Unfortunately that was not to be since his return to the village Kakashi Hatake, infamous Copy Nin of the village known in the leaf- had found Uzu's apartment void of life, but also gone from existence. The place had been burned down to nothing but smoldering cinders not too long ago.

And though he had fearfully searched for any signs or clues as to Uzu's whereabouts, he had found nothing. And when he had gone to seek the landlord of the apartment where the child was supposed to be, he had only been met with hatred upon mentioning the little girl's very name.

What on earth had happened while I was away? He wondered as he had left the landlord's home feeling angry and somewhat disheartened- yet at the same time determined now more than ever to find his sensei's daughter before something more terrible than what he imagined had already, could befall her.

Summoning his ninja pups, he demanded that they sniff out the only person he knew of to date that had never lied to him and sent them scattering while he took a moment to sit down and try and rest while he could since his chakra was beginning to run dangerously low.

He surmised that he had only been sitting down for several minutes, barely five, when his sharp ears heard the distinct sound of one of his pups, Biscuit, howling in the direction of training ground five. Quickly getting to his feet, Kakashi bounded off in the direction of the howl as fast as he could knowing that Gai would be able to tell him everything that he wanted to know.

And if he refused...well, he'd probably be spending a few months in traction in the hospital like the last time he'd truly pissed the silver haired man off.

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Gai had been monitoring the training of his latest batch of genin. Fresh from the academy, when he both sensed and heard Kakashi's pup just before it howled to let it's human know where he was. Thus informing the overly excited/slightly off guard jounin of Kakashi's impending arrival.

Clapping his hands to gain the attention of his genin, Gai waited until each of them stopped what they were doing completely and turned to face him before trying to send them away with a slightly weird expression that was just a bit hard to place on the normally overly chipper man's face. "Okay, good job today team. I just remembered that I have to take care of something. So you three should call it an early day-" He said, wanting the kids gone before Kakashi made his appearance since he already had a pretty good idea of what the man wanted.

He knew that his rival had been out of the village on an extended mission for the past few months and likely knew nothing of what had occurred. So it was safe to assume that his way of questioning Gai would be more than a little bit violent. And as such, he didn't want his genin to see his friend possibly beat the ever loving hell out of him before he calmed down.

Especially since he may very well blame Gai for not helping Uzu in his place as usual.

But it wasn't like Gai hadn't tried.

Ever since the incident that had been caused by Uzu, and her imprisonment- Gai had gone before the council a multitude of times and pleaded with them to let the child go. He would keep her out of trouble. However, every time he had gone before them, he had been turned away with the words, "No. The girl is being taken care of. There is no need for interference."

Those words had filled him with a certain amount of dread each time he heard them. And only caused him to worry more about the child's health. After all, he knew how the people on the council treated others that they deemed threats.

And as young as Uzu was, he knew that they most assuredly believed her to be a threat of great magnitude. So he had changed tactics and begged to be allowed to see her and make sure that she was alright with his own eyes.

They had allowed him into the Anbu prison- but it hadn't been to see Uzu.

Whoever he had seen that day, had used a transformation jutsu to pretend to be her. But he had known eve without saying anything as he left, that this was the only time he would be allowed anywhere close to where she was being held.

And whatever was being done to her was likely damaging in every way.

The kids all exchanged a look with each other and then looked at him as if they were going to argue. Hell they probably would have argued- after all, they had only been training for the past two in a half hours and while it was getting fairly late into the day- the sun hadn't quite set yet.

Besides, how could their sensei expect them to just call it a day so early? Each of them had their own reasons for wanting to remain and continue training.

Strength.

Practice.

To avoid one's parents even more now that one was a genin on an actual team...

Still, Gai couldn't allow them to stay. Not when he felt Kakashi's chakra from several feet away. The man had hidden himself well among the multitude of towering trees and was currently letting his chakra subtly fluctuate so that Gai would get the led out and send his brats away before they wound up hurt too.

Understanding all too well what message his friend was trying to send him, he shut the kids down and growled out, "That wasn't a request. It was an order- now leave!" Causing his genin to all look at him as if they were puppies that he'd just kicked.

God he felt as if he had just kicked a bunch of puppies. He felt as if he had just drop kicked the hell out of them.

But it would appear as if his message had been heard and was understood loud and clear, the kids all collected their things and left. Leaving him alone with the upset Hatake for a good ten minutes or so just to be sure that they were gone, before Kakashi finally came out of his hiding place looking as if he wished to rip Gai's head off and then some.

Ditching his pack next to the tree he'd been hiding behind, Kakashi dropped it unceremoniously onto the ground mere seconds before going after Gai and grabbing the man by the neck and slamming him into the nearest hard surface and snarling out, "What. Happened. To. Uzu?"

Gai grunted in pain from the impact his body made as Kakashi snarled in his face like a rabid wolf. Sending slivers of fear down his spine as he took a moment to collect himself before opening his mouth to tell Kakashi of everything that he'd missed knowing that once he was done he would likely have to stop the man from murdering everyone involved in Uzu's imprisonment and treatment.