hospital.

"Kakashi…?"

The bright-false smile his teacher gave him did nothing to ease his nerves. "Ah, sorry, Naruto. What were you saying?"

"Er…just that I don't really feel like working on defense today…"

"It's either defense or back to bed," was the cheerful answer. Then Kakashi turned and dropped off the edge of the building.

"Okay! Fine!" Naruto yelled after him. "…jerk." And he gave chase.

"Whew." Yuusuke let out the breath he'd been holding and eased further out on the branch to watch the tall silver-haired guy (Kaka…something) and Orange-Pants (no longer in orange) bounce like ping-pongs off roofs and out toward the edge of town.

This was proving to be a big pain in the ass.

As far as he could tell, though these ninja had a good grasp on the concept of ki and how to control it, they weren't used to being identified by it. They didn't suppress it or mask it. They could create illusions with it, he'd discovered much to his chagrin, and they could change their forms with it, but no matter what form they took, Yuusuke could see their distinct patterns easily and know who he was facing.

Of course, that didn't really help him defeat them. But it did give him something of an advantage when fleeing. Just compress his ki into a whisper, and mask it to look like a tree or a cat or a lamppost, and he could slip them.

It also helped to have a ferrygirl on his side, creating as loud of a distraction as she dared in another quarter of the village.

Plus, though it wasn't his forte, Yuusuke could be all but invisible when he wanted to be. It was a demon thing. Most humans tended to be blind to things not in their usual perception of the world. And, when he was concentrating hard, with the demon blood alive in him, he could shunt things like his shadow, and the sound of his heartbeat and breathing into another realm, undetectable by human senses. It took a great deal of effort, but he could do it.

Still, despite all of his caution, that Kaka-whatshisname had sensed his presence. Not good.

"Man, Hinageshi," he muttered. "You owe me big."

"Naruto!" Sakura's face was alight with relief when he landed in the clearing and waved to his teammates.

Ah, that was the warm reception he'd been very quietly hoping for but not really expecting. His grin widened as Sakura ran toward him, but even as she came closer, looking for all the world as if she'd glomp him, he was surprised to find his gaze sliding to the boy behind her to gauge his reaction, something tense in the pit of his stomach.

Sasuke met Naruto's eyes and nodded once. It was a "glad you're not dead" nod, and Naruto recognized it for what it was. He felt his smile might take off his ears.

"Idiot!" Sakura, for all her outward appearance might indicate, did not hit like a girl.

"OW! WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?"

Well, there went his good mood, Naruto grumbled to himself, rubbing the knot he felt forming on the back of his head from Sakura's fist.

"How dare you make me worry about you like that! Jeez!" In a whirl of red and pink, she turned and stomped away.

Naruto hovered on being happy that she'd worried at all, and annoyed at the pain throbbing through his skull, but before he could decide which one to settle on, Kakashi stepped forward.

"All right, settle down." The Jounin pulled a small square of red cloth from his pocket. "I've decided on today's lesson."

As his students looked on curiously, he turned in a sudden movement and slapped the cloth onto Naruto's chest.

"Tag! You're It!"

"Ehh?" Naruto immediately reached down to tug it off. Kakashi deftly slapped his hands away.

"These are the rules," their teacher explained. "Naruto and I are a team. Our job is to protect the red patch. Sasuke and Sakura are the opposite team. Your job is to steal the patch. Any questions?"

"You and Naruto on a team?" Sakura protested. "That's hardly fair."

Kakashi held up a finger. "My only job is to concentrate my chakra to keep the patch stuck to Naruto's chest. It's Naruto's job to defend it from any attacks. We're working on Naruto's defense and on team coordination. You'll have to find a way to simultaneously distract me, and get through Naruto's defenses. Also, no going outside of the clearing."

Sasuke snorted. "'Get through Naruto's defenses'? That shouldn't be too difficult."

"OI!"

"Sakura," Sasuke continued, ignoring Naruto's outburst. "I leave Kakashi to you."

The girl nodded, her eyes locking on her teacher as she shifted into a fighting stance. "You can count on me."

Kakashi smiled. "Ready? GO!"

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

Of course, of the twenty replications Naruto made, only one of them was wearing a red patch. But that was difficult to see when nineteen other bodies were getting in the way.

Sasuke kicked three into the dirt with one smooth movement and Naruto winced, hopping back a few steps to put more space between them. Damn Sasuke and his too-cool talent. Well, Naruto would show him.

The clones pounced. Sasuke fended them off. The battle continued this way for a good fifteen minutes until Sasuke managed to use one of the replications as a springboard to leap over the others and tackled Naruto to the ground.

"Sakura, now!" the dark haired boy ordered.

One of Naruto's clones broke from the group and transformed back into Sakura as she tackled Kakashi full in the chest.

Then—

Something hit Naruto, like a blast of wind, tearing him from the ground, away from a stunned Sasuke and across the clearing where he stopped and was set on his feet.

Someone held him firmly, one arm across Naruto's shoulders, the other around his waist. The blond Genin twisted and looked up.

The boy was shorter than Kakashi and didn't appear much older than Naruto. He had short black hair, half-slicked back, half sticking up at odd angles as if he'd just climbed out of bed. He was wearing light blue pajamas.

He held up the red patch and smirked. "I win."

A/N: Poor Hinageshi. She's not as bad as I make her out to be.... Unfortunately, that's how she's writing. Hope you enjoyed! The shonen-ai will show up soon, I promise. eyedart Next part: the rest of the Reikai Tantei show up. Chaos ensues.