Disclaimer: A fear of lawyers is not a phobia; it's not irrational in any way, shape, or form.
"This isn't good; it's been hours." Iruka said, his lips drawn together in a thin and serious line.
"We have to be patient." Sakura urged gently, knowing full well that the sunset had already come and gone. The last of the fishermen had retired a while back, and had managed to return home despite the hell a paranoid Iruka gave them. The brown-haired chuunin had seemed sure that any number of them could have been their quarry. Ah, yes… Iruka.
If Sakura had thought the man had looked ragged and exhausted before, she would have gladly settled for that appearance if it would have saved her from the wild-eyed man Iruka and become in the past few hours. His hair was falling out of the ponytail he sported, and she could swear the ridges of the teacher's headband were darker than usual, signifying increased perspiration. Every now and then, Iruka would stop his mad scanning of the area to look at her with the hope of her having found something. She could only shrug when that time came, and the evening became increasingly more stressful.
The pink-haired kunoichi was beginning to regret her choice of direction. If Sasuke had been in her place, he probably could have handled constantly destroying the Umino's hope. After all, he had never had any problem obliterating hers.
Things were silent again, and the female genin could hear the sound of the waves knocking the moored boats against the dock in a soothing rhythm that was to be lost on Iruka's ears. To him, it only sounded like the ticking of a clock.
Naruto tore through the trees with as little thought or sound as possible. He had waited what he felt was a good half an hour before moving in the presence of his now-snoozing captors with a mixture of trepidation and absolute relief. They hadn't stirred, so the Uzumaki prepared to take his leave(a fairly easy task in that he owned very little). During these preparations, however, his cobalt blue eyes fell upon the uneaten berries. They were a beautiful crimson.
An impulse rose, and he tried to knock it into submission, to be honest, but he just couldn't erase his nature. Zabuza's face was so vulnerable in his drugged stupor, hairless brows stirring emotions of reproach when the Kyuubi's container so much as set eyes on them. For all the frustration and tears, Naruto couldn't deny that he owed the man something, and it wasn't a good something.
Naruto Uzumaki recounted every futile attempt at escape he had made, from the first to the last. The thought process didn't take long, but the personal vendetta hotline within his brain was at once bust on all lines.
One bad turn deserved another, right? Not really, he argued to himself, trying to stop himself from wasting any more time than he already had. Konoha, his beautiful Konoha, was without him. What would stopping to have the first true spot of fun he'd had in ages accomplish him? It's not like it would make him feel better… or would it?
Zabuza snorted, and the irritation bottled up within the Fourth Hokage's son pushed past his rationality. The bastard deserved what he was about to get a hundred times over. The Momochi would be forced to endure the prodigal genin's wrath before the departure of the youth he had kept under proverbial lock and key.
The revenge-inspired process didn't take very long. Berries were easily crushed into a paint-like substance, and were even more easily applied to the face of someone in a deep chemical-induced slumber. The paste showed up quite well on someone who was stupid enough to sleep with white gauze on, anyway.
Naruto let a rare giggle out as he sketched out a pair of kissing lips on the so-called 'demon's' mask, and went on to give the man rosy cheeks, a beauty mark, and two very well-defined eyebrows before finally ditching the rogue shinobi's campsite for good.
Through the next few hours that passed, Naruto made great progress through the forest in what he had made an educated guess was the direction of Inari's village. If he could find the village, he could find a postal service and roads. As a precautionary measure, Naruto had sent three bunshins out as decoys, which wound around the forest in an impossible spiraling pattern. In the meantime, the true Naruto barreled into the northwest by the guidance of the stars until misfortune inevitably struck again.
Jiraiya's face perked up from a toad's back as he sensed chakra activity. It was faint and distant, but the sannin was almost sure it had happened. He tried to reach out and pinpoint the source, but the chakra echo proved too weak.
"Keep your senses peeled, eh?" the summon toad he was situated on laughed heartily. Jiraiya hummed in assent. If what they both felt wasn't just a trick of imagination, they might beat the progress of the other two groups by a landslide.
Clouds covered the sky as night progressed, and the blonde ninja cursed. He had hoped that wouldn't happen, and there really was no way he could have made a back-up plan for such a variable. Zabuza himself hadn't possessed a compass, and Naruto hadn't dared ask the secret behind the man's innate sense of direction. If that request didn't scream 'escape attempt', he didn't know what would.
Rain began to fall from the sky over the forest and parts of the northern shoreline, and Naruto growled at it under his breath. He needed a drink of water, and he had briefly thought about needing a shower, but this was ridiculous. What would it take for things to actually work for him, even once?
The drug he had administered to Haku and his dolled-up master would only keep them out for a good seven hours or so, and he had banked on being able to escape by then. If they woke up… Naruto would probably never have another nonviolent means of escape in their lifetimes. The Uzumaki had come too far to give up so easily. He had to run, even if he didn't know where he was going anymore.
Kakashi waited in a fishing boat under the guise of a man working overtime. Sasuke, in turn, had been forced to play the part of his son. The two floated ever-so-slightly out into the harbor and dropped their nets, and judging by the way the boat teetered informed the two that they had actually caught something. Not wanting the boat to capsize, the duo of ninja took turns releasing the fish that had managed to entwine themselves in the nets. This practice went on long into the night, it seemed, while Kakashi's visible eyes kept itself on the horizon.
Time stretched on, and a rain-soaked Sasuke Uchiha dozed off in their small vessel. The jounin didn't bother to wake him, and eventually the Hatake couldn't help but fear that his guess of Naruto's position had been wrong. If he had been incorrect, then their chances of finding the genin were little to none. If it hadn't been for the rain, Kakashi would have sent Pakkun out on a wild goose chase. They couldn't allow the kid to slip out from under their noses when they could have been so close!
In one of the few hours before dawn broke, Zabuza Momochi stirred with one hell of a headache. His eyes throbbed, but the man didn't need more then four seconds to become completely coherent. It was a rare gift to wake up so qickly, but it was how the mist ninja was built.
The upper area of Zabuza's face itched terribly, but he ignored it in face of the current situation. Fury emanated from the wanted criminal as he discovered his missing captive.
"That brat!" he would have bellowed if he could have, but in the interest of caution, he just hissed. Naruto had left four separate trails for him to follow, but Zabuza's ANBU instincts picked one and guided him down it. He wasn't about to let a potential bijuu get away.
Author's note: Another short chapter, but it covered a lot of ground plotwise. I could have dragged this out, guys, but I let some of the quality bleed out in exchange for brevity. You will have your chapter this day.
By the way, my sister is feeling a little better, and my brother is begging me to take him to the public pool. Well, one of them. I have nine siblings, so getting enough time to write this bugger is sometimes a trick, because it is very demanding. ...Proofreaders? DocX does nothing you can't do with your own browser. o.o