The sealed kunai

Chapter 23: Last of a Dying Breed

Once again, Kakashi sat aboard a ship, however the ship wasn't bound for the mainland, this ship was going elsewhere for the time being. It had been a week since he had let Naruto go on an excursion that should have taken him five days at the most. Kakashi was needless to say worried. He had no idea where Naruto was, other than the fact that he was somewhere on Nami no Kuni, and he knew he couldn't go home without Naruto anyway, not that he would if he could. Naruto was his comrade and after his monumental failure with Sasuke he was going to keep that boy safe. However he also had to consider the fact that the boy was fully capable of going toe-to-toe with him by this point and would have a better than fleeting chance of winning if they were to ever face off, especially if Kakashi was still deluding himself into thinking that Naruto wasn't as powerful as he carried himself as these days.

The idea of him fighting a few of the jounin of Konoha to prove a point seemed rather appealing to the masked man. He wondered who would end up having a good match with him and who would end up getting destroyed. A few of the thoughts of potential Naruto vs. Konoha Jounin face-offs made Kakashi nod his head and a few made him snicker.

"So we're finally going to get the blonde idiot are we?" Kakashi was brought back into focusing on the task at hand by Tayuya, "It took long enough."

Kakashi sighed, she seemed angry, but honestly she was way happier than she had been all week that they were finally going to look for him. Now that the chances of actually seeing him were well increased she was way more manageable. Kakashi shook his head at that. He had heard from Genma about what Naruto had gotten up to in Kumo, it was common knowledge among quite a few elites due to Gai heading to his house three days straight while he was on medical leave that he had shared a bed with the Kazekage's daughter during their stay in Konoha following the retrieval mission. Did that kid even openly recognize the caliber of women he was attracting to him?

Kakashi thought it best to play the responsible adult and burst Tayuya's bubble somewhat before they got there, "Now Tayuya. It may be far more difficult to find him than you know. It's been a few days since he's landed here so chances are his trail has long since gone cold, and that's if it didn't rain."

Tayuya visibly deflated while Shikamaru groaned at the prospect of actually having to work on this mission, "So what are you saying we have to do Kakashi-sensei."

Kakashi scratched his hair sheepishly, "If I can't pick up Naruto's trail I'll have no choice but to have us wait for him here to return. There's not much else we can do if we can't even find him."

Tayuya raised an eyebrow in confusion, "Wait. If we can't find him and he ends up getting whatever he needs to do done, what makes you think you can wait him out? Won't we just end up missing him. His dumb ass will probably end up heading back towards Mizu no Kuni, or even Hi no Kuni once he's done with whatever he's doing."

Kakashi gave her a knowing eye smile, "Ah, but there's one place that I'm certain he'll end up making his way to at some point. Either he already has, or he will at some point and if he's already been there it's all the better for us. That can be a jump-off point for us to search for him."

Shikamaru was intrigued, Kakashi was talking like Naruto had been there before, "Where exactly are you talking about Kakashi-sensei?"

Kakashi simply smiled at Shikamaru and Tayuya, "I guess you'll both find out when we get there."

XxX

(Uzushiogakure – Underground Catacombs)

Naruto and Sai had allowed Hamako to sleep after telling her the entire story about what had occurred during the destruction of Uzu. They had refrained from telling her exactly what it looked like up there... well Naruto did. He had to elbow Sai in the face to keep him from blurting it out. Not exactly the most subtle in social situations that Sai. After telling her all that they knew and had found out about what happened they let her cry herself to sleep, and after coming to the conclusion that letting her rest was the best plan all around, they both took up positions against the stone walls and got some rest themselves.