As Naruto recalled the memory flowing through his mind, he spoke aloud, “There’s no way Hinata killed her mother.” The eyes of his peers widened as they heard him speak. With an expression of anger, Kiba gritted his teeth as he bared his teeth.
“The hell are you talking about Naruto?!” Still in disbelief, Sakura turned to Neji.
“If you were intent on telling us about her mother’s death then why wouldn’t you have mentioned…” Sakura stopped when she saw the widened eyes of the Hyuga Prodigy. As she made eye contact, the Hyuga Prodigy realized he was conveying his emotions, and immediately scowled.
“Naruto,” he said with a serious tone, “Explain yourself immediately!” Neji’s piercing and straightforward tone broke Naruto from his trance. Making eye contact with Neji’s narrowed lavender eyes s, Naruto looked down with a sad look on his face.
“How am I supposed to explain something I don’t get… you’re the genius here not me… all I know is that Hinata wasn’t lying when she said that she killed her mother. I don’t know why… it was just written all over her eyes…”
“That’s enough!” Kakashi intervened. “We have a mission to complete, and the longer we wait here the more time we waste. Shinobi must not allow their emotions to get the better of them. They have to put their feelings to the side the task at hand can be accomplished. The situation is getting worse, and it’s far more complicated than I had figured. We need to regroup.” Despite his attempt to get his group re-oriented, Naruto had hardly moved. Only Neji and Shino had regained their composure.
“Naruto, how do you plan to become Hokage if you can’t even focus on the task at hand? How can you surpass the Fourth if you can’t even focus? The same goes for you Kiba. Sharing Naruto’s dream, how do you plan to become Hokage by crying out without trying to take in a situation?” Although Naruto’s gaze was fixated on the floor, his eyes had once more widened. Going over the words in his head, Naruto began to think to himself.
“That’s right… how can I become Hokage just sitting here sulking.” Staying motionless for a few more seconds, Naruto closed his eyes. As the green aura from Sakura’s Mystic Palms technique faded, he slowly stood up. “Kakashi-Sensei’s right…we can’t just sit here. We are just sitting here in this damn cave feeling down while Hinata is waiting for us like a real Shinobi. If anyone she should be the one in here...” Naruto paused as he took off the blood stained bandage from his right shoulder. Placing the ragged cloth in his right hand, he curled it into his fist as he threw his arm forward. As some of the blood dripped from the soaked rag, Naruto spoke with a confident grin, “There’s no way I can just sit around and let Hinata outshine the future Hokage… Believe It!”
“Heh… I guess you’re right for once! As the future Hokage, I should be kicking ass! Right Akamaru!” Kiba answered with a smirk. His canine companion barked in sympathy.
“Of course,” started Shino, “That’s because, this is what it means to be a Shinobi.”
In her head, Sakura smiled to herself, “Looks like he’s as simple minded as ever.” Throwing her right arm up clenched in a fist and her left hand holding her arm in a pose reminiscing her sensei. “Alright! Let’s get this over with,” she chimed in.
Neji’s eyes widened slightly when he saw how Naruto’s stance matched the one the Uzumaki had sworn to defeat him in. The surprise was short lived as Neji’s eyes regained their composure. Folding his arms across his chest he waited for the rest of the platoon to move out.
“Well… looks like we’re ready to go,” said Kakashi: his smile hidden under his mask. “Alright, let’s move!”
Exiting the cave, the group noticed that Hinata had already moved across the small lake formed by the waterfall. She waited for the group halfway between the small body of water and the tree line. Having lost her trademark lavender jacket, she only wore a black T-shirt and a suit of mesh armor worn underneath. Walking over to her position, Naruto felt uneasy about what he should say as the recent revelations began flowing into his mind. Managing to clear them from his mind, he cheerfully greeted Hinata. “Oi Hinata! You ready to go?! We won’t let him get the best of us this time!”
“Yes,” Hinata responded. Her voice was empty. As Kakashi looked at the girl, he noticed she held a scroll.
“Hinata, where did you get that scroll?” Kakashi asked. A small bit of breath escaped Hinata’s lungs, and her eyes opened up a bit before returning to their half closed and empty position. They almost perfectly matched the look of Neji’s calm and calculated eyes; however, unlike the Hyuga Prodigy, they remained empty and full of sadness: they were a façade.
“It was from one of Sai-San’s birds. Here…” Hinata handed the scroll to Kakashi.
“Ah! Thank you!” Taking the scroll, Kakashi opened it and carefully examined the document. As he read, more and more of his suspicions were becoming confirmed. “This isn’t good,” Kakashi said to himself. Taking a quick glance at Hinata, he continued his thoughts. “And she’s not in any mind set to fight. Things are on the verge of getting out of hand.”
“Oi Kakashi-Sensei!” Naruto called with unrest. “Shouldn’t we be doing something like walking and talking?! Wait a minute… Kakashi-Sensei where’s Sai?”
Kakashi could feel a bead of sweat drop behind his head due to his student’s lack of perception. “That’s our Naruto,” he thought, “At least he’s cleared up his head.” As the thought faded, Kakashi addressed the Konoha Shinobi. “Listen up… things are getting desperate. It is currently mid-day. We have food rations to last us at best another day. With the recent developments, the target may not continue to stay here for much longer. As such, Twenty- Four hours is our time limit for finding our target. After that it’s game over.” Hearing his deadline being set, Naruto punched his hand into his fist.
“Yosh!” he said to himself, “Plenty of time! By then I’ll be able to kick that bastard’s ass at least five times.” His eyes slightly shifted to see the perturbed eyes of Hinata as she looked towards Kakashi. “Right… I have to figure out what’s going on in her head too. Maybe I’ll only kick his ass four times.” Resolving his thoughts with a grin of confidence, he began to re-focus on Kakashi.
“Before we move out, I have one other thing…” Kakashi started. Before he could continue, the son of Konoha’s White Fang was interrupted.
"Uh… not trying to crash your party here, but since you are kinda short on time, shouldn’t you take up the Orange kid’s advice… you know…. walk and talk," questioned a cheerful voice from above. In the trees above sat a man. He had black hair that slightly curled at the ends of them. The Stranger wore standard Shinobi pants and a somewhat simple black shirt. The sleeves went down to his elbow, and the collar went up to just under his chin. Resting over his eyes was a Konoha headband. A scratch visibly gleaming across the symbol as it sparkled in the sunlight. "So you decided to stop hiding like a coward eh..Shirobaka!" taunted Naruto, "It also looks like you're getting serious since you ditched the rags! I hope you’re ready because I only have a short amount of time to kick your ass!"
"No," said Neji, "That isn't the Target...."His physical demeanor, his speech pattern, his appearance, and even his chakra are different. Nevertheless… judging by the scratch across his headband...he may be in league with the enemy."
"You know... you're sounding just like Tsukasa with your straight forward speaking and your extended vocabulary... Heheh... then again…” The stranger grinned, "I hate to sound rude, but could you leave us alone...we aren't too good at fighting, and with your numbers we’re outnumbered two to one! By the way… you mentioned a scroll from a bird... was that from the artsy guy?"
Naruto’s eyes widened. "Artsy guy?" shouted Naruto, "What did you do with…?!" Before Naruto could finish, he was abruptly cut off.
“Why does he wear half a shirt?” the stranger asked. “I mean I’m not really one for fashion statements, but I can’t help but feel it is a bit… off. Or is this a new ROOT thing?!”
“WHAT DID YOU DO TO SAI!” Naruto shouted. Despite his temper, he managed to compose himself, and keep from charging the stranger.
"Oi, Oi.....no need to get hostile... Sorry about interrupting you, but I was really curious is all. Besides, I don't really want to fight. The Artsy Guy… Sai was it… he’s alright… well, I think. I was supposed to go catch the bird, but seeing as how you guys have it already…”
As the stranger was speaking, Kakashi muttered to his platoon. “Listen up, Sai could be in trouble. Not only that, but it sounds like our target is on at the shrine once again. On my cue, Kiba will throw down some of his smoke bombs. After that, Naruto you make two shadow clones of each person. As soon as you’ve done so, we will all spread out and move towards the Temple. Our primary goal will be to find and secure Sai… then move in on our target pending Sai’s condition.” Having heard his instructions, the Konoha Shinobi tensed as they prepared to move. Kakashi slowly raised his headband and opened his right eye.
“NOW!” As soon as Kakashi shouted, Kiba threw down three smoke bombs and the Konoha Platoon was shrouded by the rising smoke. Once concealed, Naruto crossed his hands in the Iconic cross shape and formed fourteen clones who then took the shape of other members of the group except for two who retained their original appearance. Without wasting a second, the Shinobi flew from the smoke in a scattered formation.
As the wave of Konoha Shinobi burst from the smoke, the stranger let out a small cry of surprise and looked to his right where a small concentration of the Konoha formation moved. “This is looking good,” Kakashi started, “We’ve all entered into the forest, and he’s aiming towards a group of clones!” Just as the thought finished racing through his head, Kakashi’s right eye whirled. He only had a second to cross his hands up before a force impacted his forearms sending him back. As he began sliding back, he’s mind raced. “What the hell… I couldn’t even follow the attack. I could barely sense it coming!” Looking to his left his eyes widened as he saw Sakura, Kiba, and Shino also flying back. A spread out line of individual puffs of smoke indicated where Naruto’s clones had dispersed. “Impossible… he got them all?!”
Shifting his position to cover Sakura, Kiba, and Shino who had landed on their backs, Kakashi raised a Kunai as a flicker of light appeared on the branch above him. The stranger crouched on the branch above the four Konoha Shinobi with a grin on his face. "So much for not wanting to fight..." retorted Kakashi with a bead of sweat rolling towards his mask.
"Heh heh! Well I don't really want to fight but I figured that wouldn’t be fair for Tsukasa... so I figured I’d go ahead and try to keep you from disturbing him.” As he finished, a small scowl came over his face. “Though… I wasn’t able to get all of you.”
A bead of sweat ran down Kakashi’s face. “Damn… we don’t have time for this. With his speed there’s no way he could have missed Naruto, Neji, and Hinata… things are out of hand.”
The scowl faded from the Stranger, and it was replaced with a smile. Throwing his fist down onto his faced up palm he exclaimed, “How about we have a simple sparring session. That way, it isn't really fighting, and no one will get hurt!"
"YOU'VE GOTTA BE KIDDING ME!" snarled Kiba...."It's just like that Tobi bastard all over again!"
END CHAPTER
