Until You

Jolly Queens

"What a pleasant surprise, isn't it?" Naruto grinned,  sliding his arm around the Uchiha's shoulder who shook it off with a grimace. "I was itching to tell you since I received his letter two days ago. But that bastard mentioned to keep quiet 'ttebayo!"

The dark haired Uchiha glanced at the dumbfounded Sakura who didn't even blink since he entered the room and turned to Kakashi again. "Long time no see," he said, in a deep masculine voice which sounded a bit different from the last time they had seen him. He is now a fully grown man with not only facial and body structures, the look and the demeanor were those of a matured man's. In past years, Naruto got a lot taller, which is a miracle, and now the two friends were almost at the same height.

"It's been quite a long while. How's everything?" Kakashi spoke, putting a stop to his work and studying the long-lost former student.

"All fine. What about you? Under stress? You look older," Sasuke remarked, almost offensive. The cocky and judgmental side of him didn't seem to change even years later.

"A Hokage's duties are not easy but I'm doing well. And I'm sure there's no wrinkles on my face, not yet. Thanks for your concern," Kakashi said calmly, closing his files and pushing aside.

Naruto moved closer to the Uchiha and whispered, "hey Sasuke, don't bother him. That old geezer's been a lot grumpier lately and won't think twice to assign you ridiculous missions. I had to wash kids' toilets at the academy the last time I called him old in front of people. Dattebayo."

Kakashi pretended not to hear the chirping blond and asked, "What brings you here all of a sudden Sasuke?"

"I thought you'd be expecting me. Such a shame," Sasuke said, quite raspy.

"What do you mean? Why should Kakashi-sensei be expecting you?" The blond asked, blinking his blue eyes curiously.

Sasuke ignored him and continued, "I know you have the scroll. Have you found the stone yet?"

"Not yet," Kakashi sighed, "We don't even know the location. The scroll is still going through a decoding process. It's been days but not hopeless. Yesterday, Shikamaru told me they had seen a development in the process and hopefully, it should be complete in a few days."

"We must find the stone as soon as possible and keep it safe at all cost. There's not much time left. The solar eclipse will happen in three weeks and if I'm not wrong, shadow hunters also have no idea where the stone is. But they know we have the clue. That's why there's no movement from them, recently. It seems they're waiting for us to find the stone first and planning to take it by any means."

"I'm aware of it," Kakashi nodded, "If this is the case, the hunters are already in Konoha and watching us from distance. In this year, we got a lot of non-residents and immigrants in the village. It's hard to pinpoint exactly who's suspicious or not. Do you have any idea who they might be or how many of them?"

"No. But I heard from a reliable source that one of them has been in Konoha for quite some time. That one's kind of on and off here, sniffing information and watching you all," Sasuke said, in a voice that could be assumed as blaming for not noticing the existence of an enemy in the village till now.

"Well, I have no excuses. We don't know the existence of shadow hunters until we went to Iwa," Kakashi tried not to sound tired and glanced at Sakura who's watching him with apprehensive eyes before continuing, "I must say, judging from their manners, they are discreet and quite smart with covering their traces. Besides it's —

"Wait! Wait!" Naruto intervened with a loud voice, "will any of you tell me what's happening on earth?? Who the hell are shadow hunters? And what stone are you talking about?"