Author's Note: Bah. I miss high school. Well, let me rephrase that: I miss all the breaks and snow days from high school.
The weather here is terrible. Some of the walkways aren't even plowed, so I had to tread through snow just to make it to class. :'(
Meh, oh well. On the plus side, I know how to write my name in katakana. ハイリー :D
Thank you to Echo Uchiha, Evalyd Yamazaki, Angel42497, and MikaUchiha666 for the reviews! You guys rock! :)
Enjoy this chapter, and review? *puppy dog eyes*

Fifteen: Hope

We continued down the streets of the rundown city as I explained to Sakura what Ichiro had told me during my interrogation. Her face scrunched in confusion at the man's last words, "He always seemed to appear out of nowhere and disappear just as fast." I told her not to worry too much about the enigmatic statement, and to instead focus on questioning more people about the mysterious man that Ichiro had described. Perhaps then, with more information, we would be able to figure out exactly what his statement could have meant.

We wandered throughout the town for about an hour, asking random passers-by, storeowners, and beggars if they had seen a short man dressed in a black cloak with long black hair. The people often replied that they hadn't seen the man at all, but some recall feeling some sort of eerie sensation—like a ghost or some sort of hidden presence—on the day that he was supposedly in town. Whether or not those feelings were directly related to the man's attendance, I didn't quite know, and that, to me, was incredibly frustrating.

I wanted—no, I needed—better answers.

Since the smoke-filled air was so hot and dry, Sakura and I decided to stop for a quick drink at a small drink stand. We each ordered a tall glass of iced tea, taking our seats at the counter as we did so. "It seems like no one in this town has seen the man other than the twins who attacked your squad," Sakura said while clicking her nails against the countertop.

"I know," I agreed, furrowing my eyebrows, "It doesn't make any sense. Realistically, someone else should have seen him, at least for a second."

"Could he have been using some sort of camouflage jutsu to hide his appearance from everyone?" Sakura suggested.

I thought about it for a moment. A camouflage jutsu certainly would explain the reason that nobody has seen the man, but it just didn't quite fit. "If he was," I explained, "then the twins wouldn't have been able to see him either. Since Ichiro described his appearance, he's obviously seen him."

Sakura pursed her lips. "Unless he lied about it."

"I don't think he was lying," I said to her, "I mean, he recalled the details of his appearance without faltering for even a second. If he had been lying, he probably would have had to stop and think about what to say."

"That's true," the pink-haired girl agreed, "I just can't think of any other explanations."

"Don't worry," I sighed, "I can't either."

The man behind the counter handed us our drinks, each with a lemon wedge and a curly straw, and Sakura and I immediately thanked him. I grasped the lemon and squeezed the sour juice into my tea before swirling the straw around to mix the flavors together. When I finally took a drink, I sighed as the cool liquid soothed my dry throat. Without even releasing the straw from my lips, I breathed, "Delicious."

Sakura nodded while continuing to drain her own glass.

We had each finished off our tea in less than a minute. I offered to pay for Sakura's drink, so I rummaged through one of my holsters for some money. Pulling 200 Ryo from the bag, I handed it to the man and thanked him again before twirling around in my seat. "Alright," I sighed, "time to continue searching for the short, black-haired guy wearing a long cloak."

"Don't you mean, 'time to continue questioning people about the short, black-haired guy wearing a long cloak?'" Sakura corrected.

"Yeah, yeah," I said with a wave of my hand, "You know what I meant."

"Excuse me," I heard a soft voice say from another direction. Turning my head to the voice's source, I came across a young woman with long brown hair that was knotted and tangled from not having been washed. Golden orbs peeked out from underneath her bangs, and her long, loose-fitting dress was ripped and covered in dirt. Her bare feet were angled inwards, her thin arms were held tightly against her chest, and she fidgeted nervously with her fingers. She was obviously very shy, so she must have had something important on her mind if she was speaking up to us.

"Yes?" I inquired, urging the woman to continue with whatever it was that she wanted to say.

She cleared her throat anxiously before speaking. "I… I couldn't help but overhear that you're searching for someone."

My ears perked up at what she said. Had we finally found someone who had actually seen the strange man that Ichiro described to me? It almost seemed too good to be true. "That's right," I nodded, "Have you seen him?"

"Yes," she responded, "I believe I have."

A relieved smile spread across my face. "Great," I commented, "Could you tell us a little bit about your encounter with him?"

"It was quite strange, actually," she answered quietly, averting her eyes to the dirt, "I was looking for my younger brother—he had run off after getting into an argument with our father—and as I was walking, I saw a flicker of movement in the distance. I turned to look at it, but saw nothing. At first I thought I was just imagining it, but later, after I had found my brother and we were returning home, I saw it once more. I looked for it again, but there was still nothing there. This confused me, so I walked backwards a few paces to test whether or not I had actually seen anything. Again, I saw a dark flicker, but this time it lasted long enough for me to see that it was a man. He looked like the man you had just described. He was short, he wore a long black coat, and he had really long, black hair. I couldn't see his face, but I could tell that he was talking to two other men, who could obviously tell that he was there."

Ichiro's last words replayed in my mind. "He always seemed to appear out of nowhere and disappear just as fast."

"It's almost like," the girl paused for a moment to come up with the words she wanted to say, "Like I had to be standing in just the right place to see him."

"How strange," Sakura muttered under her breath.

"And you're absolutely sure you saw him?" I asked her, "You're sure that you weren't just seeing things?"

"I'm positive," The woman assured me. "My brother saw him as well. If you'd like, I can find him so he can tell you himself."

"That won't be necessary," I told her, "We believe you. Now, besides the immediate phenomenon regarding his appearance, did you notice anything particularly strange about him?"

The woman thought for a moment, lowering her gaze to the ground and lifting her hands upward to cover her mouth as she did so. She subconsciously tapped her finger against her chin as she sifted through her memories of that day. I desperately hoped that, when she finally spoke, she would say something useful to our investigation. "I don't know if this is necessarily relevant," she began, "but I noticed that there were at least three other men watching him at all times from different areas of the village. They maintained their distances, but I could tell that they were with him by the way that they were constantly checking up on him out of the corners of their eyes."

"What did these men look like?" I immediately asked her.

"They were all tall and muscular. They each wore ripped and dirty clothing like the rest of the villagers here, but each of them had a tiny silver radio plugged into their ears. That's how I could tell that they were different."

"Excellent," I beamed, "The information you've provided will certainly come in handy as we continue to investigate. Thank you."

The woman smiled gently, her golden eyes sparkling even in this dusky town. "I'm glad I could help."

"You're really perceptive," Sakura pointed out to her, "I'm really impressed."

Sakura's remark caused the woman's expression to liven. "Thank you," she said shyly, her cheeks burning a light pinkish color, "My friends would say the same thing when we played 'Ninja' as children. In fact, my dream as a child was to move to Konoha and become a real shinobi."

"Why didn't you?" Sakura wondered.

The woman sighed, lifting her head to gaze at the sky. "My family has always been very poor. We just didn't have the money to move, especially not to a large village like Konoha," she turned back to us, and gracing her features was a smile that was not forced, but genuine, "It's ok, though. I still train on my own every day, and I help the people in this village whenever I can. Someday, though, I know that I will make my dream a reality. Someday I will become a Ninja, and then I'll be able to support my family and help people all over the world. I will never give up."

I couldn't help but smile at her. Her determination was inspiring, and, though I had only just met her, I knew in my heart that she would certainly overcome all of life's obstacles and achieve her goals. It was the way that her expression glowed amidst the darkness; the way hope sparkled in her eyes despite her past. Her presence in this depressing town was refreshing, to say the very least.

"Anyway," the woman sighed, "I'll let you continue your investigation now. I should be getting home anyway."

With a wave of her hand, she turned on her heel to start in the opposite direction. "Wait," I called to her."

She turned back to face me. "Yes?"

"What's your name?"

The same genuine, innocent smile tugged at the corners of her lips. "My name is Mai," she answered, "Mai Murakami."

I watched her walk off into the distance until she had disappeared into the crowd of villagers swarming the streets. Mai Murakami. I would remember that name.

"So," Sakura sighed, forcing me back to reality, "should we continue our search?"

I looked toward the sky, noting the sun's position was lower in the grey sky. "Actually, it's probably time we headed back to the village gate to meet Naruto and Kakashi. We've gathered a lot of information."

Nodding in agreement, Sakura followed me back down the streets we had previously traveled. The smoke dissipated as we approached the exit, and it was a pleasant feeling; I felt like I had forgotten what it was like to breathe clean air, and I found myself inhaling it like a drug into my lungs, which had craved the uncontaminated oxygen. After relaxing for a few minutes, Naruto and Kakashi could be seen approaching from a distance. Squinting my eyes to see through the grey clouds that surrounded them, I thought I saw Kakashi carrying someone over his shoulder. "Look what I found," Kakashi announced.

"Hey!" Naruto shouted, "I helped!"

When they had stepped out of the smoke clouds, I recognized the man slung over Kakashi's shoulders to be Jiro, Ichiro's twin brother. The fact that his arms and legs dangled lifelessly suggested that he had been knocked out. "So, you found one too, huh," I smiled to Kakashi.

"Yeah, I thought we could take him to the interrogation unit back in Konoha," Kakashi suggested.

I narrowed my eyes. Taking the twins to the interrogation unit was a good idea. Damned Kakashi was always smarter than me, and it never failed to make me jealous.

"Hey, Kaeda Sensei," Naruto called out, "Didn't you just say you found the other twin? Well, where is he?"

And damned Naruto was always one to call me out on my mistakes. It never failed to make me want to strangle him.

"I, uh… left him in the village," I responded, averting my eyes away from theirs.

"What?" Naruto yelled, "Why'd you do that? You could have taken him captive!"

"Naruto!" Sakura hollered at the blonde, grabbing him by the collar of his jacket, "Kaeda Sensei's not stupid! She interrogated him first, and she got a lot of information out of him! Sheesh!"

"Well, I didn't know that!" Naruto defended, shielding himself from Sakura's wrath.

"Alright you two," Kakashi groaned, interrupting their quarrel. He then turned to me, "Kae, it's good that you got some information out of one of the twins. That way, we at least have some immediate information that we can relay to the Hokage when we return to the village. So don't worry about leaving him in the village." I could tell that he was smiling under that mask of his, and I couldn't help but return the gesture.

"Should we head back to Konoha, then?" I asked.

"It's only been two days," Kakashi replied, "but yes, I think we should. That way, we can get Jiro here to the interrogation unit as quickly as possible. It will take until sundown to get back to the village, so, in that time, you can tell me all the information you've gathered so we can begin analyzing it."

I nodded in agreement.

"Well then, what're we waiting for," Naruto grinned, "Let's get going!"

With that said, we leapt into the treetops to begin our travels.