How you all like that, two chapters in one day. J/K. I hope everybody enjoys this.

I don't own Naruto in any way shape or form but if I did this is how it would go.

FINDING JIRAIYA

After having left Kankorou's side Hirai had gone to see one of her team mates. She had had a brief discussion with him. Now however she came to a place she came to when she wanted to think or be alone. Temari had shown her this place it was one of the tallest building in the sand village and gave a great viewpoint of the desert surrounding the village. However not many people knew this place. It was hidden from view and from most vantage points except the sky you could not tell there was a place where somebody could occupy. Much less two people after all this was Temari's place and she had shown it to her. It made Hirai feel special knowing one of Temari's secrets and she wondered where Temari was at that moment, she hoped she was on her way. She went over the discussion she had with her team mate and apparently nobody knew what had happened with the Kazekage yet. It seemed they were going to try to get him back before anybody was any wiser. This at least gave her hope that they weren't abandoning him. Hirai leaned back and looked up at the sky. A lot had happened recently and she needed to get all of her thoughts in order. What Chiyo had said struck a chord within her and she had been right this was not the time to be weak. A ninja could not afford the luxury of being weak.

The Hokages doors opened and on the other side was Gai and his team. Tsunade felt such a wave of relief wash over her that it was a team returning from a mission and not some political visit. She couldn't help but smile she slumped back into her chair and took a breath of relief. However that relief was short lived as she remembered the urgency of the situation. Gai was walking through the door when Tsunade snapped to attention and told him to hurry his ass up. Gai had no idea what was going on but he and his team hustled to the front of the Hokage's desk. Gai was about to give his verbal report when Tsunade cut him off. "Just nod your head if the mission was successful." She barked. Gai nodded his head. "Good, just leave your report on my desk and I'll read it as soon as possible. I have a new mission for you." Gai and the rest of his team were struck by the urgency in the Hokage's voice and did not complain. Gai put the report on Tsunades desk and awaited her instructions. Tsunade's face softened a little bit as she realized she might be looking like she was loosing a little poise. "I'm sorry to act like this and not give you any rest, however the situation is extremely urgent." She said composing herself and preparing to explain the situation. "We had an urgent request from the sand, apparently their Kazekage has been kidnapped and they requested our help."

"Nani!" Gai and his team explained as they heard the news. Rock Lee asked his question quickly. "This is some sort of joke, right. Gaara is one of the strongest individuals any of us have ever encountered, and he's the leader of the sand now. They wouldn't let something like this happen." He said this with conviction in his voice half expecting the Hokage say something like, you got me April fools. No such thing happened.

Tsunade could understand Rock Lee's viewpoint. Her brow furrowed and she explained. "I'm sorry Rock Lee. This is not a joke, yes Gaara is a powerful fighter, but that does not mean he could not be beaten. Regardless help has already been sent and I am sending you to help them. You're team will assist Kakashi's team in this mission." Rock Lee started moving ready to go as soon as possible, but Tsunade wasn't through. "I'm not finished explaining the mission." She saw the curious looks on all their faces and thought about how to best explain it. "If you don't know, Naruto came back. On this mission one of your parameters is to stay near him and take some of these seals with you." She placed the stack of seals on the edge of her desk for them to take. Neji looked at the seals and was really impressed, he had never seen seals of this magnitude and power outside of books in the Hyugga library. To think that they even existed was amazing. "I can't explain it in full detail, suffice to say that you must be Naruto at all times. If he were to loose control of himself you must attach two of these seals on to him. Understood." None of them really understood why, but they knew this was an important part of their mission. They all nodded affirmatives.

Gai took the notes and asked. "Is that all, Hokage?" He looked at her and waited for her response his team also waited anxious to be on their way.

Tsunade looked at them and took a deep breath. "No, that is all." She said. They quickly turned to leave and were almost at the door when Tsunade spoke again. "Wait." They stopped at her request and turned their heads to look back at her. "I just want to tell you you've done a good job for me... and I wanted to wish you good luck." Gai and his team were touched by the Hokage's words, but none of them were as touched as Rock Lee. He was on the verge of tears of appreciation.

Rock Lee had an immense respect for the Hokage, she was the one who gave him the ability to fight again after he had lost it. She placed much trust in him and this meant a great deal to Rock Lee. The rest of the team filed out the door, but Rock Lee did not move. He looked at the Hokage and in a clear voice he made his vow. "Arigauto, Tsunade-sama. We will not fail in this mission you have given us." With that he slipped out the door and followed his team leaving Tsunade once again alone in her office. Tsunade sat there contemplating everything something she took to doing often now and hoped everyone came back safely.

Back at the practice field surrounded by a ring of fire Jiraiya completed a series of seals and looked up at the sky. He brought his hands towards his head and cupped the back of his head and neck. He inhaled an inhuman amount of air and when he exhaled a huge flame of fire spiraled out from his lips and towered into the sky. About fifty five feet above the ground the tower of fire stopped and started to gather. A circle started growing and continued to grow. Jiraiya could no longer blow but he felt it had been sufficient fire. As it was the fire ball floating above him kept growing feeding on itself. Jiraiya then started forming seals once again. Shino stood a good distance from Jiraiya and his ring of fire watching the spectacle. He did not know what Jiraiya was planning to do. He did not want to take to many chances though so he called back his insects. He did not want them near the the ball of fire when Jiraiya chose to use it. As he looked on the ring of fire around Jiraiya dispersed and Shino had a clear view of Jiraiya. Jiraiya finished forming his seals and whispered to himself "Rain of fire." The giant ball of fire above him immediately flattened out and spread out in the sky covering a huge area. Flames started falling from the fire in the sky. Shino was captivated by the scene the fire looked like clouds covering the sky and it looked like it was beginning to rain fire. Small flames were falling around him and steadily growing in size. He was amazed that the jutsu covered so much ground and thought of the crazy amount of chakra it must've took to pull this off. Shino did not move however. Jiraiya saw shino and wondered how he would react. He wasn't moving at all and Jiraiya knew if Shino didn't move soon he would be burned up. Jiraiya was about to yell at Shino when his fear was realized. Shino was pelted by flames and caught fire. Jiraiya yelled Shino's name, but could not leave his area or else he would meet the same fate as Shino. However instead of burning Shino dispersed. Insects flying from where he was standing and leaving the area. Jiraiya saw this and was highly impressed. So it wasn't the real Shino he had been fighting, but a bug clone. Jiraiya started laughing and disappeared in a cloud of smoke. The sky cleared when he disappeared.

Hinata charged towards Jiraiya. Jiraiya had barely got up when she charged at him. He noticed her speed had increased, unfortunately he had no time to appreciate that as she was upon him throwing lightning quick jabs. He was only able to keep up with her because he had been in so many fights over the years and was familiar with her fighting style. However his advantage was negated by her byakuggan, because she could also he was his body's intentions were before they were fully realized. Both of them were fighting one step ahead of their strikes. Jiraiya was impressed he had not expected this but he still had a few tricks up his sleeve he might try. After a minute of fighting with such intensity Jiraiya saw he was not going to win like this and decided to start using more moves. He body flickered a few feet behind her, but Hinata saw what he was going to do and moved quickly to counter him. He was a second ahead of Hinata and dodged a side kick she had aimed at his head. He felt the wind blow as her foot flew past his head. He felt the contact her foot made with his hair and brought up his shoulders so she could not disengage as easily. Hinata saw this and started twisting her body so she was looking at him face to face. He brought up his hand and was about to grab her foot when she pressed down with incredible force and went into a back flip kick. Jiraiya quickly pushed body flickered away nanoseconds before impact. Damn he thought to himself, he hadn't expected her to be so flexible, it must have been the jacket that gave him the impression that she wasn't such a good physical fighter, but damn she was much better than he had expected. He had created some breathing room and as they took their stances Jiraiya saw the tower of fire rising into the sky. If it had come to that he knew it was time to stop playing around. His stance was no longer casual as before and he hoped he was successful. Hinata noted this change and took in a deep breath preparing herself and clearing her mind. Hinata charged at him and engaged him this time though when Jiraiya flickered away she used the empty palm technique and open palm thrust that launched the chakra from her hands allowing her a more range. Jiraiya was pushed hard by the invincible chakra hand. This time it was she who flickered right in front of him. He instantly recognized her stance as the 64 palms technique. He had underestimated her before and paid he would not underestimate her a second time. He flickered behind her and not a moment to soon he had felt the pressure of her first strike as he flickered. Hinata missed and the next thing she as she spun around he open palm struck her on the side of her jacket, hard. This time it was she who skidded a few feet away from him. She immediately started unbuttoning her jacket, she had seen it all to clearly with her byakugan, when Jiraiya struck her he had an explosive note in his palm with what was the equivalent of super glue on the side facing her. She got up quickly expecting the note to explode at any moment at Jiraiya's whim. She started jumping away from him in case he came after her, but in her peripheral vision she saw he was being attacked. When she looked up she recognized Shino's insects, they had swarmed Jiraiya and attached themselves onto him while he had been preoccupied with Hinata. They were draining him of all his chakra and after a few moments of watching this he disappeared in a cloud of smoke as well. She had been wrong about fighting the real Jiraiya then. Even though she was grateful for Shino's help for some odd reason she felt a twinge of disappointment. As Shino walked towards her she thanked him. "Arigatou Shino-san. Can you help me get this seal off please." Shino looked at the note with the seal on it and released a few insects who got on the seal and started draining the seals chakra. This was done in a few seconds.

When they were through they returned to Shino. He told Hinata. "There is no danger in removing the note now." Shino waited while she did so and nodded his head when she thanked him again. "I apologize for not getting here sooner. We should find Kiba now and search for the real Jiraiya." Shino said.

Hinata thought about this and spoke up. "Why don't I search for him with my byakugan?" Before Shino could answer she saw the reasoning in this. "Oh, I see Kiba's sense of smell can cover more ground than my byakugan and we could find him faster with my eyes than we could find the real Jiraiya. Hmm." Hinata said more to herself than to Shino. Behind Shino's jacket he smiled a little bit. This was one of the reasons he liked Hinata. She saved him a lot of saliva. They moved on in the direction that Kiba had gone.

A few miles away sitting on top of a cliff was Jiraiya. He had been there watching all of team eight's struggles from this vintage point through his telescope. He took down a few notes as he saw fit and was forming a very accurate idea of the team. He was not let down, they were very solid. Shino caught his attention the most as far as being the most accomplished, but he saw a lot of potential in their group. He wondered how long it would take them to find him. He looked in another direction towards the riverbanks, but he was disappointed once again. The girls weren't coming out to play at all today. What bad luck he thought. He was bored.

Shino and Hinata had walked a good distance from their starting point when Hinata activated her byakugan. She scanned the landscape from left to right and almost as soon as she started scanning the landscape a surprise came into her field of vision. There was a swamp about a mile away from them. She had a gut feeling that's where Kiba was and motioned for Shino to follow her. She turned off her byakugan. She wanted to conserve chakra for when she had to search out Kiba in the swamp.

Kiba had felt rested and wondered what his next step should be. Now that he had gotten his thoughts under control he saw that he had messed up by letting his emotions get the best of him. He went over the events leading up to this and his thoughts stopped on Jiraiya's words to him before he disappeared. "You should have noticed this as soon as you turned into a wolf." Those had been his words. Kiba thought about what he had meant. He had been thinking about this when Akamaru started sneezing. Kiba looked at him and saw he had turned back into his animal form. Kiba chuckled. "Poor Akamaru something must have bothered your nose." That's when it hit him. That must have been what Jiraiya had been talking about. He quickly communicated this thought to Akamaru and changed into his animal form as well. As soon as he did that though he saw why Jiraiya said it would be harder for him. It was more difficult to travel from tree to tree because of his size and the ground was out of the question. He turned back into his human form and thought about his situation some more. He communicated all his ideas with Akamaru trusting his friends judgment.

Hinata and Shino had arrived at the edge of the swamp. Hinata turned on her byakugan and searched through the swamp. Kiba and Akamaru did not come into her field of view. She told this to Shino "I can't see them, we should move on further and check again." She was about to start walking when Shino put a hand on her shoulders to halt her.

"You didn't check the tree's. They may be in the branches, looking at the ground it is unlikely they are at ground level." Shino said. He had noticed the sogginess of the ground and knew it was dangerous ground he hoped Kiba was all right. Hinata did as Shino asked feeling a little bad that she had not thought of that. After a few minutes of scanning the trees she found them. Kiba was sitting crosslegged next to Akamaru, she saw Akamaru change back into his animal form. She told Shino all of this. "Hmm. I'll send my insect in after him tell me how to get to him guiding my insects." She nodded her head and searched for the easiest route to Kiba, all the while giving Shino the instructions which he relayed to his insects.

Kiba was still thinking of ideas when the insects reached him. He recognized them as Shino's insects. He asked Akamaru if he thought it was a trap. When Akamaru communicated to him he didn't think it was a trap Kiba pumped a fist in the air. "All right! Let's go Akamaru it's time for team eight to find that old man." Akamaru turned into his human form with Kiba's help and together they followed the insects to Shino and Hinata.

Once they were together again Shino explained their plan. Kiba was to use his nose to track down Jiraiya and Hinata was to use her byakugan at certain intervals to scan their path for traps. Once they were set they set out to find Jiraiya.

Out on the cliff Jiraiya had seen the whole exchange and saw them start coming towards him at what seemed to him a snail's pace. "I should have set the time limit at an hour so this boredom would end." He said with that he lay down to wait. Team eight would not get to him within the time limit he had set much less capture him. As he lay there he thought of the journey before them. It would be a long trek and they should not encounter any real danger, but the information he sought, you just never knew. After all he thought. They would be dealing with one of the seven swordsmen of the mist.

PREVIEW

Has Naruto made it to the sand yet? Will I put in something that will make you want to read even more. Foreshadowing. What will happen with team 8 and their mission and will Kankarou survive? You gotta wait to find out. Because the next chapter isn't written yet. Muahhahahahahaha! Oy, I'm sorry if I teased to hard. (or am I?)

RSO

Since I posted ch's back to back there are no reviews for me to respond to. However I would like to take this time and tell everybody who's reviewed my story so far thank you.

If you are writing a story yourself let me know I like to read as well. Hmm, I don't really know what else to say. Oh ok, a while back I asked if any of you had pairing you would like to see. Well, nobody responded so after much thought these are other pairing which I am thinking of including. Tenten/Neji Saku/Rock and Shino/Ino. Well, I guess that's all for now. If you have any thoughts on these pairings speak now or forever hold your umm peace I think or is it silence. Well you all know what I mean. Till next time.

PLS Review!