Watch out. The website didn't register the last chapter(chapter1) as an update. So if you missed it, go back to the previous chapter.
"Where's that idiot?!" Ino practically screamed out.
"D-D-Don't worry about it, he's probably already on his way." Hinata stammered out.
Somewhere in Konoha. "Where the Ramen, is my special ramen scroll?!"
Back at the gate. "Just have a little bit more fate in him." Yamato tried to convince her.
At his apartment. "Where is it?!"
With the rest of his team. "I'm used with Shikamaru's laziness but not his tardiness."
"Don't pull me into this, besides maybe his sensei rubbed off on him."
Back with him. "Forget it, Ino would murder me if I'm even later."
Three minutes passed at the gate, when they finally saw a small version of the sun rising from the horizon.
"Hey there guys, sorry I'm late but I saw an old lady crossing the street so…"
"Said so." Shikamaru interrupted him. Suddenly Ino grabbed for her wallet and gave him a few green papers.
"You were betting on me!" Naruto whined out.
"Yes, and here." He tossed him over a scroll unscripted with a naruto-symbol on the paper. "You asked me to watch over it, so you wouldn't lose it in the mess of your apartment."
Naruto sweat dropped as he remembered the conversation of yesterday.
"D-d-don't worry about it, Naruto-kun. We're just happy that you are here now." Hinata blushed as she said that.
"Alright then," Yamato gathered them around him "now we are all here. It's time for us to go. It will be a two days trip, with one of them being hiking so be prepared."
Later that day, a loud scream was heard from a nice wooden house in the woods. "I'm sorry, it was an accident!"
"Ino, p-p-please stop. It was just an accident." Hinata said as she was clutching her towel before her chest.
"No it wasn't! That white haired sensei of him rubbed off on him just like the other one of him." Ino screamed back as she was chasing Naruto, while also covering her body with a towel.
"Ino, could you please calm down?" Shikamaru asked. "Yamato asked us to keep it down, while he's gathering some information in the nearest town."
Ino stood still and walked back towards Hinata. "Naruto don't even dare to do this again, or else. Am I clear?" She spat out dangerously.
"Y-y-yes, Ino. Loud and clear." Naruto quickly stammered out while he was cowering behind his friend.
After the girls left he finally let out his breath.
"Geesh, Naruto. What did you do this time?"
"I was walking out of he building towards the river in order to release my bladder, but when I was putting my pants down I spotted the girls washing them self up. I guess Ino saw me and thought that I tried to peak at them."
Shikamaru sighed and looked at him. "So do you still need to pee."
A soft blush was forming on his face as he nodded.
"Troublesome, you really are a hand full aren't you? Just pee out of the window, not that anyone will notice."
The next day when they were walking up the mountain, it was surprisingly quiet.
"Tell me guys, did something happen?" Their captain asked.
His question was answered with silence as Ino stared at Naruto.
"Forget it, I probably don't even want to know."
"Cap-cap-captain did you obtain some info when you were out?"
"Yes I did. I got some people to talk…"
"Ooooh, how did you that?" Naruto asked.
Yamato began to stutter as he tried to describe his actions.
"Naruto," Shikamaru began "maybe when you're older."
"Thank you." The brown head said, while Naruto was cursing them both.
"Where was I?" He paused as he thought about it "Alright then, so I gathered some information. Saying that there was a boy who witnessed it, so we already have a lead."
"Alright then, the sooner we are ready, the sooner I'm back in the village to greet my teammates." Naruto screamed out as he sprinted forward.
"Wait up!" Everyone screamed back.
And, oooh. How wrong and right he was about his statement.
When they finally reached the small village.The first thing they saw was an old man walking up towards them.
"Hello there younglings,, are you the shinobi we hired?" He asked.
"Yes, we are from Konoha. My names is Yamato, the captain of this mission. This here is Shikamaru, Ino, Hinata and Naruto."
"Thank you for coming. My name is Hisao, but you can call me Grand after all my name means long-lived man." He said with a laugh "It's an honor to be blessed with such fine man. My village welcomes you."
"No need to be so formal, Grand." Their captain said as he shook his hand.
"Alright then, let's go to the main house."
The team walked through the village as they followed the old man.
The village wasn't that big. It existed out of a square, called the Forum, that has two roads crossing like a +-sign. The west to east road held most of the houses, while the north to south road holder most of the shops. The main building was located directly in the northeastern corner of the Forum.
"Welcome in the main building, let's head up stairs to my office." Grand suggested.
Everyone walked up the stairs that led to his office. The office wasn't much that much different than from the Hokage's only a bit smaller.
"I take it that you know what happened."
"Yes, but only what stood in the scroll. We had like to know the rest of it." Yamato suggested.
"Excellent plan. Let's see... We have one casualty, an old woman. We don't know much about her because she lived on a small farm in the east from this village."
"Then how did you know about the incident?" Shikamaru asked.
"You see, there was a small boy on the farm about 7 or 8 years old, that boy arrived here in the village five days ago. He was covered in blood but was uninjured. We quickly discovered that he came from a small farm in the east, and that's pretty much it."
"The boy did he tell you guys something?"
"No, not really. He actually hasn't talked since he arrived that day but that's not all."
"What do you mean?" Everyone asked.
"He's also blind."
Later that day they were stationed in an Inn, called the Northwestern as it was located in the northwestern corner of the Forum.
"Alright guys let's plan the schedule of tomorrow. Please sit around the table." Yamato sat down at the head of the table.
"Let's see, we have a boy to visit and a farm to see. Does anyone have suggestion?" He began.
All gazes were focused on one single person, like they were trying to burn an hole into him. "Troublesome, but my suggestion is that Naruto and Ino will visit the boy while the rest of us seek out that farm."
"B-b-because Ino has her justsus and Na-Na-Naruto-kun easily makes friends."
"Correct, Hinata."
Their captain stood up as he handed them over two keys. "We were granted 3 rooms both with two beds. So the girls have one, the guys have one while I will be sleeping in this one. And don't forget, respect each other's privacy."
Ino suddenly started to glare at the Cause-of-yesterday's-problem.
"Am I clear?" Both Yamato and Ino said at the same time.
Unsurprisingly, the night was rather 'calm'.
After an awkwardly silence breakfast, they left for their own assignments.
"Hey Ino, where's he exactly?"
"Seriously Naruto, didn't you pay any bit of attention yesterday at the meeting?" She asked, getting silence as an answer she continued on "He's at the orphanage, somewhere about…here."
They stopped in front of a pretty big building and knocked on the door. Few seconds later the door opened revealing a man in the fifties. "Good morning, can we help you?"
"Yes we're the shinobi Grand hired, we came here to visit the boy."
"It's good that you could come, maybe you can help him?" He took a few steps back to let them enter before he closed the door again.
They walked up towards the second floor till they stood before a room. "He's for the moment staying here. Could you please help him? Or at least try to get him to eat more." He asked out of desperation.
"We will do the best that we can do. But please tell us who have been taking care of him till now." The only female asked.
"Because we aren't such a big village, my two sons are watching over him."
"I think I now the problem. Sir, Naruto could you please wait here for a moment, I'm going to try something." Getting an approving nod she entered the room.
The hallway was surprisingly silent as you would have expected many children to run around. "Sir, could you tell me where al the children are."
The man walked towards a window that looked out of the village, as his memories invaded him. "You know, after the war we've gotten many orphans from around the area. The orphanage was packed full by then. It wasn't much of a problem in the beginning, but after some time the population started to have more children than healthy young adults. So in order to sustain the economy, the children needed to go out and work…" He paused as he let out his breath. "I rather have them here playing and pranking like the children they are, but in times like this."
He stopped as Naruto put his hand on his shoulder. "You don't have to continue, I get it and I will try to help as much I can."
Seconds passed as the man spoke again "T-Thank you, not only for this but for the things that you will do to help us."
Together they stood there watching over the village as the time passed by.
"You guys can come in."
They both turned around ands saw that she was holding the door for them open. Walking in they saw that the boy was eating between his sobs.
"Was it tasty, Hideo?" She asked.
He put his plate down as he picked up a glass of water to flush the rest away. "Yes, it was. Thank you." He whispered out.
"How did you do that miss?" The man asked excitedly.
"You never know what a mother's love can do to a child. But right now he needs a friend to lean on." She looked at Naruto to give him his signal. The boy sat down besides him and began to talk to him as the rest walked out of the chamber.
Somewhere in the east.
"Is this the location?" Shikamaru asked. They were standing before a small house, that looked abandoned.
"If I'm correct the yes, this is the building we have been looking for." Their captain said. "Hinata could you take a look at it?
They opened the door and walked in but stopped immediately as they saw a blood soaked floor with a woman laying in the middle of it.
They took a moment of silence to pray for her. After that they walked into the room and started searching the house. "Hinata you will invest the body and Shikamaru will look through the house with me." Yamato commended.
Hinata kneeled down beside the body and prayed for her again, before she touched her.
The body felt cold as it was already pretty old. She tracked down the bloody tracks and found a knife wound in her neck. Subconsciously she activated her kekkei genkai as she looked at the body. 'No signs of any kind of jutsu damage. It was just an ordinary murder.'
She stopped looking at the body as she started to look around the body for any kind of hint leading to the murderer. 'Why are those spots darker than the rest of its surroundings?' she walked up towards it and observed it from up close. "I-i-it's wet." She whispered to herself. 'But it hasn't rained here for at least a month' she touched the spot with her finger and looked at her finger that became red. 'No way, it's… blood'
She looked outside the house and saw multiple of the same bloody footsteps leading away from the house.
"Hinata, are you done?" Her friend asked as he walked back into the room with Yamato, who was carrying a small box.
"What's that?" Hinata asked.
"I'm not sure but it's closed with a code-lock and I don't want to break the content, so I will be taking it to a smiths. There's another thing that's interesting about his box, it's protected by a seal that blocks chakra." Yamato answered.
Hinata looked disappointed as she was unable to look at it with her eyes.
"Have you guys found something?" Their captain asked.
"It's a bother, but I've found three inhabited rooms."
"I've found footsteps."
A few seconds passed as everyone tried to put the newly required information straight.
"B-b-but wait you said that three rooms were used, and if the boy and the woman are two of them."
Realization hit them like Tsunade's record attempt "Then where is the third occupant?"
Next time in The last laugh: Hideo's getting a flashback and some other stuff.
Next chapter: probably next week.
I know this one is pretty much a filler, but I can't just let them pop up out of nowhere.
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