[Chapter Size: 2500 Words.]
Canon World, Suna, 63.
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As expected, the next day, Gaara had confirmed all the terms of the newly established alliance between Konoha and Suna, and also confirmed that he would attend the Kage meeting.
Meanwhile, Naruto and the others decided to leave on the same day, since they would have to get to the Land of the Sea as quickly as possible.
"Goodbye, Gaara, Kankurō, Temari, and everyone else!" Naruto said goodbye cheerfully, while the others nodded. Thus, the group left the Village after asking for permission to take a ship south. Since they were heading to the lower part of the Elemental Nations, where the Land of the Sea was located, they would travel directly south through the Land of Wind after reaching the coast and, from there, sail east.
In any case, before the journey, they also explained the issue involving the murder of some nobles, who had been killed on the orders of wealthy people within the Land of Wind due to business competition between the two noble families.
Gaara said that he would investigate it after they handed over the orders, the victims' heads, and the assassins as well.
Naruto continued with the others toward a coastal city, where they decided to spend one night before looking for a ship the following morning.
"This place is pretty lively, huh?" Sai said. It wasn't the first city they had stopped in since leaving the village. Now that they were moving on their own and didn't need to follow anyone, they ended up making a few stops along the way.
"The Land of Wind has never been very fertile, right? So, they try to base their economy on something, and this city certainly thrives through fishing, which is more abundant than in other areas... They managed to build a good economy here," Naruto heard Jiraiya say as they observed the city, which was much better maintained and wealthier than all the others they had passed through.
The Land of Wind was quite poor, and Naruto couldn't help thinking about it and feeling sorry for them. Perhaps even more than he expected, but unfortunately, he had no idea how to help them.
The next day, they found a man willing to take them to the Land of the Sea. Despite having to travel all the way along the frontiers of the Land of Fire and even farther because of the distance of the journey, Jiraiya offered an amount of money that the man couldn't refuse. Besides, he owned one of those steamships, so it was perfectly possible for him to travel such a great distance.
In any case, they arrived in the Land of the Sea a week later, well-rested and prepared even for a possible battle from the very beginning, as they disembarked in another coastal city.
"I guess this is where we say goodbye," said Jiraiya.
The man nodded. "Thank you, Konoha ninjas," said the boat's captain as he left them there.
"Now we have to look for the jinchūriki," said Naruto, stretching his arms.
"Not yet. First, let's gather some information in this village," Jiraiya interrupted.
"Let me help, I can help in my own way to search the country," Naruto said.
"What are you planning to do? Send your clones across the country?" Jiraiya asked.
"Why not? I can do that, right?" Naruto said.
Jiraiya nodded. "All right. Given the amount of chakra you have, it wouldn't be a problem. Just change your clothes and put on something more discreet, at least."
Naruto was now wearing a jōnin jacket along with the Village's standard uniform. He nodded as they went to a tavern. There, Naruto took out one of the outfits he had brought in a scroll, a cloak he had asked Tsunade for with the symbol of a fox. Maybe not an orange fox, so as not to draw attention, but it was still a fox. He put on the cloak and pulled up the hood before beginning to create several clones after positioning himself outside the city.
There, he had all the clones rush toward various parts of the country, each wearing an ANBU outfit without any identification that necessarily indicated they were from the Leaf Village. They moved forward searching for information about the Kirigakure ANBU, the description of a girl, or even the jinchūriki, who possessed distinctive jutsus involving the creation of bubbles. Of course, they all had a set of kunai that Naruto had asked to be made in the village.
Naruto returned to the tavern shortly afterward, removing his clothes as he found Hinata waiting for him at his door.
"Naruto-kun," she said awkwardly, surprised and, above all, startled, because she had come to talk to him after checking whether he had already returned, but she hadn't had the courage to knock on his door, remaining there until he opened it at that moment.
"I..." She seemed to want to say something, but kept it to herself the moment she saw him.
"Hinata, is everything all right? I noticed a pair of eyes on me while I was sending out my colleagues," he said jokingly.
The girl immediately turned red after being caught like that. "I... I didn't mean to spy on you, Naruto-kun. I was just curious," she said, but, realizing that wasn't the best way to explain the situation either, since that was also spying, she turned even redder.
"Hey, don't worry. I just sent out a few clones." Naruto smiled. "Anyway, I want to enjoy the city a little and, since the rest of the team is at the hotel, do you want to go out and get something to eat?"
Hinata went blank for a few seconds, but simply nodded her head in confirmation. She was already ready, so Naruto closed his room and asked her to come with him.
They spent the night eating the local specialties, which included various kinds of seafood. They didn't return to the inn until after ten at night, while Hinata seemed much more radiant. Naruto couldn't help observing her like that, seeming much more relaxed. Despite still being extremely shy, she had improved a lot over the last few days. The two had been talking quite a bit, especially during the ship journey to that place. Naruto was giving Hinata more attention than he gave Sakura.
In any case, they returned to the hotel and went to sleep. The next day, they began preparing to leave and head deeper into the country, while Naruto was already receiving some information from his clones.
"Where is Jiraiya?" Naruto asked after realizing that he had disappeared during the night.
"He also went on a reconnaissance mission in the region. He'll meet up with us later," Kakashi informed him.
Naruto nodded, seeing no problem with that, and so they advanced into the interior of the country.
"One of my clones managed to get some information farther north," Naruto suddenly said as he received the memories. "He found tracks, they could be the Kirigakure ANBU."
"Then show us the way," Kakashi decided.
They advanced for about six hours until they finally reached the location, close to noon.
"They're heading south. We already know where they are," Naruto said.
Kakashi took the opportunity to summon some of his dogs. Even Pakkun appeared, greeting everyone and looking at Naruto with some suspicion, not recognizing him right away.
In any case, Shino, Kiba, and Hinata would also serve as trackers. They considered splitting up, mainly because they could notify Naruto directly through a kunai he gave to each of them. If they needed help or found anything, they would be able to notify him and he would teleport directly to them.
After deciding what to do, Kakashi went with Team 8, while Yamato took command of Team 7. Now they had two groups to cover a larger area.
Naruto also sent out several more clones, teleporting them to others that were already scattered throughout the Land of the Sea. They reached different points across the country and quickly entered the lotus position, beginning to concentrate in order to expand their normal sensory fields several times over. Spread out like that, the fields began covering different parts of the country, functioning as a kind of radar network.
Naruto could monitor a large part of the country now. Anything that entered his clones' sensory fields could be detected. He could also sense the various inhabitants of that land, but none of them seemed to possess a very large amount of chakra, so Naruto didn't pay much attention to them and continued searching for the jinchūriki or even the girl.
"I found them," Naruto said as they moved through the trees. "Everyone, be ready."
He quickly brought his hands together and made himself and the other three disappear. They teleported to a point much farther away, somewhere that would normally have taken them several hours to reach. They appeared beside one of the kunai that the clone in the lotus position had left behind. The clone that had been tracking that region had to disappear to send its information to Naruto, but not before leaving behind a kunai so that he could teleport there.
"Let's go," Naruto said immediately.
As he leaped between the trees, he brought his palms together and concentrated with his eyes closed. He didn't expand his sensory field to its maximum, but he didn't keep it at its minimum either, making it large enough to keep the Kirigakure group within his range.
The twelve Kirigakure ninjas, wearing cloaks and masks, advanced through the forest until they sensed the presence of the four coming toward them. After all, they also had a sensor on a reconnaissance mission like that.
"There are four ninjas coming toward us. Two of them are extremely powerful, but one... one of them is beyond anything I've ever felt in my life..." said the sensor, with a certain terror in his voice, making the entire group tense.
"Stop," said the leader. They stopped in the middle of the forest and waited until the group arrived.
Naruto, Yamato, Sakura, and Sai appeared before the Kirigakure ninjas, with the latter two being quite cautious.
"You... you're ninjas from Konoha?" said the ANBU, looking at the four's headbands.
"That's right. And we know you're Kirigakure ANBU," said Yamato, while the ninjas seemed cautious.
"Why does Konoha wish to speak with us? We're here on a mission." The Kirigakure ninja still had a great deal of suspicion in his voice, for fairly obvious reasons.
"We have a mission to help you and bring your jinchūriki back to Kirigakure," Yamato said, leaving the ninjas quite surprised. Obviously, that was secret information. In other words, the Six-Tails was in that location. There was no way Konoha could know that unless there was a traitor among them.
"How... how do you know that? And why should we believe you?" said the leader, immediately preparing to act, whether to fight or even flee.
"Captain, this isn't good. That red-haired one... he has as much chakra as a Bijū," said the sensor, pointing at Naruto.
"Calm down. We're not here to fight." Naruto raised his hands as he watched them, before taking a scroll from his pocket and tossing it to them.
Their leader caught the scroll, still looking cautiously at the group, and opened it with some hesitation as he read the information Tsunade had left for them. The mission was to make contact with the Kirigakure ninjas who would be in the Land of the Sea, help them deal with the leader of the Akatsuki and try to save as many of them as possible, as well as bring the Six-Tails' jinchūriki back and secure a direct audience with Mei Terumī, the current Mizukage of Kirigakure, to discuss an alliance against the Akatsuki. There would also be a private conversation that only Naruto and the others could have directly with her.
It was obvious that it seemed like they were telling the truth, but even so, how did they know all of that? About the mission and even the Akatsuki? If the Akatsuki really were there, they would have serious problems, since the organization was already known even within Kirigakure for its deeds, through the information in the Bingo Book, and also through the warnings from the nations that were quite enraged to learn that their jinchūriki were being hunted and their Bijū extracted.
"One of the most powerful members of the Akatsuki will come to capture the Six-Tails. We came to try to intercept him and also make sure that you return alive, as well as secure a direct audience with your Mizukage," said Yamato.
"That's... that's kind of hard to believe," said the Kirigakure ninja.
"Even so, we're here," Naruto replied. "We know the danger. We don't need to form a single group, since you're very cautious of us, but we can keep some distance. We want to help the Six-Tails and also keep him from falling into the Akatsuki's hands."
"Those are just words. There's no definite reason why we should actually trust you, KONOHA ninjas..." one of the others snapped, unable to hold back any longer.
Naruto could feel the man's hatred, especially when he pronounced that last word. He had probably lost someone important to him because of Konoha in the last war. Naruto simply sighed as he raised one of his hands. A layer of red chakra began to emerge, with a chakra cloak enveloping his arm.
"I'm also a jinchūriki, and the Akatsuki is hunting me too. I don't want any more jinchūriki to fall into their hands, as is already happening. There are few of us left now. They've already captured most of the jinchūriki, as far as I know. All we want is a meeting with your Mizukage. We're not here to wage war or even capture anyone, because if that were the case, we'd do it ourselves right now. We wouldn't be standing here talking to you, right? Surely you're intelligent enough to know that we could deal with you in another way, rather than through dialogue or even by showing you a mission signed by our Hokage," he said, while the Kirigakure ninjas exchanged glances. There was some logic to that.
"All right. And if there really is an Akatsuki member here, then things are much worse than we imagined." The leader looked at one of his companions. "You, return to Kiri. Report the situation here and take the scroll as well. Is it all right if we take this to show our Mizukage?" the ninja asked, wanting to see their reaction.
They all simply shrugged. They didn't mind. In fact, it would be even better.
Naruto nodded before looking toward one part of the forest, in a specific direction. "I already know where they might be," Naruto said upon detecting something, before disappearing to warn them.
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