By the time Hiroki had reached Mt. Mikoto, he found that Itachi was already there waiting for him. Alongside the Uchila were Kisame, Deidara, and Sasori.
"Hidan and Kakuzu died a few days ago. Tobi killed them."
"Ahh. I wondered why they weren't with you." Itachi sighed and turned around in a full circle.
"Where is this village? I don't see it."
"That's because you're not looking hard enough." Hiroki leapt to the ground from the tree that he had been standing on and turned to face the mountain. "It's in a valley in between the two highest peaks. We'll have to move quickly if we want to make it before the snows come." Silently the rest of the group nodded.
"We can take my bird, un."
"How many can it hold?"
"Two at most, but I can make two."
"Two's fine."
"What about you, ANBU-sa*grk* Deidara was cut off by a hand wrapping its way around his slender throat.
"Do NOT call me that!" Hiroki turned away from the group. "Follow me." The summon symbol surrounded the man, and a great beast appeared. Deidara tilted his head, suddenly curious, but not willing to risk his throat again. Finally Kisame spoke up.
"What the hell is that?"
"It's a Griffin." The creature in question was an interesting beast, and Deidara crept a little closer to see what it was made of. With a body, tail, and back legs of a lion; the head and wings of an eagle; and an eagle's talons as its front feet, the being had quite a regal appearance. But what really unnerved the others was the beady glare that they were currently on the receiving end of. Shivering slightly, Deidara took several steps away before fishing two chunks of clay out of his pocket. Compressing them in his palms, Hiroki watched as two birds crawled over to the edge of his hands before jumping off. They enlarged as they fell, and when their talons finally touched the ground, both of them were big enough for the two couples. Kisame leapt on the back of the first one before pulling Itachi up in front of him while Sasori and Deidara took the other one. Hiroki easily landed on the back of the Griffin and all three bird like creatures took to the sky, Hiroki on constant lookout for the hidden village.
And not a moment too soon, for as soon as they had left the ground, several ANBU from Kohona burst through the greenery to land in the clearing. Hound and Rat cursed, watching as the winged beasts vanished in the distance. They'd been a little too slow.
"Damn. Where do ya think that they went?"
"Over the mountains, you god dammed idiot." Bee snarled at his lover, watching with amusement as Rat recoiled.
"Think we'll catch them?"
"Most likely not." All eyes snapped to Hound. "Those things that they were riding on are fast. I highly doubt that we'll even have a hope of touching those things within the next two weeks. Damn. We should have moved faster." The other ANBU in the group nodded.
Bee spoke up again, "Who was in the group?"
"It looked like Hiroki was there. And the red head had to be Sasori..."
"I saw Deidara and Kisame."
Feline spoke for the first time since the mission had started. "Itachi was there too..."
"So we have Itachi, Kisame, Sasori, Deidara, and Hiroki. That makes five. Is that it?"
"I think so..."
"Bee, Rat, Feline. Go to the left, try to follow their trail. Kitsune, Lupine, and I will take the right path. Stay away from them, but do try to scent out where they are. Move out."
"Yes sir!" The three men raced down the left path, jumping from rock to rock as they moved quickly and quietly across craggy ground. Kakashi turned his gaze to Kitsune and Lupine standing beside him. He was tired of this, but also slightly alarmed. Why was Hiroki suddenly disappearing? It didn't make sense.
"Hound-sama?" He grunted in response. "I was reading some scrolls the other day and I came across something that you might be interested in."
"And what would that be?"
"保護者の隠された村"
"And that is?"
"It's better known as the Village of the Guardians."
"But that village doesn't exist."
"It actually does. But only those who are looking for it, and know where to look for it, can find it. They might be heading for it."
"And how do you know this information?"
"I told you, I found it in a scroll. Apparently it was Iruka's father who discovered the village."
"Really?"
"Yeah, it doesn't say where though." Kakashi pursed his lips, gently biting on the bottom one before turning towards the path that led to the right.
"We should get moving. Do try to keep up with me."
"Yes sir." Kitsune smirked under his mask; at least Kakashi believed that it was a smirk.
"Lupine?"
"Hai?"
"Keep reading those scrolls and tell me if you find anything else. Anything that might lead us to this village."
"Well, there was one thing, but it's impossible to do anything about it."
Kakashi whirled around to face the brown haired ANBU. "What? Why?"
"We'd need Iruka-sensei first." Hound visibly deflated, a long sigh escaping his lips as he thought about the former teacher. He knew that he shouldn't have egged the teacher on, but he had never expected that the man would just up and disappear like that. Now he was stuck with several jobs. Catching Hiroki, finding Iruka, apologizing to the man, then confessing to him. Hound sighed again, this was going to be a long week, and he just knew it. Narrowing his eyes in concentration, he landed silently on the first rock, only checking behind him to make sure that the other two were following him. They were, and he didn't look back again, he was too wrapped up in his thoughts to care.
When the birds landed on the ground, there wasn't anything there. Deidara jumped off first and carefully poked around.
"Where do we go now?" Hiroki just laughed. It was a dark laugh, filled with too many emotions to name.
"It's on the other side of this peak."
"Can't we fly there?"
"No. The birds won't make it. There's a perpetual blizzard on top of the mountain, definitely not anything that these animals can handle. We have to walk. Don't leave any footprints behind." And with that, the former ANBU member from the Leaf took off, leaping silently from one rock to the next. Itachi frowned, glanced at the others, and then followed. He really didn't like being left behind like this, but there really wasn't anything that he could do about it. After all, Hiroki was the only one who knew where the village was. The frown deepened. What could have happened that had been bad enough to drive Hiroki away from his village? He remembered that the man loved his village, and would die protecting it, so why had he left? Actually, Itachi had a pretty decent idea, Kakashi. That damn Jounin didn't know when to shut up. He might have had quite a bit to do with Hiroki leaving Kohona. Just ahead of him, the man had stopped and Itachi gratefully sank down onto a rock.
"Is something wrong?"
"...No. We need to hurry if we're to get over the peak before the main storm hits the mountains. Plus those damned ANBU from Kohona aren't giving up." He grumbled under his breath, just what he needed, Jounins chasing them down. "If we're fast enough, we can leave them trapped on this side of the mountain, therefore forcing them to retreat." Itachi stood up slowly, grabbing Kisame's shoulder to keep from falling. He hadn't been feeling well lately, but had no clue as to why. Hiroki glanced his way, Sharingans whirling away under the mask, before a choked noise escaped from his lips. "Kisame, will you carry Itachi?"
"Sure." And with those words, the Shark-man scooped Itachi up, carrying him bridal style, but not so much against his will. In fact, it was welcomed, and Itachi quickly dozed off, his head pressed gently against Kisame's shoulder. Nodding quickly, Hiroki turned and jumped, easily clearing a large rift in the ground.
"We need to hurry. The storm is getting stronger and we're almost to the top." Taking a few steps back, Kisame raced forward, easily clearing the rift, even though he had extra weight, Deidara and Sasori were right behind him. Hiroki hadn't even bothered to look back; he was moving at an even pace, leaping swiftly and silently, but there was a charted course in his moves. Deidara swiftly realized what it was; he was making sure that they took the swiftest, easiest path possible.
"Damn..." Sasori shivered, it was getting cold, and quite quickly too. It seemed that Hiroki hadn't been exaggerating when he said that there was a perpetual blizzard up here. It was freezing, and it seemed as if the temperature was dropping fast. In Kisame's arms, Itachi shivered, burying his face into the warmth. In front of them, Hiroki's voice could be heard through the winds.
"Keep moving! We're over the top now." And they were. It was quite obvious when they had cleared the top of the mountain, the winds had died down slightly, and as soon as they were far enough away from the blizzard, Hiroki pointed out the village.
"Wow..." Deidara was shocked. The village actually existed.
"The Village of the Guardians is a village for S class missing-nin, and generally anyone who is no longer part of a village. It's basically a safe haven for everything and anyone." Hiroki said. The others glanced at him before racing down the mountain, their energy renewed with the endpoint in sight. Hiroki smiled under his mask. He hadn't been here in so long, not since he had been born here.
Kakashi skidded to a stop. The storm was too violent for them to continue, so there wasn't any choice except for them to retreat back to the village. To go back, lick their wounds, and return when the damned storm was gone. Although, they didn't know when it would be gone. Lupine hadn't found that information in the scrolls yet, but maybe he would. Hound certainly hoped so, he desperately wanted to catch that damned bastard. He growled. How did Hiroki think he was? Some sort of hero? "Tch." Asshole.
Alright, I know you guys were looking forward to this chapter, but I have some bad news. I have my Keystones and Finals coming up, not to mention my brother's concert and my grandparents visiting, so you might not get a chapter next week. If you don't I promise that the chapter for the week after it will be 2000 words or more. Really. In fact, I'll make this promise now. Any week that I miss, the chapter after it will be a thousand words longer than usual. So if I miss two weeks, the next chapter will be three thousand words long. Sounds good? I hope it's up to your standards!