Chapter 35: Seeking Any Sign

While Akaiko visited the smithy—and its blacksmith—quite often, it was obvious that this visit would be different.

She had been pretty nervous about it… because of course she was; that's the only appropriate response after a friend hunts you down to say something as vague as 'Axel has something to tell you, come to the shop tomorrow'. She had tried badgering Kushina for more details, but the kunoichi had just smirked and smugly refused to say anything more.

Naturally, Akaiko handled that very well.

And she definitely didn't agonize over what the heck he wanted to say to her all night. Nope, not at all.

But that doesn't matter now.

Because, as it turns out, Axel was missing.

"What?!"

She had been trying to dislodge the senbon she'd thrown at the intruder—Kushina had dodged it easily, thankfully, and it had instead stabbed in the window frame. But now… though the stun-traps at her window had been fully disarmed, Akaiko felt like she'd accidentally zapped herself.

Kushina, still perched on the sill, gave a somewhat helpless shrug. "That's what Minato told me, but he was out again real quick. No chance to talk, ya know?"

"But, I mean…" Akaiko decided that the senbon would just have to stay were it had lodged for now, shifting full attention to her friend. "He's missing?"

She nodded.

"But how— Why?"

"Again, don't know the details." Kushina leaned back out of the window to glance around, one foot on the sill and the other braced on the outside of the wall. "I'm gonna go pester the police, see if they know anything yet. Wanna come?"

"I'll meet you there, I'll go check out the shop first."

With a raised brow, she pointed out, "After you get dressed. Right?"

"Right."

Though, as a matter of fact, Akaiko had forgotten that she was still in her pajamas, which were decidedly not exactly mission-suitable clothing.

"Later then."

And then she vanished, leaving only a swirl of leaves.

Akaiko had never gotten ready so fast, changing clothes and jumping through the window in four seconds flat, plus an additional two seconds—new record—to reset the security on her apartment. Then she was off.

The rooftops passed in a blur, the route to Axel's smithy so familiar that she barely needed to think before she leapt.

Which was good, because she was pissed.

Kind of.

It was more concern and worried tension, but when she needed to get things done, she found that anger was a much more effective motivator than anxiety. So, while she wasn't mad at anyone in particular—not at Axel, and certainly not at Kushina—Akaiko was just mad at the situation as a whole.

Not that she really knew much about the situation in the first place.

She landed on the roof of the building she had used for her stake-out for all those months, directly across from the smithy, and she noted the quietly hurried activity going on inside. The police officers were still here, that much was obvious.

Minato was pacing out front, occasionally glancing to the door of the shop.

Dropping down beside him, Akaiko asked, "It's true, he's really—?"

He nodded. "Yeah, Dach noticed something was wrong when he came back. There are signs…" A pause, and a slight scowl. "Or, well, there were signs that someone else had been inside; a jutsu used to disguise smells and such, but the traces faded fast."

Akaiko followed his glance back to the smithy.

An officer ducked under the yellow tape barring the entrance and walked over to them. The distinctive red triangles on her cheeks marked her as an Inuzuka, and her beagle ninken was sniffing around the doorway.

"Yo, Minato-kun."

"Hello, Shuryō-chan," he greeted, trying for a smile and landing decently close despite the worry in his eyes. "Have you found anything?"

Inuzuka Shuryō grunted, and shook her head. "No, nothing yet. But something's got Nao's fur on end." She nodded back to her ninken partner, who was now checking around under the window. "And I don't like it. It smells too normal."

Minato frowned. "Dach said almost the same thing."

"Bet he would, he has a pretty keen nose." Pointing back toward the taped-off door, she added, "Can you come in again, Minato-kun? We got a few more questions for ya."

"Yes, of course."

"Good. Oh, and hey." She turned to Akaiko suddenly, brow raised. "You probably knew the guy, right?"

"Yes, Axel is—" She didn't get the chance to finish her sentence.

"Yeah, thought as much." Inuzuka-san charged on, nodding to herself. "Got a kinda similar smell to the kitchen in there. What we could still smell of it, anyway. Stick around so we can ask ya questions, too. Later."

And then she just turned to head back for the shop. Once again, Akaiko had no chance to say or argue anything—not that she would have, since she certainly wasn't planning on going anywhere. But still.

After giving Akaiko a somewhat apologetic shrug, Minato trailed after the officer.

It was so tempting to just follow them inside, bust in on the whole investigation. She may not be trained in tracking or detective work, but she had her own skills in noticing stuff others would rather keep hidden: she might spot something they missed, what if—

She shook herself. Getting in the way of the inspection now would only complicate matters, and slow the whole process down.

So Akaiko stayed where she was, though impatient, and waited.

Hanging around doing nothing grated at her, made her antsy. She may specialize in infiltration—which does involve a lot of sitting about—but that kind of keep-an-eye-out patience is entirely different to this listless just-wait-and-see.

"Hello, Akaiko-sensei."

Only one twerp ever bothered to be so polite with her, despite all her nagging. She was just friends with his teacher and sometimes offered the kid pointers—not exactly deserving of the whole '-sensei' business.

"Hey, Kakashi-kun."

He didn't take his eyes off the house as he walked over, staring at the yellow tape barring the entrance in particular. "What happened here? Is Axel—"

"We don't know," she replied, hating the words. "He's missing."

For a kid shinobi, Kakashi was generally tricky to read—at least in part because most of his expressions were covered by his mask—but now his eyes widened in what was definitely a mix of shock and realization. "Was he taken?"

"Maybe. Probably." She sighed, carding a hand through her hair in frustration. "Though why somebody would kidnap him, I don't know. Axel's just a civilian!"

"Not quite," he murmured, thoughtful.

"What?"

"Nothing." Kakashi paused, uneasily shifting from one foot to the other, before adding, "He had something important to tell to you and Kushina-san, and Sensei already knows. It could be important."

Akaiko narrowed her eyes. "What does Minato know?"

"I don't know the details," he said, shrugging. Funnily enough, the kid looked kind of surprised with himself—as if he hadn't expected to say that. "You'd have to ask Axel."

She looked back to the shop, watching the shinobi on the other side of the window. Minato was gesturing at the space in front of the register, no doubt reiterating the point of the fading ninjutsu to any new arrivals.

Beside her, Kakashi suddenly went very still.

Quietly, he asked, "Have the police found anything… strange?"

"Strange how?"

"Anything missing." He slipped a hand into his pocket, still scowling at something in the shop. "Or broken."

"Nothing's out of place, as far as I know," she grumbled, watching the police move to a different room. "Except Axel, of course. There had been traces of a jutsu being used, but… once those fade, it's hard to pick up a trail."

For example: all the other missing persons cases left unsolved over the past year. After the murder-kidnapping she and Dach had uncovered all those months ago, the police had revisited a number of previously closed disappearances. The streets could be dangerous, sure, but there were enough similarities between the cases that it bore closer investigation.

She didn't like it.

The village was supposed to be safe.

Not… this.

Kakashi, she noticed, had just turned to leave. "Where are you going?"

"Just to the training ground nearby," he answered, glancing one more time toward the window. "I have to go… check something."

She followed his line of sight, finding nothing much of note: just the vase and flowers by the shop register. Although, there was something a bit strange about—

But the thought skipped her mind before she could grasp it.

It was probably just the situation as a whole, everything just felt off.

The kid left, and she leaned back against the wall. Overhead, the sky was unforgivably blue and bright—not at all suitable to her mood.

Back to waiting.

After what felt like ages—maybe half an hour—Minato ducked back under the caution tape, giving a polite nod the the policeman showing him out. But then he turned around, and his expression darkened.

"What is it?" she asked, straightening. "Did they find something…?"

"No. Sorry, I just—" He scowled slightly. "As it turns out, I will not be participating in the investigation beyond my contributions as a witness." His tone was perfectly level and calm. From his expression, though, it should have been a growl.

"Seriously? But you're—"

"'Too close to the subject,' they said." Minato sighed. "This will be so much harder to do on our own."

Her expression sharpened with interest. "We're taking matters in to our own hands?"

"Of course we are— Axel's missing." With a huff, he turned to continue down the street. "I'm not just going to do nothing."

"You know more that I do about what's happened." She fell into step with him. "Where are we going to start?"

Minato shook his head, looking vaguely annoyed again. "Unfortunately, with giving our official statements to the police. We're heading to the station."

"This is gonna take all day, isn't it?"

It did.

Or at least, it took most of the rest of the day. They still had a few hours before sunset, but that wasn't much to work with. So they split up to try and cover more ground, running down leads that never seemed to end with anything helpful.

Minato, she knew, had holed up in the library looking for any information on what jutsu could have been used in the shop. Though at the time Kushina hadn't been officially informed of their unauthorized investigation, she, too, had been finding out whatever she could: mostly via nagging her friend, who just so happened to be married to the chief of police.

Very convenient, that.

As for herself, Akaiko had spent hours trying to cut the red tape tying up the records for the missing children cases: there were too many parallels not to take a closer look. Though all the paperwork was, of course, extremely frustrating. And very odd: she hadn't realized that the whole case had gone confidential, even beyond her access as an ANBU.

Strange.

After sunset, of course, all her attempts at form-filling-out and release-paper-signing had to be put on hold. Only emergencies kept office work going after dark.

In the end, she had to head home empty handed.

Not that she actually got to sleep—she was too wound up. Instead, Akaiko spent most of the night debating whether it would be worth it to just break in and steal—borrow—the documents she wanted.

The following day was shaping up to be just as productive.

Which is to say, not at all productive.

She had spent the morning going about asking people questions: anyone who knew Axel, which turned out to be quite a sizable portion of both the civilian and shinobi communities. It was actually sort of impressive.

Her attempts to get those old case records still hadn't progressed at all.

Now she was trying to help Minato go though all the books and scrolls he'd managed to get his hands on. Not that she was being much help.

So essentially, Akaiko was just sitting around, idling away the hours waiting for signatures to exchange hands or whatever other bureaucratic loop-de-loops were going on behind the scenes.

She felt useless.

She needed to do something.

"I'll go check Chotto," said Akaiko, abruptly standing.

"What?" Minato jerked up from the scrolls he had been reading through, surprised. "But he didn't—"

"I know!" Her hand slashed sharply through the air, cutting him off. "I know he didn't—!" Taking a deep breath, she finished, "Axel definitely didn't leave on his own. But if there's a chance, any at all… I have to check."

"…Alright." Minato looked very much like he'd follow her in a heartbeat, if he didn't have so much to still investigate here.

That was all she needed to hear. After a few minutes to double check that she had everything she'd need, Akaiko was off.

Beyond the village walls, she stuck to trees near the road and scanned the edges for any trace of her missing friend. There weren't very many people traveling, mainly small-time merchants heading to Konoha, but Akaiko stopped those few she spotted to ask questions.

No luck.

And no other sign of Axel, either.

Even moving as fast as she was—which wasn't as fast as she'd like, granted—it still took a few hours to reach Chotto. The road seemed to meander along an invisible boundary, veering well away from the direct route for no good reason. She'd never noticed that before, having typically done the shinobi thing and just cut straight though the forest.

It had been a while since she had last seen him, but she still knew Morimoto's thin civilian chakra signature well enough to track him down in a town this small. She kept an eye out as she moved, hoping to maybe catch a glimpse of familiar blond between the buildings.

But no such luck.

Akaiko knocked on the door, hard.

"Coming! How may I—" Morimoto had been distractedly dusting iron filings off of his apron, but he paused when he saw just who was on his doorstep. "Akaiko-san? What're you doing all the way out here?"

"Have you seen Axel?"

"What?"

"Have. You. Seen. Axel."

"No." He shook his head, brow now furrowed in concern. "No, I haven't seen him. Has something happened?"

Though she was not surprised, the confirmation settled in her heart like a lead weight. All of her drive was twisting back into directionless tension, as she realized the whole trip here had been a waste of time.

Still. Morimoto cared about Axel, too: he at least deserved a reply before she left. "He's gone missing."

The blacksmith took a step back, shocked, stumbling into one of his kitchen chairs and sitting down. "Missing? Since when? Why?"

Akaiko answered as best she could, as quickly as she could, though there really wasn't much solid information to share. All she could really say was that he had been gone for nearly two days, and that they weren't sure where to start looking for him.

It was frustrating, how little they really knew.

For a long minute, he sat in silence—just… processing the news. Then, voice quiet, he asked, "Could you… tell me when you learn more? If you find him, or—"

"We'll find him." She refused to accept anything less. "And if you'll tell me if he turns up here or something, we have a deal."

"Well, certainly." Morimoto paused, frowning slightly. "Though I'm not sure how exactly I can do that. I suppose I'll… write you a letter, or something."

Akaiko, already halfway out the door, paused. "Do you have a fishbowl?"

The civilian was thrown by the sudden change in subject, but he recovered quickly. "I don't think so, no."

She scowled. "We'll have to improvise. I assume you have a large pot, at least?"

"Well, yes—"

"Go get it."

"What? Why do you need—?"

"Please?"

He paused, then nodded. "Alright." He rifled through the kitchen cabinets for a moment, found a large cooking pot, and set it to fill up in the sink. "But really, why would you need this?"

Akaiko didn't answer. When the pot was mostly full, she flicked her hands through the proper signs and set her palm against the top of the water. With a poof of chakra smoke, the pot housed a new resident.

"Heyo, Aka-chan…" the fish burbled, making a quick circuit of the cookware before settling near the surface again. "A pot? Really?"

"Sorry. We have to make do with what we have." She glanced to the blacksmith. "That said, she'd appreciate it if you could get an actual tank."

Morimoto just nodded, staring at the fish with wide eyes. It was pretty likely that he hadn't seen that many talking animals before: most civilians didn't, especially those outside the hidden villages. Ninken and summons were very much a shinobi-only thing.

Well, mostly. She could name a certain dachshund who didn't seem to care.

"This is Fetti," Akaiko introduced, and the blue-black fish gave a little watery bow. "She'll be able to contact me if anything comes up."

"So, this is just another messenger gig." The betta fish sighed out a few disappointed bubbles. "And no nice rocks, this time."

"You'll have to un-summon yourself."

"Yeah, yeah, I know."

Though he still looked intrigued by the whole talking fish thing, Morimoto had more than enough good sense to put the pieces together. "So, if Axel comes here, I just have to tell her?"

"That's right." Akaiko's smile was tired. "Thanks."

Seeing that she was already turning to leave, he asked, "Are you sure you want to travel now?

"It's fine," she said, waving him off. "I need to get back to the village, anyway. Maybe they'll have found something." No way was she going to waste time taking the long way around again. "I'll head straight back through the forest."

"…The forest?"

Akaiko paused, definitely catching his concerned tone of voice. "Yeah, I'll be able to get back to Konoha in just an hour or so. It's much faster."

"Isn't it dangerous?"

"No, I'll be fine." Civilians could be so weird about women traveling alone, especially at night. "Don't worry about me, and I'll tell you when we learn more."

With that, she stepped out the door and leapt for the rooftops.

She had spent more than enough time here.

The sun was setting quickly, and by the time she had reached the forest proper, it was getting quite dark. It would be well after sunset by the time she got back to Konoha.

Not that it mattered: she suspected she wouldn't be getting any sleep tonight anyway.

As Akaiko jumped from tree to tree, deeper and deeper in the thick forest, she became aware of something… strange.

A sound, just at the edge of her hearing.

It wasn't growing louder, so much as it was growing more real.

Voices, she realized: a bustling crowd.

There was nobody nearby—no people within range of her chakra sense—but she still heard those voices: strange, distorted, and she couldn't understand what they were saying.

Yet it sounded… kind of familiar.

Like Axel, when he slips into different words.

She fluctuated her chakra to break any genjutsu she may have fallen under, but the distant voices continued. Even pricking her finger on one of her senbon had no effect.

Crouched on a branch, weapons in hand, she waited for any change.

If this was an illusion, though she wasn't sure who would be behind it or why, they would need to follow it up with—

Then there was a sudden light, blindingly yellow in the oncoming dusk. Akaiko leapt instinctively, loosing five senbon toward the source. Landing on the side of another trunk, she awaited any potential return fire.

None came.

The light vanished.

And, after an almost timeless moment, the sound faded away as well.

"What was that?"

Akaiko waited for another few seconds, checking her surroundings for any possible attackers. None. She cautiously dropped back down to lower branches, but there really was nothing but trees and grass.

Her senbon were spread apart by handspans, a scatter to catch anything that might have been there: three had bit deep into an old stump, one had lodged in the dirt behind it and to the left, and one…

She couldn't find it at all.

After another quick minute looking around, finding no sign of the last senbon or what it might have hit—no blood, no cloth, no tell-tale nicks in dirt or wood—she circled back to the stump.

The fifth needle was just… missing.

Akaiko scuffed the dirt with her foot, glancing around the trees one more time. Honestly, nothing seemed to be going to plan these past few days.

She hated it.

Under her breath, she asked the empty forest, "Where are you?"

Author's Note:

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

You have some good friends, Axel.

Sorry for the month delay.
(And what a crap month to suddenly need a delay, yikes!)
I hope you are all staying as safe as possible: washing your hands and staying home as much as possible. If you or anyone you know is sick, I hope its a swift recovery.

Anyway, I've also been writing on the next chapter during this month break. Unfortunately, at this point I have a lot of different scenes that don't connect together particularly well.
So, I figured I'd ask you guys. What do you guys want to see next chapter? Any specific point of view, or thoughts on how things will go?

Hopefully your replies will get some gears turning in my head!
(Plus, it's always fun to theorize!)

Updates monthly, aiming for the fifteenth. Once again, sorry for the delay.
Thanks for for the reviews, favorites, and follows!

If you're interested, feel free to visit the Discord server to chat about whatever, canon or headcanon or fanfiction or anything else.
Here's the invite code: m3CFXnC

Also, picture after Akaiko left Chotto.
The blacksmith and the fish look at each other, and after a long moment, Morimoto asks, "So… What do you eat?"
And the betta replies, of course: "Steak."

Stay safe inside if you can, and stay as safe as you can if you must be out!
See ya on the flipside, everyone!